May 11, 2013

Dear little Pepper was a 6 month old Beagle pup that had been on a walk in Clumber Park and was not too far away from the car park. A cyclist came by and pepper thought that was fun to run after the cyclist who was called by the owners to stop while they picked up the fun loving pup. The cyclist chose not to and Pepper carried on running until she was lost.

The owners were out searching all hours in a desperate bid to find Pepper but no joy. I called them and gave them some advice but a day later there was still no sign of Pepper who was now lost in a 4,000 acre National Trust Park.

The next evening I was on my way up to Clumber to help the owners meeting them late into the evening. I made sure that they had put bedding down at the last place that Pepper was with them and they had. It was from here that we started tracking and Tiga quickly picked up the scent taking us on a reasonable sized circuit around the area and back to the  car park passing the bed on the way.

Tiga continued to track through the night constantly doing circuits and we took a couple of hours rest before resuming in the early hours. I could tell that the owners were very despondent but I was determined that she was about and that we would find her. The size of the circuits that Tiga was tracking indicated that she was travelling a fair distance but always coming back to the car park  passing the bed.

Phebe another tracker who lived locally joined in the search in the morning and while Wispa was leading Phebe into the forest I decided to give Tiga a rest while I enjoyed a Clumber Park ice cream!

It was my intention after eating the ice cream to walk back to the bed to see if there was any sign of her there but in the meantime a guy walking his dog walked close to me and I asked him if he had seen a beagle pup while walking he said yes he had. On asking when and where he told me just now over on the bridleway in that direction. So I quickly got Tiga and off we went but it seemed to be a red herring as Tiga did not pick up any scent so we returned back to the car park to find the National Trust Rangers there in a group talking.

The news was that two dog walkers had walked passed the bed seeing a sign that said ‘please leave as we are trying to attract our beagle puppy back’  They were standing there going ahh a toy has been left for the puppy but then the toy moved and they then thought a litter mate had been left for the missing puppy. Fortunately the National Trust Rangers were working in the field close by and they went to ask and were told that if anything is in the bed it was the missing puppy curled up fast asleep in her own bed!

Oh how I wish I had not followed up the possible sighting because had I gone to the bed after eating my ice cream – Pepper would have been there asleep in bed.

I think I can say that the owners were somewhat overcome with happiness when reunited with dear little Pepper and who seemed none the worse for her adventure as she insisted on having a ball thrown to retrieve repeatedly when she was back in her own garden!

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