This is a true story and none of the characters have been changed to protect the innocent.
It happened a couple of years ago over here on Vancouver Island and, as a result of this article that I wrote and which was published in our local paper, I got to play myself in "Animal Miracles" which some of you may have seen on North America television.
Having seen the show several times I have to say that . . . my article is much better!
BARNEY GOES ‘HOME’
It was the 10th of January and he was a black, miniature "poodle-looking" dog who was obviously very, very frightened, as he dodged the traffic at the Colwood Corner intersection, ears back, tongue lolling. I decided to rescue the little tyke.
Easier said than done. Three times I pulled ahead of him, illegally parked on Goldstream and tried to coax him closer. But he would have none of it. Zigzagging across the road he tested the skills of numerous drivers and thwarted the efforts of both myself and another would-be, Samaritan who had seen his plight.
We lost him in an apartment complex and reluctantly continued on our respective ways. Two hundred metres further on, I spotted him again, purposefully running towards Langford.
This time two ladies stopped with me and through the combined efforts of a packet of potato chips and gentle coaxing, one of the them managed to grab him in the front yard of a grey house opposite the golf course.
I took the poodle to the Juan da Fuca veterinarian clinic where the sympathetic staff assured me they would contact the SPCA. My good deed complete, I returned home and put the matter aside.
A day later I received a message on my answering machine from a ‘Christine’ thanking me for finding her dog and asking me to call her back. Later that night I told her of "Barney’s adventure" trying to make it as humourous as possible.
When I had finished Christine was silent for a long time. Finally she said, “Peter, as you told me that story I got goosebumps.”
Why’s that?” I asked.
“Because we used to live in that house”, she said. “But relocated to Sooke eight years ago. Barney and I moved to Milburn Drive off Lagoon Road a month ago after my husband passed away. Barney wasn’t lost. He knew exactly where he was going.”
So he was on his way back to his puppyhood home. But why then and not when he lived in Sooke?
I’m not a psychoanalyst but my wife is, and even though her clients are people and not poodles, I think she got it right when I asked her, her opinion.
In Barney’s mind he had been abandoned. His master was no longer around, or the three dogs that Christine had to leave in Sooke and then his mistress disappeared (to work) and he was on his own. His surroundings were still unfamiliar so he took off to where he figured everyone might be . . . and Colwood was much closer than Sooke.
How did he know his way? Was it the scent or neighbourhood that he recognised? I’ve no idea. But like his owner . . . it gives me goose-bumps when I think about it.
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