Finding Mr. George – A True Dog Rescue Story

Chapter 4 – The Photo

I have always said that my job is the best job in the world, and it is yet being self-employed means: no day off, no sick pay, and no working means no business.

 So, at around 5am, I turned my computer on, and how on earth I managed to input and print my orders for that day I will never know. I am also extremely fortunate that my warehouse is only a 4-minute drive from my house. My business is an online business selling sports flooring to retailers, so at 6am, I headed off to pack the day's orders ready for TNT to collect later. As soon as the orders were wrapped, packed, and labeled, I could then continue with my day as I am also very fortunate that my driver David that works for TNT, always sends me a message 10 minutes before he arrives. It is just so perfect, apart from the emails that I reply to throughout the day ranging from: How many edges does the mat have, that comes with 4 edges to how big the 1m x 1m x 2cm mat is. Seriously the mind boggles.

So, after packing my orders which consisted of many mats also one order of 7 boxes of Epos rubber tiles weighing 30KG per box, I headed home to feed the dogs their breakfast. While I was preparing the production line of dog bowls, all the dogs were now in the garden going about their business.

George’s little red bowl was still there on the kitchen side, along with all the washing up and my mug of hot chocolate. It didn’t look like hot chocolate anymore; it had now separated and looked kind of like a mug of grey fluff.

As I placed each dog bowl down, tears again began to flow. In my head, I was still screaming his name “George George George.” While the dogs were lapping up their breakfast, I messaged Claudia as she was due home today. I simply messaged: “phone me when you are home as George is missing, George is gone, I am out searching, Romeo and Blu are fine xxxx.”

So, dogs all fed and watered, I looked at Kev and said, “come on, let’s go and find George.” Kev wagged his little tail and did his normal twizzle of excitement as I put his little harness on. Just as we were about to leave I messaged a very dear friend of mine Gary, he is business partners with Claudia, they are our local internet and TV providers. My message was blunt short, and to the point: “Yesterday afternoon gates open, George went missing and still trying to find him.”

I never saw what I will tell you now as, for one, I never switched on the TV, and for 2, Gary knew how traumatic it would be for me to see it on my TV that he excluded it from my TV. Basically, with Gary’s TV system, he can add messages, so when you turn on your TV, for example, and he has experienced technical problems or added some extra movies, a note will appear on your screen. In all the years that Gary has had his system, not once has he streamed anything apart from technical information. To this day, I am flabbergasted that Gary actually added a note to every customer of his explaining that my George was missing, a full description of George and the area where he went missing. Gary didn’t even tell me that he had done this; all I knew was that...

From the moment that I messaged him, he sent his 2 technicians out to search for George by a car while he went out on his pushbike.

It was at this point that I started to understand that everyone that I knew was as desperate as me to find my baby.

So, I now was on the move again with Kev, it was kind of spooky how Kev was heading towards Villa Franco again, yet this time we went the main roadway instead of via the tracks, I still had no idea as to how to get home from where we were yet I knew we were once again in Villa Franco.

My phone was continuously bleeping yet because I knew that all the messages would be: “Have you found George yet?” I continued to ignore all of the bleeps. I was though so worried to hear the ring tone of David, David from TNT as bloody hell I had no idea of how long it would take me to get home.

My phone then started to ring, when I say ring my ring tone is more like an air raid siren, it was Gary, I immediately picked up, uff, this was my next lesson to learn a very hard lesson...... When receiving a lack of information, don’t lose the plot. So, Gary was calling to say that he had had a response from his TV advert. A lady had phoned Acox to say that she had seen George yesterday afternoon and she had a photo of George. Gary assured me that he had seen the photo and that it was definitely George and for me not to worry as George was with 2 other dogs, so he wasn’t alone.

I think at that point that my stomach actually left my body; I needed to see that photo more than I needed to breathe. My phone had been pinging all bloody morning, yet where was the photo? Why hadn’t anyone sent the photo? Who was this woman? How did she have a photo of George yet not have George?

I now needed my car again, and I needed more than ever for David from TNT to message so that I could get my collections out of the way and find this lady who had taken the photo of my George. “Kev, take me home,” I screamed with tears streaming down my cheeks, our pace began to speed, and we were now running, to my amazement, little Kev got me home in no time, and I began to wonder as to how this little boy was able to find his way home each time yet George was still missing. Now back at home, I let all the dogs out, and thankfully, I remembered to put my phone back on charge while I was desperately waiting for David to message.

My phone was still bleeping away with messages asking if I had found George yet. At this point, I actually let out a rather loud scream of total frustration, yet as fast as I let out the scream, I was just as fast to reply to all the messages saying no news but thanks for asking.

Then came the message that I was waiting for, “Buenos dias en 10 minutos,” David was on his way. I don’t remember if I even said hello to David that day or if I even looked at him; all I remember was driving home after meeting him, thinking right as soon as I get home, I must take 2 dogs with me and go find this woman that took the photo of George.

The only thing that I knew of this lady was that she lived not too far from me yet on the other side of the valley, so I decided it best to go by foot.

As I walked in the door, Steve, Kev, Peter, Jeremy, Blu, and Romeo were all very excited to see me. Now I had to think hard of which 2 dogs to take with me. It was easy enough to think of one dog that I 100% wouldn’t be taking with me, and that was my Jeremy.

 The simple answer to this is if you attach a lead to his collar, he goes into complete hysterics, the wild beast inside him immerges, and apart from trying to imagine what you might do if you experienced a panic attack, palpitations, pounding heart, sweating with added trembling and shaking and then the only remedy for this would be to allow your inner beast to immerge then basically you have your answer which is not to put a lead onto Jeremy’s collar.

It was in September 2017 that Jeremy came into my life. It was around midday while I was laying on my sofa watching a film wearing just my pants as it was an extremely warm day when I heard George, Steve, Kev, and Peter barking like no tomorrow. I paused the film and popped my rubber shoes on, and went outside to see what all the commotion was all about.

From the sound of it, it was like they were all down the bottom field barking at the gates, so, off I went to investigate, as I peered through the gates I could see this very ugly looking dog, he was just sitting there, in the burning sunshine, panting away like a looney, my heart sank as it was so warm and why, why was he sitting in the full sunshine. Then my brain did a double-take, saying Nooooo00000000! Nooooooo000000! I don’t want another dog.

 Standing there still staring, I noticed a bag a few meters away from him blowing in the wind, there was something in the bag, yet I couldn’t make out what it was, uuufffff, so it was walking back up to the house to put on some bloody clothes and then off down the track I went. As I got closer, I couldn’t believe that this dog still wasn’t moving. He was still sitting there in the full sunshine, panting away. I then approached the carrier bag, and inside, it was full of dog biscuits, bloody huge dog biscuits, biscuits that one might feed a dog the size of an elephant. Then I spotted a plastic pot with some water in it, a very small plastic pot that you might fill with water and give to a passing sparrow.

I then began talking to this dog as one does, on the lines of “Hello mate, what brings you to these parts” and then I looked closer, and he was bloody moving... Well, his fur most certainly was moving. Holy moly, he was alive with ticks and fleas. At this stage in my life, I was becoming a little better at dealing with creepy crawlies, more so than dealing with a pile of pooh, any pooh, not even a pile of pooh, just one turd would still make my bum tweak.

So, off I went back to the house to find a lead and set up a cage in my dog shed.

Back down the track, I went with the dog lead, and as soon as he saw the lead well, he started screaming like a banshee. Seriously even the most skilled lion tamer wouldn't be able to calm this dog down. So, my only option was to carry him. This wasn’t a quick decision as I was at that point mustering up the 

Courage to even attempt picking him up, not due to fear but due to the fact, his bloody fur was moving.

As I went to pick him up, he decided to go all stiff, all legs totally stiff they just wouldn't bloody bend. So, off I went up the track to my house carrying basically a piñata, and that’s the story of how Jeremy came into my life. The poor sod is still a very nervous dog, yet compared to what he was, he now is what I would call my beautiful big brave boy.

As I knew that Claudia was returning home this afternoon, I decided to take Kev and Peter with me, Kev for sniffing, and Peter to wee along the way to keep a scent trail for George. I sent Claudia a message with a rough idea as to where I would be so, when she got back, she would be able to hopefully find me to collect my keys and go back to mine and collect Blu and Romeo.

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