Bentley
Early last week, my parents told me about a TV news story they'd just seen involving a woman losing her papillon in the Nova Scotia woods after a car accident. When they mentioned the dog's name, Bentley, I realized that I know the dog and his breeder. I met them at a dog show on the island this summer. The breeder, Ena, is great friends with my papillon's breeder, Jody, and Jody had talked me up to Ena at the show, telling her that she should get me to hold timid little Bentley and carry him around the arena in an attempt to get him used to other people handling him. I did, and they were surprised at how calm and comfortable he seemed. I really liked the little fluffball. So I was worried and sad when I read this story:
Pint-sized Bentley fled crash, on loose
A tiny bundle of fur is missing after a truck accident on the Cobequid Pass.
Bentley, an 11-month-old toy-breed dog, escaped from his owner's truck Sunday after it rolled on Highway 104 near Exit 10.
"We're still not sure how he managed to get out of the vehicle," owner Ena Angus said. "As far as we can figure, it was an open window in the back."
Ms. Angus said she was driving home to Halifax from the Moncton Kennel Club show with two of her papillons, Bentley (Ruffcut's Better Watch Out) and his sister, Holly.
"He didn't do that well at all this weekend, actually," Ms. Angus said with a chuckle. "But that's OK. He's still the boy and he's still loved."
It was a typical drive home from a show until she "hit the rumble strip (and) over-corrected the vehicle and went down into the median" near kilometre marker 86.
Ms. Angus doesn't remember much after the truck began to roll.
"I've been told she went end over end," she said, adding that the truck's front end and roof were extensively damaged, and its windows were smashed in the crash.
Holly remained in the truck, but Bentley was gone.
"According to bystanders on the side of the road . . . they recall seeing a dog running," Ms. Angus said.
She suffered plenty of scrapes and bruises herself and was quite stiff and sore and still a bit shaken Monday.
It was "very, very scary," she said.
But her family's main concern is finding Bentley, a tiny pooch not at all suited for life in the great outdoors.
"I wouldn't even put him at eight pounds, to be honest, (and) probably no more than about nine inches tall. He's only a little boy, little boy," Ms. Angus said.
Her husband, Steven, was on the road Monday looking for Bentley, and fellow dog breeders, veterinarians and Colchester-area SPCA are all "keeping an eye out" for the little guy.
"I'm hopeful," Ms. Angus said. "I probably wouldn't have been this hopeful if somebody hadn't have said they saw him running from the vehicle."
Bentley is a white and reddish-brown papillon, a breed named for the French word for butterfly because their ears look like butterfly wings. He has a dark face and head. He wasn't wearing a collar when he disappeared but has a tattoo on his inner thigh (3XU4T).
Anyone who finds Bentley is asked to call Bible Hill RCMP at 893-6820, Truro-area vet clinics or the SPCA.
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This happened last Sunday, and NS has had some near-freezing, rainy weather since. With the weather, the nearby highway and the predators in the area, I didn't expect Bentley to survive long. But I hoped... and today, my dog's breeder sent this e-mail:
Thought I would share this with you all. Some of you may have seen it on the TV.
Last Sunday on the way back from the Moncton dog show, my friend Ena lost control of her SUV and rolled it 6 times. She was amazingly fine. She had two papillons (not in crates) with her that she had been showing in the show. When the rescuers went to her they opened the back hatch and her 11 month old male papillon bolted. The accident occured in the middle of nowhere. The papillon crossed the road and ran up into the bush. We all tried to find the dog. Me and a friend went over to Nova Scotia to the accident site and walked the woods. It is a heavily treed area, with bear, coyote,etc. and the weather was cold and wet. We had a team come with tracking dogs, cooked bacon , walked around with a female papillon in season, had other papillons bark etc etc. . They did a clip on the TV, put posters up and let the truckers know. On Friday a trucker said he had seen him on the tree line. It was hard to believe. The owners set live traps and on Saturday almost a week later....Bentley was got in the live trap. He appears fine. He would have been wet, cold and hungry. Anyway...hug your papillons today they really are a tough dog in a small dog package.
Talk Soon
Jody
And the follow-up news story: Bentley the puppy home at last
This is amazing. I can't even imagine losing Crystal and wondering for a week whether she was freezing or starving to death in the woods, eaten by a coyote, hit by a car, picked up by someone driving by or who knows what else. I was worried that they'd never find out what happened to Bentley. I'm so glad they got their happy ending.