Well I spend my life late, not through choice but with animals you just cannot plan. So MOT today, my mechanic knows me well and I had to be in Preston for 12. I said to John up at 7, dogs walked, feeds and litters done and out for 11.30, when making these plans I truly believe they will go accordingly, or should I say hope. So we actually did set off at 11.40, not bad when everything is taking twice as long with back and leg problems.
So we are in two cars, me in front ( well I do own the better car ) and I'm going along the dual carriageway at Hutton, when on the opposite side I notice two people stood looking up the very heavily brambled embankment with leads and no dog, can't turn back, my car is important and the MOT ran out today, plus my back is knackered. How can I leave it, if there was a slight chance I could help it was worth it, this was the convo now going on in my head. I rang john who was a way behind me and told him I was turning back. So when I got there the police had arrived and john had already parked up and was there and there was this very frightened J Russell weaving in and out of the brambles and at any point could have made a leap into the busy fast road. There were two other kind souls that didn't own the dog but had seen two of them in the road and kindly stopped. The other one had got through the chicken wire at the back and was nowhere to be seen.
So the policeman 1 is at one side and policeman 2 at the other and I make my way up to the middle, trying desperately to unhook each thorny branch that I seem to be collecting via my body.
None of us had a slip lead and the dog had no collar, so we had all looped the leads, we had to try and form a noose to get over the dogs head without being bit.
Policeman 1 was the nearest and asking his colleagues for gloves, ahh what a gent I thought, no the gloves were for himself along with his bullet proof jacket. He then asked me was he likely to get bit, I replied he did look quite nervous...him and the dog but no the dog was having none of it and to the relief of Policeman 1 he ran to Policeman 2, policeman 1 promptly shouted, " that's it, he's within reach now, grab him " . So policeman 2 then started to say " shhhhhhhh, going tattas, Policeman 1 said " he thinks he's dog whisperer now " but no this dog had clearly had previous form with the police and wasn't taking his chances with either policeman, so after a lot of tooing and frowing, which made both policeman have a chuckle brothers moment " to me to you to me to you " he settled with me.
I slowly managed to get the noose round his neck but it got stuck on a branch, so Policeman 1 decided in order for the noose to go completely on he would snap a branch off and poke him up the rear end, it worked with only one attempt to bite. Yay the dog was safe but still terrified and not wanting to come down the embankment.
So this is where john comes in, complete with towel he proceeds to make his way up through the thorns, trying his best to not panic the dog, finally he managed to Tortilla wrap, the now rigid dog and make his way down, now we've all watched romantic films and imagined how it would feel to be that woman, well at this point I was, here was my very own Patrick Swayze, only his wasn't dancing, it was much better than that, he was a rescuing an animal.
Joking aside, what a humbling experience to be alongside people who didn't just walk on by and turn the other cheek and I know the police don't have a choice and have to act, if not for the dog but for the people helping but it was very moving to see the effort made to ensure this dogs safety. The other two kind souls tried their best to slow down the traffic and assist where needed. We live in such a busy frantic world and to stop and give your time nowadays shows real humanity. Still picking thorns out, must say I've met a lot of pricks in my life but never had so many as I had today lol.
Jezza: So your Austinelli are you
