The Dog's First Big Adventure (From Hampshire Chronicle)

The Dog's First Big Adventure

1:02pm Wednesday 4th November 2009

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ESME is not your typical 18-month-old Jack Russell. For several reasons.

She is obviously the most beautiful dog in the world; secondly, she has never attacked another animal; thirdly, she seems to have no inclination to enter rabbit holes, and fourthly, she has never run away. Until yesterday evening.

We were walking home along a hedge-lined path with the light beginning to fade, when we met a chap walking his scary-looking shar pei, the dog with the squidged-up face.

It spooked Esme and she stopped. I carried on past the shar pei but Esme wouldn’t move. When she didn’t appear a minute later I tracked back and started calling her name, expecting to hear the tinkle of her name tag.

Five minutes later, and concerns rising, I called on family and then friends to help. Thoughts flashed – perhaps she had finally gone down a hole and met a giant and vicious rabbit? Perhaps she had been dognapped or worst of all, would get onto the busy A272… A long 45 minutes later and she was finally spotted, about half a mile away and heading in the wrong direction. Tearfully reunited (not mine or Esme's, I hasten to say) we returned home with no-one hurt for their ordeal.

Lessons to learn? Keep the dog on a lead as it gets dark and take her to map-reading classes.