[PyrNet-L] Chat: A Heartwarming Tale

["Geraldine Swierzy" <sheepriverpyrs@nucleus.com>]

A week ago last Monday, [Canadian Thanksgiving], I was enjoying a lovely
telephone chat with my sister in Scotland, when I noticed my line
continually "beeping" - indicating that someone was trying to call. After a
while, the beeping became so persistant that I thought it must be urgent,
so I said goodbye to my sister and hung up. Immediately, the phone rang. It
was my neighbour's 14 year old daughter who was in a panic - she told me
that my dogs were running loose on the road! I found it hard to believe as
we have such solid fencing including 2 acres chain linked around the house,
so I just could not imagine how they got out.

    I ran up to the gate, on the way counting six pyreneans inside the
fence - so I knew two were missing. I spotted Ariege immediately, about
half a kilometer up the road. I called her - and she came right away,
grinning from ear to ear, after her big adventure - and I let her in
through the gates. But where was Gema?

   I put all the dogs in their pens and quickly took the van to go to look
for her. As I turned out of my gate, I noticed a truck at the intersection
about a kilometer north, parked across the road and flashing it's lights -
and my first thought was there must have been an accident. As I turned to
go south, I noticed a 4x4 also flashing its lights about a kilometer away.
My first thought was that Gema had probably gone to investigate the big
horse facility just up the road, so when I jumped out of my van in their
yard, with my heart in my mouth - I was most pleasantly surprised to see
one of my neighbours appear from behind the barn, with a reluctant Gema
firmly on a leash! Was I relieved! [Incidentally, this neighbour is an
obedience judge - and her first words were "What kind of obedience judge
would I be if I didn't run around with 2 leashes and bait in my pockets! ]

    To cut a long story short, not having been able to reach me, my
neighbours had called one another - and had blocked off the road - both to
deter these young bitches from going too far afield - and also to stop
traffic and warn drivers of dogs on the loose. How did they get out? A
local farmer who takes my hay, had come in the previous day, through the
big farm gates, to get his bales - and despite my reminding him to chain
and lock the gates, he did not even close them properly - and the chains
were left on the grass. The dogs had been on the road for about half an
hour - and one neighbour had put Gema back through the front gates several
times - and she just ran around and came out through the farm gates each
time! So by the time I got her home - he had wired the gates closed with
high tensile wire!

   I am so grateful for my wonderful neighbours - they are neighbours in a
million - and also that this happened on a holiday when families were at
home.

                Geraldine   


Geraldine Swierzy,
SheepRiver Great Pyrenees,
Alberta, Canada.
http://www.sheepriverpyrs.com/