13/09/2024
🩷WHEN SCOTTISH RESCUES ALL COME TOGETHER TO GET EVIE HOME SAFE 🩷
Evie is a 12-week-old puppy and was on holiday in St Andrews with her family. Eight days ago, on Wednesday the 4th of September she received a fright at the beach from another dog and ran away.
Despite the best efforts of her owners, Gill & Karen she wasn’t to be found.
A local team helped search for the first few days with a handful of sightings reported around the golf course and across the main road near the Balgove Estate. The sightings soon dried up and Evie’s owners made the decision on Saturday the 7th that they needed more help and more resources on the ground.
Two very good friends in Stewart and Lynsey had been there continuously from day one and reached out to someone they knew in James for further help and asked him to lead the search. At this point he realised the urgency of the situation and organised help from Missing Pets Dundee & Angus, Dana’s Angels, Search Dogs for Lost Dogs and Missing Pets Perth & Kinross. This combined with a group of family friends and local helpers set about helping.
Search Dogs for Lost Dogs immediately attended, and Dani with K9 Nova and Kay with K9 Piper were able to pick up several strong trails and give the team areas of the golf course to focus on.
The team split into three and sat silently in their cars observing. We really need to say a huge thank you to the staff on the golf course for all their help, with many of them coming in on days off to help search.
In the early hours of Sunday morning at about 0400 James heard barking coming from the direction of the main road, in particular from the North West corner of the Balgove Estate close to where a local Postie had reported a sighting a few days earlier.
The silent search continued, and the team returned in greater numbers on Sunday. Volunteers from Dundee and Fife came together to silently watch various areas around the golf course, the main road and The Balgove Larder & Estate.
They were having no luck until around 11pm when James, Stewart, Scott & Vic were standing by the side of the main road close to a gate into the estate. They were discussing strategy, and something bolted around the corner from the main road, straight between them and through the gate. They were able to get a torch on it and they were 90% sure it was Evie. They left the area quietly after alerting the owners and the team and gave her time to destress.
The following evening it was decided to bring search dog Raven out of retirement to help and she searched the area. Stewart and James ran her all over and she gave us 100% confirmation that it was indeed Evie that had ran between them the previous night. She also indicated a few other areas where Evie’s trail was strong, leading from the Balgove Estate back and forward to the beach.
We thought at this point that the estate was her safe space, but she was crossing the road at night to check for her humans near the loss point on the beach.
We are into Monday now and team slept when they could and returned in the evening, once again silently watching from their cars and vans. Back near the gate James managed at around 0130 on Tuesday to get a positive sighting of Evie using a thermal scope and confirmed that she was indeed starting to calm down.
Everyone at Balgove Estate was just magnificent, in particular Louisa who ordered all work in the area stopped and instructed all of her staff to avoid the area until Evie was secured.
The following morning in went our first trap along with live cameras. Volunteers from Dana’s Angels led by Elaine, and from Missing Pets Dundee & Angus kept watch once again all night. The following day Search Dogs for Lost Dogs returned, it was decided to keep Nova away as her and Raven are good friends, and we were worried that Nova would just follow Raven’s scent. Instead K9 Piper led Dani and Kay into the woods around the Balgove Estate where Dani was able to find a set of fresh tracks made by Evie, around an area where there was some water.
The trap was moved, live cameras repositioned, and we waited once again. Every time the camera notified us of movement, we all jumped, but sadly Evie was not interested. On Wednesday night Scott was scoping around looking for a place to put another live camera, when he spotted Evie sitting watching him, not far from The Larder. Once again, we withdrew and allowed her more time to destress, but we were massively encouraged as she wasn’t running from humans anymore. Instead, she was getting curious. The stress hormones had started to subside, and we knew we were getting close.
Then today the plan was to put in a second trap which was kindly dropped off by Chrissie from Missing Pets Perth & Kinross.
James was meeting Karen and the trap was going to be set near The Larder. Peter and Barry who work on The Estate both saw Evie and called it in. We positioned Karen in the middle of a wooded area close by with James watching on from a distance. Sure enough, Evie made an appearance. She was chasing birds and watching her mum. For the first time in 8 days Karen set eyes on her little baby girl, but she was an absolute superstar and had nerves of steel. She sat there and let Evie watch her, not making eye contact, instead just letting her get used to her.
Then Evie moved and ended up heading out towards Bell Brae, chasing wildlife. We received a phone call from a member of the public and Karen raced around to make sure that Evie wouldn’t get onto the road. No need, she headed back into The Estate.
Karen and James had a meeting with Louisa to update her on the search within her grounds and it had not long finished when another phone call came in saying that Evie had headed back to Bell Brae. They raced around in their vehicles and spotted her as soon as they stopped. She was heading down towards the main road at the roundabout in rush hour traffic.
Karen jumped in her car to get ahead of her while James shepherded Evie away from the road. She wandered into an area that was fenced in on 3 sides at the side of the main road and while James guarded the exit, Karen drove around and got out of her car, kneeling down low on the ground. Karen was once again playing it cool, keeping Evie’s attention while keeping an open phone line and getting advice from James.
Traffic began to stop as they noticed the commotion and they offered help, James asked them to be ready to form a rolling road block across the road if Evie made an escape and please don’t chase her. To their credit, every single person did exactly as asked – they all knew about Evie and wanted to do their bit to help. Karen was gently talking to Evie, slowly crawling closer to the fence. ‘Come here my baby girl, it’s time to come home’. ‘Come on Evie, mummy misses you’. Everyone was completely caught up in the moment, and they could see the exact point when Evie recognised her mum. James whispered to Karen over the phone, ‘you’ve got her, get her now’ and Karen leaned over the fence and scooped her baby girl up in her arms. For the first time in 8 days they were reunited.
The onlookers let out a cheer and she was quickly bundled into the waiting car and rushed away after a video call with Gill to celebrate.
This truly was a magnificent team effort and thanks needs to go to everyone who heled and devoted their time. Everyone who helped in those first few days. Everyone from Missing Pets Dundee & Angus, in particular Vic, Nicky and Scott. Dana’s Angels, in particular Elaine, Fiona and Angie, Search dogs for Lost Dogs Scotland with Dani and K9 Nova, Kay and K9 Piper. Missing Pets Perth & Kinross for loaning us equipment and all of Gill and Karen’s friends who helped out, many devoting dozens of hours of their time. Special mention here to Lynsey and Stewart. The Pet Food Store for donating food for the traps.
All the well-wishers, all of the people who reported sightings – you are all wonderful people, and you all helped.
Search dogs for Lost Dogs Scotland with Dani and K9 Nova, Kay and K9 Piper. It turned out that both dogs were bang on with their search and really identified the area where Evie was 🥰
Lastly James and K9 Raven for helping lead the search.
