As a caveat to this story.  This happened and was written 3 years ago when I was on vacation in BC.

*******

I seem to attract animals wherever I go or they
attract me and here is another example.  I went for a moutain bike ride yesterday in the Comox/Courtney area in B.C. where I am visiting
my family.  We headed out on some logging roads and 10
minutes out  on a fast descent we passed a barking dog in the woods.  I
didn’t think too much about it other than be happy that it didn’t run into our path.

After 2 hours of riding we headed back towards home.  We weren’t supposed to go back the way we came but I wanted to get an extra hard
workout in and it was all climbing on this return so I
convinced my riding partners  to go back that way.  As
we approached we heard the same dog barking again in the exact same spot.  I stopped my bike and checked out the situation.  There
was a black and white pit bullish dog about 10 feet
into the woods and up a hill barking non stop.  He was
wagging his tail and looking behind him repeatedly.  I
used all the key words like cookies, treats, come etc
and he would not budge.  I decided there was someone
or something in behind him so maybe he was just there
with his owner who we couldn’t see.

My uncle and I decided we would come back after supper and if he was
still there then we would  have to do something about getting him
out.  We headed home and my uncle decided to skip the
last bit of really technical riding and popped out on
their road about 500 meters earlier than where we
entered.  We headed home on the road and passed some
mailboxes where out of the corner of my eye I saw a
LOST sign and a picture of what looked like a black
and white cat.  I rode on but something nagged at me
so I turned around to look at the sign more closely.
Sure enough the picture was off the black and white
dog in the woods (Bronco) along with a brown female
(Sarah) whom we hadn’t seen.  The sign said they had
been missing from the Oyster River area for 5 days.

I immediately called the barely discernible number on my
cell phone.  It has been raining here for the last 5
days and the number was almost washed out.  I talked
to a woman who could barely speak because she was crying so hard.
After 5 days she was sure her dogs were gone or dead.
She came and met my uncle and I and we drove in on the
logging roads as far as we could with my uncles truck.
We then had to walk in to where Bronco was still up
on the hill in the forest.  As soon as he saw us he
barked and was so happy to see his owner but still
would not come out.  We walked in towards him and I
heard his owner cry “oh sarah”. At this point my heart
sank and I was afraid to walk any further as I
anticipated a dead and mangled dog.

What we found was a beautiful red dog who was laying down in the brush
and could not move at all.  She could barely lift her
head actually.  Her poor body was just covered in bug
bites and her back legs seemed to have no reflexes in
them.  I happened to have a water bottle with me and
the 2 dogs just lapped up every drop of it.  We took
my uncles vest, put it on the ground and lifted Sarah
into it.  We used it as a sling to carry Sarah out of
the woods to the truck as she was a rather heavy dog.
The whole time we carried her in the makeshift sling
Bronco didn’t leave her side and had his nose in there
with her making sure she was ok.  We drove them back
to their owners car and as we put Sarah in and Bronco
jumped in beside her you could see they were relieved
to be back in familiar territory.  Sarah was already
looking stronger from the water she had drank and
could now hold her head up.

They headed off to the emergency vets to get Bronco’s dirty cut cleaned up
and to see what was wrong with Sarah.  It turned out
that Sarah was suffering from severe dehydration,
starvation and exhaustion.   With a few days of food,
water and love she should be fine.  What a relief.
Bronco deserves a dedication award for staying at
Sarah side and barking until someone noticed their
distress.  I don’t know if Sarah would have lasted
much longer.  It was all so accidental that I found
them as I almost didn’t go on that ride, we were
supposed to come home another way, we almost didn’t
notice the sign on the post box etc.  Thank goodness
there is a happy ending to their story.

We are on the cusp of summer with hot humid weather and lots of mosquito’s. It has been a strange spring with lots of rain and cool weather. The good news is that we may have had a 3 day black fly season. They hatched and it got cold and wet and they are gone. That will make up for the fact it was a 2 month black fly season last year. The mosquito’s are out in full regalia but the dragon fly’s have also made an appearance so the mosquito population should soon dwindle.

Yesterday we were marching through the woods trying to out pace the mosquito’s when Timber decided to go over a hill and start barking her little Terrier head off at it. My intital reaction was to keep walking and calling her to come. Most dogs do not want to be left behind and will follow. That didn’t work. It only made her bark harder and harder. I kept calling and even threw the words cookies and treat in there. All the other dogs partook in that little coffee break.

I finally had to go in after Timber. I knew by the sound of her Terrier bark that she had found something alive to confront. I was amazed that my dog Dot wasn’t in there with Timber as usually if there is a strange dog to confront and do the Terrier dance for Dot is right in there. So my quandry was what kind of animal has Timber found and do I really want all 6 of these dogs confronting it all at once. Do I want to come face to face with it? Is it a bear in a tree, a coyote, a porcupine or a ground hog? Or worse?
After many minutes of trying to get Timber to come to me and her refusing to leave her guard position we all climbed the hill to Timber. It turned out to be a very large Snapping Turtle who thank goodness had decided to be passive and had retracted his head and feet.

The minute I arrived Timber ran back to our path and had no more interest in Mr Snapping Turtle. Her need was to show me he was there. She must have a really good nose because he was far from out path. Of course now the other dogs were really interested in checking out the snapping turtle. Even Laika who had to be carried out of the woods a few years ago when she met a not so passive Snapping Turtle on our path. I am glad today’s adventure ended with no injuries.