The Story Behind the Recovery of a group of Working Gun Dogs

This month sees the first anniversary of the disappearance of a group of working gun dogs. The owners had left their home for a short period of time, returning to find their kennels empty, dogs gone and themselves at the start of an experience we know they never want to face again.

Thankfully they contacted us at the Stolen and Stray Pet Recovery office within days of the theft, allowing us to follow an immediate trail.

Informing the authorities over a wide area and circulating photo's and details to the ports, we started work on the case.

There had been a previous theft in the vicinity although on that occasion both a vehicle and the dogs inside it had been stolen.  It did however provide us with some invaluable information, but it wasn't until we learnt of an unconnected and petty theft involving fuel, that bells began to ring.

At the same time a demand was made for money for the gun dogs.

Walking out into the countryside to hand over a large sum of cash to a total stranger in the hope he is telling the truth, and does indeed have your stolen dog,  is never a situation to be taken lightly.

Every case and situation is different, but with this one we strongly advised the owners not to comply with the request.  Instead our intelligence was handed on to the police who took immediate action, entered a location and retrieved two of the missing dogs.

Both dogs were in good health and had clearly been looked after but upset by their ordeal, they liberally sprinkled the police station with a little more than just mud!

Further work went on that unfortunately we cannot speak about but many calls were received back into our office, that were more than interesting and on occasion alarming, but close contact was kept with the police as another one of the dogs was recovered, leaving only one still missing.

We had some very close shaves with the last dogs recovery and it was several more months before he was located and reunited.

A line of enquiry was being followed that frustratingly did not provide a location.

A  farmer then caught a stray dog on his fields that sounded suspiciously like the one we were searching for. Unfortunately by the time we got hold of the farmer the Dog Warden had collected the dog in question. The Farmer was all but certain by then that the dog he had found and our missing gun dog,  had been one and the same.

Despite frantic calls (it was late on a Friday afternoon that this all happened), the Dog Warden had left work for the weekend and by the time contact was made, the dog had been collected by its "owner".  It was a frustrating and difficult situation.

But as the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining and we eventually received information as to the whereabouts of this last dog via someone who had the courage to do the right thing.  I will never forget seeing the tiny image of him that was sent to our mobile phone.  It made me cry.

Within hours he had been recovered and was both in his owners arms and on the way back home.

In total it took six long months of constant daily work but was worth every moment.