Cat search dog!

[fjm]

Most cat owners must know it - the little flick of anxiety when your cat is not home for breakfast, the slow build as you consider just how long you should wait to comb the neighbourhood rattling treats, the way you remind yourself of the 100s of times the cats have done this before while that little internal voice mutters that this may be the time something serious has happened... So you get dressed, check the garden, the shed, the garage, peer into neighbouring gardens and try to remember if anyone has gone away, get cold and wet, start designing posters in your head and planning how to distribute them, come home for one last look - and a warm and sleepy cat emerges from some impossibly tiny hiding place under a bed that you are sure you looked in at least twice...

These days I have help - a cat finding papillon. I discovered Sophy could track some years ago when my sisters and I visited an open garden and I mislaid them in a maze of paths. I jokingly asked Sophy to find them, and she put her nose down and did just that. I thought it was a fluke at first, but she has proved herself over and over again, tracking people and cats. She has taken me directly to Tilly shut in a shed one snowy night (a shed so rarely opened it would have been the last place I looked), often shows me which of a dozen garages has a cat trapped inside, and saves me hours of worry and searching by taking me straight to where a hidden cat is peacefully dozing. I am fascinated by her attitude to it - it is not a game for treats, which is how she thinks of the things I have deliberately taught her, but more doing something so obvious and simple that she can't quite believe I cannot do it myself. A bit like a teenager kindly sorting out Granny's computer muddle yet again and not even bothering to try and explain this time, may be the best way of describing it!

I just thank her, humbly and with real gratitude. A cat search and rescue dog is a wonderful thing, as all those who have one will know!

[bobbys girl]

Our much missed Lurcher, Katie, was a bit like that. Bred to chase small, furry things, but more interested in retrieving sticks (tyres, buoys, rocks, anchor chains - I kid you not!) she was also a ferocious guard dog of anything she considered 'hers'. That included us, our vehicles and the cats.

She could not only find them but she patrolled the boundary of our garden, every day, marking her territory and woe betide any dog, fox, polecat, or badger who dared enter the garden.

Another dog, Rosie, couldn't have found her own tail, but she was a wonderful kitty cushion/duvet. It was Rosie who taught us how to look after small kittens - though I draw the line at licking their bottoms - eew, Rosie!

[MarySkater]

fjm, Sophy sounds a real gem.

Bobbys girl, I believe most humans who have to look after kittens resort to baby wipes...

[vanilla]

Definitely beats those GPS trackers!

[fjm]

Yes - I don't think any collar has ever lasted more than a few weeks here, so GPS could get expensive. No collar, no smart phone, no apps - just lots of food, love and two good walks a day!

It was an old face flannel and warm water for kittens in my day...

[bobbys girl]

Kitchen towel and warm water did the job very well.

[Lilith]

That's marvellous - you're lucky to have Sophy!

I haven't the same affinity with dogs as with cats, but I have lived with dogs in the past, and once had an Alsatian whose commonsense had to be seen to be believed ... once we were sunbathing by a local lake in a huge crowd with more people walking past. Hannah never said a thing until she stood up and gruffed at one particular man. I told her to sit down and behave herself. Later this same guy caused outrage by loitering in the scrub beyond the sunbathing area and sidling closer and closer to various women in interesting states of undress. A group of men chased him off the site and I'm sure Hannah would have gladly gone with them

Hey Bobby's girl, I read a similar story in Gavin Maxwell's 'Ring of Bright Water' - one of his otters was brought up from a baby by a couple with a dog, who saved her life by washing the little thing after each feed. One of my Siamese had a neutered son who still clung to Mother (and would have competed with successive litters for milk if he'd been allowed.) He was a gentle boy though and could be trusted under supervision; copying his mother one day, he did some kind kitten-washing - with the inevitable result. You should have seen the look on his face! Bleeaggh! he said!