DOTTIE THE MOUNTAIN RESCUE SEARCHDOG

DOTTIE THE MOUNTAIN RESCUE SEARCHDOG

Sunday, 13 April 2014

A lot of water under the bridge


So I’m very sorry not to have written to you all since January but I haven’t felt like it but Kaz says it’s time to start writing again because I’ve had a lot of people contacting me to see why I haven’t written for so long.

So here goes.

In February Daryl decided that he and Dram were not going to live with us any more as he was now in his new job and he thought that he wanted a new life with all his new friends.  Kaz was very upset and for a few weeks felt very ill and very sad and wasn’t her normal self.  I know she was upset but so were Angus and me – Daryl was our dad after all and we used to love to play with him lots.  Dram has been my little brother for 5 years and although I called him the idiot pup, I really do miss him very much.  Kaz has been really lucky and has had the help of lots of her friends to try and get over it.  At the moment she seems to be pretty good and is concentrating on enjoying her new job and training with me and Angus.  She’s even taken up running again and so every other morning at 6am we all get up and go on Helton Fell – she’s not walking so much now so me and Angus are having to work to keep going!

I cant really remember a lot about what has happened in the past few weeks, but Kaz did take me and Angus for a haircut.  Blimey - never trust her to do that!!!  Look at me I'm bald!  Still it has been quite nice not being so hot and my fur not being matted.  It's started growing back now so at least everyone isn't laughing so much now.  Everyone says I look like a puppy dog and not 9 and half!!
Me without much hair

Me two weeks before with some hair!

Kaz went on something called a tracking course where she learnt to track people using signs on the ground and bushes – like footprints and broken twigs – she said it was fun (hmmm I’ll believe her!!).

Here are one or two pics of the course.
Ester inspecting a print

Measuring stride lengths and transferring the footprint to a sheet of plastic

All the teams following different tracks up the hill



All of the students

Last weekend we went with Kaz’s team, Penrith up to Haweswater for training – Kaz and Angus had to go to the carpark at Mardale Head.  He had to work out where the missing man (Harry) had gone from the car.  Kaz and Angus went all the way round and eventually Angus lay down next to a fence which surprised Kaz as she thought Harry would go out of one of the gates.  Kaz and team mate John lifted Angus over the fence and he started off pulling Kaz up the hill a long way.  Then he turned right and went back down the hill and eventually found Harry under some crags about 600m away.  Kaz was pretty pleased with him and gave him lots of fuss.  After we did our training session with the team, Kaz and everyone were putting the mast down on the control vehicle when a man came across and asked for help as his friends he was mountain biking with were feeling very cold and not well.  Kaz went over to see them and sorted out the 2 hypothermic ones and offered to get the others back to their vehicles – so poor old Glen H and our team Doc Beth ended up doing a 2 and half hour round trip.  Apparently the people are going to send us a donation!!

This last week we’ve been really busy helping Kaz and Grandma and Grandpa clearing out our garage.  Kaz is a real wimp – she’s scared of spiders and screams really loud when she sees them!!

I’ve been doing some training in the evenings – Kaz hides rucksacks and stuff around when we go walking which I go and find and then bark at her to say I’ve got them.  I’ve not been on many callouts lately cos of Kaz either being away or it being stood down as we start out.  I’m pretty sure that we’ll get busy as the summer starts.


Yesterday Kaz worked Angus on a trail in the Borrowdale valley.  It was very bad weather and I was quite pleased to be in the van watching them.  They went across the river (and Kaz managed to fall in), but they kept going and Kaz eventually found Terry after about ½ hour and about 1km of walking. 
I took a panoramic picture to try and show where Angus went – it was through the gate, then right along the river, then over the river up to the crags and over the top, then through the middle of the picture and over the dry stone wall and all the way back down to the bottom.  Kaz was really happy cos there were other people who had walked through the area and there were even other bodies laying around but Angus didn’t get distracted – well, only when Kaz fell in the water.


Today me and Kaz and Angus decided to walk up Crossfell.  It was very windy and there was a lot of fog and rain.  By the time we got onto the shelter area, Kaz couldn’t stand up and so we hid there for a while to see if the conditions improved at all….they didn’t!

The last thing is that Kaz has bought a new toy for us all so that we can go on holdays together – it’s called a pod and is like a caravan but just a bit smaller.  It’s coming all the way from Germany and I think she will be picking it up in a couple of weeks time and we are all looking forward to going away......
 



Anyway Kaz wants the laptop and so I’ve promised I’d better finish now, but I will really and truly start blogging again.

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