Can Ch Devonair's Alexis Can Am FCh

Can. Ch. Devonair's Alexis Can. Am. FCh

Can. Am. Ch. Lorricbrook N V Me x Can. Ch Devonair's Scarlet O'Hare JC
DOB: April 5, 1998
Ally left us suddenly on July 13, 2009 (undetermined cause)

Alexis Running in the Greyhound Club of Canada's Field Trial at 9 Years Old
She Tied for 4/NBQ in a full stake

Alexis's Story
As told by HJ

What do you do when you lose a dog?

Over the years we have heard stories about lost dogs and always though it won't happen to us!!

Well in the summer of 2003 it did... One of the lure coursing clubs in our area was having a practice, a very good friend asked if she could borrow Alexis so that she could be used to pre-cert a dog. No problem, Alexis knows this person and what could go wrong? Our dogs have travelled with our friend before and they like her alot (so do we)...

Alexis ran with the other dog and he passed with flying colours, when they stopped the lure and picked up the dogs, well the unthinkable happened, Alexis panicked. She got out of the leash and started running around, she then managed to get out of the fenced field and then ran across the 404, a 4 lane highway.

At about 8:00pm the phone rang and the hunt was on, did you know you can make a one hour trip in 1/2 hour when you are panicked... I walked around calling Alexis's name until about 10:30, then I called Mom, she came up and continued to search until Lisa Miceli took her back to her house and made her rest. 6:00am the next morning, found Mom walking around the field and calling. There were no sightings of Alexis since she was seen crossing the 404 (the only thing we knew is she made it across the highway.

Thursday consisted of a minimum of 20 people coming and helping post lost dog posters, searching the bush and generally giving tons of moral support. Mom came home Thursday night to a flood of emails, giving hints, ideas and love.

I went out on Friday, I arrived at the spot that had been designated as Central Command to find a box of flyers that had been printed by friends and left there as they had run out the day before. I drove around posting flyers, the area that Alexis was lost in was mainly rural, but there were a few businesses. Around noon when I stopped driving and sat down to eat, one of the truck drivers from the quarry right beside the area she was lost, stopped and took a whole bunch of our flyers, he said all the drivers in the area were looking for her, I had noticed that the trucks were driving slower as they passed and alot were waving and giving thumbs up to me. Kelly and Greg arrived at 12:00 and we started walking, we went all through the woods that were beside the 404 looking for signs of dog and calling.

Around 4:00pm on Friday night we decided enough was enough and the people that were helping me went home. Cathy and I stayed at the Central Command spot and updated the map that we were keeping (this was to show people where we had posted flyers). I pulled out of the area and started driving down the road, I saw something out of the corner of my eye in a field. It was Alexis, I stopped so fast that the car behind me had to swerve to miss me. I threw it into Park before it had stopped and took off running, well now I think about it I didn't even look to see if there was traffic coming. She was trotting towards a gate in a tree farm field, I rolled under the fence and called her. Well like all the stories you hear she just stopped looked at me and started trotting the other way. Luckily the car that nearly hit me (my fault) was Cathy Sanderson, she got Worf, my male whippet, out of my van and he came to me. Alexis stopped trotting away but didn't come to me either. Cathy just stayed on the road watching. I started walking towards Alexis and she slowly turned and started going away. I just said "Fine no more kibbles and bits" and started walking the other way, and she followed me a little bit. Then I turned around and she trotted away again slowly, she kept looking back almost as if to make sure I was following. She then turned into long grass and disappeared, I went to the spot where she went into the grass and sat down - okay I was crying thinking what can I do, when Worf stood up on his back legs and just looked into the grass. The next thing I knew was that Alexis was with Worf licking his bottom jaw and flirting with him just like she does at home. I grabbed her, took Worf's leash off him (of course when I jumped out of the van I didn't grab any food or a leash) wrapped it around Alexis's neck and carried her towards the van. Cathy had backed my van up to the fence, I passed her over the fence and that was that, Alexis was back in the van in her crate with her friend Worf in the crate next to her. She drank a whole bucket of water and 1/2 of another and then she just stretched out in the bottom of the crate and crashed.

She did have some damage to her back leg, our vet thinks perhaps hit by a car, massive soft tissue injuries, but nothing broken. Her leg will never be 100%, but six months since her escapade she is now back running in her favourite sport, lure coursing.

What did we learn from this episode... Well, if you lose a dog, immediately post it on the internet. The people on the lists had a great deal of advice and good wishes. Post posters all over, stop delivery vans, get school bus drivers and don't give up. The only thing we didn't do was get fax numbers from all the businesses we dropped posters off at. Alexis was found on a Friday evening and we removed a fair number of posters before we went home, but it would have been nice to be able to fax a found notice to the businesses that were so helpful in allowing us to put up our "Lost Dog" posters, instead of going back on the Tuesday (Monday was a holiday) to thank everyone for their help.

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Can Ch Devonair's Alexis Can Am FCh

"Whippets are Wrunnerful"