22 August 2017

The lost collar — a mystery

One morning last week, Natasha the sheltie pup and I set off for our morning walk at around 7. My plan was to walk out to the end of the unpaved road through the vineyard, which is about a mile, and then just walk back.

About halfway out, I saw a man walking toward us. I've seen him many times before over the last few months. Often he and a woman walk together, but recently he's been alone. Usually he walks later in the morning, so this was the first time I've actually stopped and talked to him. Most often, I've seen him walk by on the paved road when I'm out doing things in the yard and garden, and I've always shouted bonjour when I've seen him (or them).

Natasha yesterday in photo I took with my Android tablet

This time, Natasha went crazy. She was scared, and she started barking wildly. She's not used to seeing people out in the vineyard on our walks. She started to turn tail and run back toward the house. I had already passed the walking man, who was standing there laughing his head off. "The dog's name is Natasha and she's not yet 6 months old," I told him. Elle est jolie, he replied, still laughing.

All I could do was call and call Tasha to try to get her to run past the man standing between us and continue the walk, but she was too afraid. Finally I squatted down and made noises that I know Tasha will respond to. It worked. I'd tell you what noise I make but there's no name for it. It's comparable to a ululation, but not exactly the same thing. Tasha scurried past the stranger and ran to me. I called out bonne journée to the walking man Natasha and I continued on our way.

A couple of days later, on Saturday morning, Walt was out with Natasha and she disappeared from his view for between 10 and 15 minutes. He said he was starting to panic after whistling and calling the dog for all that time, and then she suddenly reappeared. He had no idea where she had been for so long, but she wasn't hurt or acting strange in any way. They came on back home. He said it was weird because he hadn't heard Tasha bark or make any other noise for the whole time she was out of view.

Later Saturday I took Tasha out for the evening walk, and I kept a close eye on her, calling her back to me every time she started to wander. Normally, she isn't out of my sight for more than a minute or two at any time, and that's how it was late Saturday afternoon. We finished our walk without incident and returned home.

Recent produce from the vegetable garden (another tablet photo)

A few hours later I reached out to touch Tashas back and neck and realize'd that her collar wasn't on her. It was gone. Walt and I looked around the house to see if maybe Bertie had pulled off the dog's collar while the two of them were rolling around on the floor playing. No luck. Walt went out and looked around the back yard and even outside the back gate around the pond to see if he could find the leash. Again, no luck. It was starting to get dark outside.

I immediately put two and two together and said Tasha must have snagged her collar on something out in the vineyard in the morning and finally figured out how to wriggle out of it. That could explain her 15-minute disappearance. One reason to doubt that was that neither of us had noticed for 12 hours that the collar was missing. Could she have lost it on the evening walk with me? I didn't think so, because as I said I was keeping her close to me all the time out of fear that she might again disappear the way she had in the morning.

On Sunday morning both Walt and I went out walking with Natasha. We scoured the landscape, retracing our steps along the paths we had walked the day before. Walt and I split up and he told me afterwards that he had gone into the woods and ravines around the vineyard where he's seen deer recently, thinking that maybe Natasha had chased a deer the previous morning and got her collar caught on a tree branch or something else.

We didn't find the collar. Walt looked for it again Sunday afternoon and yesterday (Monday) morning on his walks. No sign of it. And then, sometime around 8:30, I heard the front gate bell ring. I was downstairs and went out to see who it might be. Tasha barked wildly.

It was the walking man we had seen out on the road last week. He said bonjour and held out the collar, tag attached, for me to see. Where in the world did you find that?, I asked him. He said he had spotted it just lying on the gravel out on the road. His first thought, he said, was that Natasha might have run away, and he was happy to see that she hadn't.

The plastic clip that is the collar's closure was broken. Maybe it had been run over by a car, since the collar was found lying on the road. Walt examined it and saw that the key ring that attaches the dog's tag to the collar was bent and deformed, and even the little tab on the tag with the hole for the ring was slightly bent. Again, maybe a car ran over it. If Natasha had caught the collar on a branch or a stake out there, it would have been left hanging on something. Instead, it was like it just fell off her as she was running or walking along the road.

Mysterious doings in the Renaudière vineyard outside Saint-Aignan

By the way, the collar's plastic clip might have simply broken all by itself. The collar in question is one that we think we bought in California in 1992 for the first dog we had, Collette. She was about six months old when we rescued from the animal shelter in Santa Clara, and we put a small collar on her. She outgrew it, but we saved it. Then we put that same collar on Callie when we brought her home in 2007. Callie outgrew it too, but we saved it. Then last April we put that same collar on Natasha when we brought her home. The plastic was probably brittle at 25 years of age.

So the collar event remains a mystery. We'll probably never know what happened. Just as we will never know what happened to Callie — why we found her suddenly and inexplicably paralyzed one Saturday afternoon in June and had to have her euthanized two days later. Dogs don't readily reveal their secrets...

33 comments:

  1. Tasha is so beautiful in that photo! Very soulful looking, too. But I bet she has other moments.
    Even though you may not be using the collar again, it's good that it was returned so the mystery was (mostly) solved. It was kind of the man to bring it back.

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    1. Walt went and bought Tasha a new collar yesterday. We were happy not to have to order a new custom dog tag.

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  2. You may want to look into a trackr. https://www.thetrackr.com

    I just bought a couple for my keys and my car.

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    1. I'd never heard of those devices before. Thanks.

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  3. It's always very worrying when something like this happens.
    We had a Spaniel X who would disappear for hours and we had no idea where he'd gone, then suddenly reappear again. On occasions neighbours would tell us where they'd seen him, and he certainly covered some distances ! Inca, the Lab., isn't a roamer, fortunately, but the tracker is still a good idea. If it's dark when we go out walking she wears her illuminated collar.
    Is Tasha microchipped?

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    1. Yes, Tasha is microchipped. She hasn't shown an inclination to run away other than last Saturday morning's incident.

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  4. If the collar was found on the road, how is it you didn't see it when you were looking for it. Mystery is the word!

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    1. The road is a mile long, and I didn't think to ask the Good Samaritan where on the road, exactly, he found the collar and tag. The next time I see him, I'll ask him if he remembers.

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  5. So glad to hear the collar and tag came back - if in somewhat odd circumstances. We abandoned an ordinary collar with our shelties as we found the thick double coat, when fully grown, rubbed and tangled in it. Our vet friend reccommended a medium choke chain for the breed - not for control but because it was just put on when needed for walks etc. We found it very successful and the same chain and lead lasted through both dogs and is put away for if we ever embark on another! LOL I don't know whether it is legally necessary to keep a collar on dogs in France?
    We return to France exactly 2 weeks today and will be established on Les Cochards campsite from Friday 8th Sept until Wednesday 13th. Then we intend to take the caravan down to Vichy for the rest of our holiday. When we met you back in late June, we left it that we might get together again in September, and hopefully meet Walt and Natasha,if you were not too busy.
    It would be nice to catch up again if you have time - we could drive to a meet up somewhere to suit you if Tasha is still a bad traveller? What do you think? We realise that 6 days is a tighter time slot this time and we quite appreciate that you may be too busy but it would be lovely if it does fit.

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    1. We feel it's good to have a collar and tag on the dog, but we don't need to walk her on a leash/lead. We tried to use a choke chain with Callie, but she freaked out. We had successfully used a choke chain with Collette a decade or more earlier, but now we don't want to try again. Natasha stays close to us nearly all the time on walks.

      Natasha spaying happens tomorrow. I'm sure the recovery will take only a few days. Let's stay in touch.

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    2. Hope all goes well for Tasha's op. I will be thinking of her.
      My comment about the collar was only passing on our experience - it came back to mind when I read today's blog. Hadn't thought about it for many,many years.

      All the best to you all. Staying in touch sounds good. Thanks.

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  6. Yes, plastic does decay.

    Two fingers looseness under the collar is a good fit.


    A question I have wondered about for a long time, if I may. You both obviously speak French very well, but how to the locals perceive your French to be? Do you get the nuances of language correct? Heavily American accented? More Parisian French? Easy to understand? I guess you don't speak French between yourselves, or do you mix in a bit of French with your personal chat? I am unhappily monolingual.

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    1. Hi Andrew! I've known Ken and Walt for many years, and I was fortunate to see them this summer. Ken has been speaking French for decades, much of that time in an immersion setting, in France. He is not heavily American accented at all, and I'm sure that he gets the nuances of French. His French is beautiful and natural sounding, so definitely easy to understand.
      Judy

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    2. My French is fluent and correct, but not native. My friend CHM, a Parisian who is 92 years old now, tells me he considers me to be bilingual. I definitely have an accent according to local people, but Parisians have never seemed to notice. I started learning French in 1963 or so, and by 1970 I was told by a Frenchman who was my teacher in the south of France that my pronunciation was pretty much perfect. I'm not bragging but I have no trouble communicating in French. Often people don't even notice that I'm not a native, except that I don't really "look" French.

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    3. Joelle thinks you look French!

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    4. Andrew, I have known Ken (and Walt) for almost four decades and I can vouch Ken has an unusual command of the French language, and better than some natives! When I met him, his knowledge of French was already extremely good. We worked together in French for several years and never did he seem not to grasp the meaning of what was written or said. I have never conversed with him other than in French. You learn, even in your own language, till the day you die!

      He is as close as beeing bilingual as anyone can be. As for the accent, who doesn’t have one? His is almost imperceptible and is what I’d call the international accent, i.e. one you cannot spot what country it is from, and could easily be from some region in France or francophone country.

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    5. chm I thought your English had no detectable accent either (other than American) and no specific regional tone. The only time I heard Ken's French was that TV interview about the new pedestrian bridge. He sounded clear and relaxed.

      I am glad he flavors his daily posts with French words to help my Franglais development.

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    6. D…, vous êtes trop bon, you’re too kind. Flattery will get you anywhere! Unlike Ken in French, I’m never comfortable nor confident in English, mostly because of my perceived French accent and lack of fluency, and because I didn’t learn English formally but by trial and error. Hands on, in a way, sur le tas, en quelque sorte. That’s why I stick to French whenever possible.

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    7. Thanks all. Most interesting. Putting a cat among Pigeons, I guess Walt's is not quite as good.

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    8. Walt is pretty good even though he didn’t have the same opportunities and training Ken had. In addition, he’s shy and a perfectionist, both beign impediments to feel comfortable in a foreign language. He is much more at ease in French now than he’s ever been. In the last ten years his fluency has improved tremendously.

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    9. Andrew, what is your point? Who speaks French? Who speaks French better than who? Why are you dwelling on this and who are you trying to provoke? Let it go.

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  7. I don't like these mysteries!
    But, the age of the plastic does seem to lend itself to the possibility of it simply breaking off. And, I'll bet that a car ran over the collar. Yikes!
    Judy

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    1. Maybe two or three cars a day drive along the vineyard road. But one of them could well have run over the leash after it fell off Tasha's neck.

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  8. Life is full of adventure and mystery at times! I'm glad you got the tag back, and I love that you kept that collar since you first got Colette. I hope Tasha starts responding better when you call her--give her a treat when she comes, and maybe she'll learn that it's worth coming when she's called. Glad your garden is doing so well!

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    1. The incident last Saturday was the only time when Tasha didn't respond to our calls, and we'll likely never know why. Shelties are very attached to their people, according to what I've heard and read, and that's our experience so far.

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  9. We use a Martingale collar, sort of semi-choke, on our 75 lb dog. You adjust it so the choke only goes so far and when not clipped to a lead it can slip over the dog's head. This way, she can wriggle out if she gets snagged on something, but the choke keeps her from backing out of the collar when she is on a lead. Lot's of different brands, but we like this one:
    https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B012A3T5ZK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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    1. Thanks. We might try that kind of choke chain at some point if necessary.

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  10. Yes Ken, all good, but I honestly don't like the sound of that man. Tasha didn't strike me as a nervous pup. At C and M's place she was out of her element but relaxed and friendly. Dogs are pretty good judges of character. I like the way you two are keeping her close. How did he know where you live?

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    1. No, Sue, that guy seems fine. Tasha was nervous and barky just because she's not used to seeing people out on the vineyard road when we walk. Sunday morning, I went off in one direction with Tasha, and Walt went off in another direction. When Tasha and I turned to go home, Walt was far enough down the road that Tasha didn't recognize him. She bristled and started barking at him! Of course, once he called her and she realized it was Walt, she calmed down.

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  11. Glad you got the collar tag back. It's possible that she caught the collar on something and that it broke, but that it stayed on her for a time because of her fur and then fell off in the road.
    Maybe use treats as rewards to get her to come when called?

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  12. Oh good. I feel better now.

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  13. Ken, something has been showing up in my facebook feed about toxic water in the rivers that is affecting dogs. Several have died. It seems neurological symptoms are among the effects. It got me to wondering if Callie had taken a dip in the Cher.

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