Sometimes your Lappy gives you a big fright.
When Neka was about 8 months old, I was walking alone with her on a rather lonely and unfamiliar heath. We happened upon a lady with a pack of greyhounds that we knew from ringcraft training and so while the humans chatted, Neka played with the greyhounds. Then, suddenly, I heard Neka yelp, and when I turned around to see what the problem was, she was nowhere to be seen. The 4 greyhounds were milling around, and I waited a minute thinking she was in the midst of them and would pop out any second. But she didn't. She had apparently just disappeared into thin air.
I spent a frantic 45 minutes searching the heath for her, calling her name, calling for help, and I even checked under the bushes all around the area for holes that she might have fallen down. All to no avail. She was nowhere and I didn't know what to do.
The greyhound lady helped look for a while, but then she had to leave. 10 minutes later she returned with Neka on a lead. She had found her in the car park, circling my car and barking. That was the first, heart-stopping, time that Neka returned to the car during a walk for some reason, but unfortunately it wasn't the last.
As Neka got older and I got more experienced, I stopped panicking quite so much on the handful occasions that she disappeared. As long as I knew we were a long way from a road, I didn't worry too much because Neka would invariably make her way back to me after she had finished chasing the deer, following an irresistible scent, or just noseying about in the woods. On a couple of occasions she did return to the car - and what's fascinating about those times is that she would get to the car approximately the time we should be getting to the car if we hadn't stayed in the woods waiting for her. You see? Lappies are just too clever.
And, thankfully, they are so clever.
A few weeks ago I had a call saying that Sybil, one of Maija's sisters, had gone missing from a walk. The animal protection people of the area contacted the Lapphund club to get some information about the breed and the club contacted me. It's good to have a strong network.
Anyway, I got straight on the phone and got the details. Sybil's owner had gone away on holiday, leaving the two Lappies in his brother, Nick's care. On a walk one day, Sybil took fright and ran away and by the time I got in contact, she had been gone for more than 24 hours. Of course, Nick was beside himself. He was worried about Sybil and what could happen to her, and he was worried about what his brother would do when he found out that one of his precious dogs was lost.
Everyday I was on the phone with Nick, checking for updates, and I bombarded him with text messages everytime I thought of another avenue he could pursue in trying to find her. One thing that occurred to me was that if she was afraid, then she might only be moving around in the night time so I suggested that Nick leave the garden gate open at night and when he went out. That way if Sybil came home in the middle of the night, she would have a safe place to go.
The next morning - 5 days after going missing - when Nick got up, there was Sybil in the back garden. The clever little thing had found her way back home.
There are several morals to this tale, apart from illustrating how clever Lappies can be. Not least of all is the whole kennel issue. You may think that it is cruel to leave your dog in a kennel when you go away. For Sybil's older brother, whose health isn't great, a kennel wasn't an option. But for most Lappies, a kennel is a perfectly acceptable - and very safe - holiday home.
Furthermore, this story gives me a great excuse to bang on about my pet subject: puppy socialisation. The very best insurance you can give to ensure that your adult dog is confident, independent and fearless in the face of new challenges is to give him adequate socialisation as a young puppy. Everyone who has an Infindigo Lappy has had it drilled into them until they are quite sick of me:
these lessons that puppies learn during their first crucial weeks will set them up for the rest of their lives. It's that important. And you never get that time back.
It was a bit of an extreme way to get them, but I took full advantage of the situation and used Sybil's crisis to get a few up-to-date photos of her. No, I didn't have her kidnapped. Honest.
With her brother Basil
In other news...
With a mere week-and-a-bit to go, here is how the belly is looking today.
For the purposes of comparison, this is what Keksi looked like carrying 7 with one week to go. Tuuli is still a half-week or so away from this stage, but you get an idea.
And this is Neka carrying 9 with one week to go.
I dare say Tuuli is rather pleased she's not carrying 9. I'm certainly pleased that she's not.
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