On Thursday, a week exactly after his escape, he was found.
DOOKIE FOUND AND SAFELY HOME
Bill & I were in town continuing the search for him on Thursday (25 July),
when I had a call from Darren to say . . . we've got him!
We drove there immediately (five minutes away,
as it happened) and it was the most joyous sight I have ever seen.
Dookie was exhausted, dehydrated, scratched
(note the horrible palm leaves in one of the pics;
we think he fell onto them as he tumbled further down to the bank)
and an infection in his back leg, but otherwise remarkably okay.
Visit to the vet that afternoon, of course, and antibiotics given.
I still cannot believe our luck in those women seeing him.
The alternative is that he would be dead by now.
A happy ending to a very stressful week. Well, make that a half year.
SITE OF DOOKIE'S RESCUE
He was totally invisible from anywhere except out on the river.
Even that was a mere glimpse . . .
if the rowing lady who saw him had been looking another way,
even for a moment, she would never have seen him.
The ledge he was on is maybe a metre [3 feet] across and wide,
but sloping so he couldn't even lie down safely.
There's a kind of hole you can see, like a burrow
(but no wombat!) that goes in about a foot;
he may have crouched into that a bit.
It was freezing cold and very wet most of the time;
his nights must have been terrifying.
We think he ran and ran and ran, probably on the Friday
(after the only sighting) and could have in fact tumbled over
the bank even then . . . which means he was stuck for six days in that place.
The traffic is nonstop, and though many people walk dogs in the nearby parklands,
nobody would have heard him, let alone see him.
I doubt he barked anyway, as he is not a vocal dog at all.
He is absolutely the sweetest boy . . .
he is coming to stay with us
for the next three weekends while they go away.
I am glad !!
HOW THEY GOT HIM OUT
We weren't present ourselves at the moment of rescue;
we were still searching and putting up more posters
that morning in another area. The first thing we knew about his rescue
was Darren calling me and saying "We've got him!" . . .
they had just got home from picking him up from the ladies on the river,
so it had all only happened in that previous hour.
We got to their place as fast as we could;
took about five minutes the way Bill drove (!!)
and pretty much fell in the door as it opened.
He was sitting there with a big smile on his face and a very waggy little butt.
How they lifted him out:
Two of the four women kind of bunked him up
so Darren could reach down and lift him up
the rest of the way (at least a metre and a half [5 feet]
they had to lift him), then carry him the remaining 4-5 metres
[13-16 feet] up to the top of the bank,
where there is a bike path.
The space where Dookie had fallen onto was like a minute 'beach'
but with an overhanging ledge that meant he could not even climb up
and out by himself, and the women could not climb up it either.
So they called Darren on his mobile (cell phone),
as Dookie's tags contained both Darren's and Michael's numbers.
The guys were there within ten minutes,
as where they live is in the adjacent suburb.
Dookie in fact hadn't travelled more than
two miles from his home patch,
but must have gotten completely terrified and just ran and ran
and probably fell over the cliff edge trying to avoid cyclists
and god knows what else . . . there are cars speeding by
on the other side of the bike path;
just sheer luck he was not on the road,
but was on the inner side of the fence, alongside the bike path.
Dookie: I was sooo scaired, Sue,
but I KNEW I'd be rescued again. Sniff.
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