Wednesday, August 14, 2013

What a ruff weekend! Border collie that went missing for three days is found 10 feet up a tree

IOWA -- A seven-year-old border collie that was missing from his Iowa home for three days days has been found stuck up a tree.

Laddy the dog was found Sunday morning 10 feet up a tree two blocks from his Davenport home, the Quad-City Times reported.


'I asked where they found him, and the officer said, 'You'll never believe this,' said his owner, Cynthia Weeks.

'I heard a whining, and I knew something wasn't right. This time, it sounded in distress,' Stevenson said.

He followed the sound along his driveway and, counter-intuitively, looked up. There was the dog, at least 10 feet up in the tree.

'He was kind of shielded by leaves on the tree,' Stevenson said of the dog, who he thinks maybe ran up the oak tree's gradually sloping trunk but then became too scared to run back down.

'I heard a whining, and I knew something wasn't right. This time, it sounded in distress,' Stevenson said.


He followed the sound along his driveway and, counter-intuitively, looked up. There was the dog, at least 10 feet up in the tree.

'He was kind of shielded by leaves on the tree,' Stevenson said of the dog, who he thinks maybe ran up the oak tree's gradually sloping trunk but then became too scared to run back down.

Stevenson told the newspaper that he called police and accepted one dispatcher's skepticism.

'They got here pretty fast, but I was getting impatient,' he said. 'I didn't know if the dog would bite me, but I just sort of shimmmied up the tree. I grabbed him by the collar and sort of pulled him. I said, 'It's time for you to get out of this tree.'

A responding police officer had seen fliers about Laddy and knew where the dog lived. He was reunited with Weeks a short time later.


Weeks said she believes Laddy escaped Friday from an invisible electronic fencing system thanks to a non-working battery in his collar.

She said his love for squirrels and chasing things probably led him up the tree. Despite a few abrasions on the pads of his feet, he's otherwise fine.

'He was pretty subdued when he got home,' she said. 'He's been doing a ton of sleeping.'

(Daily Mail UK - Aug 13, 2013)