Who is eating the food?

We are starting to see a pattern in the disappearance of the food:

A fox eats the meat, but little else. He darts at the bowl and doesn't lick it.
A cat eats the meat and fish, but not the biscuit or fruit.
A badger eats everything except banana, but does not lick the bowl clean.
We've caught mice red-handed in the camera too. Very Tom and Jerry. They eat meat and biscuits but not pilchards!
So the times that we think a dog has taken the food are when all the food has gone (including the banana) and the bowl has been licked clean. This has now happened three times in the last 10 days (compared with no food disappearing in the way in the previous 3 weeks). So does this mean that we are starting to get Green Lane Black Labrador to come to the feeding stations? Or does it mean that other dogs on walks in the area are eating it? We have put up notices for dog owners saying that we understand if their dog goes up to the feeding station and scoffs the lot, but asking them to let us know so we don't get false hopes and can replace the food.
Last time a bowl was cleaned out there was an Evian bottle 3 feet away, squashed in the middle with teeth marks - just like Sky would do... (but so would many dogs :-( )

Roast dinner and dogs with scars

Technical issues undergoing an upgrade. Back on line later we hope (thanks as ever to Doug and Helen). Link http://dougellison.com/cam/refresh_norm.html
Menu du jour in the trap has been upgraded to roast lamb shanks (following Marilyn's and Ann the dog wardens advice)!
Kirby Muxloe dog with scar lady has been eliminated from the enquiry. It's a surgical scar and lots of people have given the poor owner funny looks or interrogated her (I got this 2nd hand from prowling the area today and pouncing on an innocent chocolate lab owner who had the whole story).
There's motorbike racing today at Mallory Park and you can hear the familiar noise from our house. The wind is carrying in Sky's direction and we wish he'd hear it, remember you hear that at home, and follow it - he'd have to come through Osbaston if he took a direct line.......

Fri afternoon webcam

Possible sighting alongside trap at 5pm on webcam. Thanks very much Marilyn! Trap visited by Tori (to change battery for camera) similar time and pawprint seen in mud. Update midnight: I've taken the images off the laptop and unfortunately it was a bit of Tori! Never mind, keep those eyes peeled everyone.
Food gone from 1 of the 2 kennels this afternoon. Unlikely fox or badger during daylight. Took pilchards, gravy bones, Pedigree meat and tripe stick. Left banana!
Got call from RSPCA this afternoon as someone had reported us thinking we were laying a badger trap. We can assure everyone that the trap is for Sky. If a wild animal is caught then we have enough people around the globe keeping an eye on it that we would be called and it would be released within a short period of time. We are working with the dog warden and are assured that we are doing everything correctly and humanely.
I just hope that we don't get more complaints and have to move/remove the trap now that we think Sky is habituating to it and the area.
Got to talk to man who walks his dog in Kirby Muxloe who meets 10 other dog walkers for a natter every evening on their walks so breakthrough in spreading the word there about the 2 calls. Phew!

Midnight update - battery ran out again this evening on camera so we've just checked the trap. We'll get it back online in the morning after an overnight charge.

Food conundrums

Apart from more techical problems (now resolved) the rest of the day consisted of:

Feeding station Pete and Bren's garden - badger caught red handed on video! Left the banana alone. So badgers and foxes leave bananas. Useful to know. Some dogs do, some don't.

Kennel lower end Green lane - food untouched

Kennel middle Green lane - all gone except banana. Evian bottle dropped nearby. Is this Sky or is there a careless dog walker enjoying the free food and dropping litter? Can't put camera on this as too visible and likely would get stolen.

So only twice has the food all gone, licked clean, banana included. Both daytimes. Therefore either Sky or another omnivorous dog.

Phone call while at work from Newbold Verdon. Got close enough to see no scar. Description matched George the wandering labrador of Barlestone. Not known him stray that far so advised caller to call his owners and if in doubt, the dog warden. Ladies on our switchboard had to call back to see if it was Sky as they were desperate to know!

Strange woofs in Odstone

Got called this afternoon with 2nd hand report of sighting in Odstone 2 weeks ago then got call at 10.15pm from Odstone.:
strange barking opposite her (which matches the location of a previous sighting) upsetting the lady's own dogs, activating the floodlight, 6pm and 10pm. Pheasants and pheasant food are kept there. Barking sounded "funny" more terrier than labrador (she has black labs herself) but very persistent and when ran south towards village, set other dogs off. Didn't see it in the dark but could localise this funny barking.
I raced there from my late shift and got there 1 minute after floodlight activation, left the Jeep engine running (he recognises that), and tinkled biscuits in his metal bowl. Under normal circumstances that would have him at your feet from a 20 mile radius, drooling.
Nothing. Well, just one fox in the headlights.
Hope to despair again. Stuck around for an hour and now need to go to bed at half past midnight having just got home.
Food went from Green Lane kennel again (a mile from the above).
Bedtime prayer: PLEASE just go in the trap Sky, on your wanders tonight!!

Technical battles Wed 28 Jan

I knew our techno wizardry was going too well. The food went from Pete and Bren's garden last night, on the 2nd night of the camera reinstallation, and for some reason the camera recorded most of the 24 hours except the crucial few hours in the evening. Pete reckons Sky knows how to deactivate it.
Meanwhile the camera on the trap stopped at midnight. Not sure if it was rain, or just needed rebooting. With Tim in London and Doug on the other end of the phone Ffion's done her best at pressing random buttons but Doug needs to come out to fiddle. Hopefully back up and running mid afternoon, with Pete kindly keeping an eye on the trap in the meantime.
No food gone from the kennels in the last 24 hours.
It's probably time to tell you about the 2 strange Kirby Muxloe calls in case any of you have friends there, who can ask around and keep their eyes open.
First was last Thurs evening, frightened black lab in the walking area near the library. Very helpful dog walker says she's not seen it before and he was definitely on his own. Too dark to see if there was a scar. Then Saturday lunchtime a lady in her late 40s or early 50s was seen with a black lab on a lead with a scar on the Main St nr the Post Office. Passer by called us.
Ffion's rung the 3 nearest vet surgeries to see if they know of a black lab with a scar. Other than that, it seems unlikely the 2 sightings were the same dog but you never know. For those who don't know Leicestershire Kirby Muxloe is too far from Barton in the Beans for it to be likely it's the same dog as we're tracking.
Can't do a lot more except if anyone has any Kirby Muxloe contacts, especially "doggy" people, could they ask around to see if we can eliminate the one on the lead from the enquiry. I'm surprised the poor lady hasn't already been wrestled to the ground by a pack of strangers if she really has got a black lab with a scar on its back!

Camera Improvement from Doug and Helen

For those of you who are looking at the trap camera our technical wizards have developed a link which automatically refreshes so that you do not have to click the 'refresh' button to see a new image. It can be left running on the desktop and will always have the latest image shown. Click HERE to link to this.

No food had gone overnight last night. It is a bit odd that it was taken three nights running from the garden near the Green Lane, but last night when there was a camera in place - nothing. We are wondering if the red glow of the camera is scaring the animal. It did not seem to affect the fox and cat that we filmed previously, so we are not sure. I wanted to do a Randomised Controlled Trial (sorry medical joke), but Ffion said that we should leave the camera out tonight and then turn it off if the food still doesn't disappear.

Just in case Green Lane Black Labrador is not Sky we are also trying to cover the possibility that someone has Sky. At this stage we think that a vet or vet nurse is probably our only chance of locating him if he is out of this area. We have found that vets don't necessarily scan all new dogs so have put this advert in the Veterinary Times. This is delivered to every vet in the UK tomorrow and we hope that a vet or vet nurse will remember Sky's very distinctive scar and scan any dog they see with a scar like this.

Who is eating the food?

No further sightings and the only animal that we have seen in the trap is a robin. Not quite the animal that we were hoping for!

However, for the last three nights the food has been disappearing from a garden near Green Lane. Brenda very artfully put a layer of sand around the food and it has what look like dog footprints. So tonight I have set an infra-red camera up to see who is eating the food. (It isn't a sophisticated web camera so we can't look at it online, just have to download the images in the morning).

Also for the first time last night the food bowl at another seeding station was licked clean and there was a clear muddy dog footprint on the blanket inside the kennel. Are we at last starting to attract Green Lane Black Labrador or is one of the local dogs getting fat?

Patterns of Sightings in Green Lane

No food gone overnight and the trap is still undisturbed (it is the camera that is at an angle not the trap). We set the alarm to get up and look at the computer through the night, so are rather tired today. However as it was two weeks between recent sightings we will just have to be patient. 

We have been trying to put a pattern to the sightings of Green Lane Black Labrador. They have mainly been early afternoon, weekdays. We have also realised that NONE of the sightings has come from a person on foot - they have all been on a horse, in a tractor, driving a car or looking out of a house window. It may be that people on foot cannot see over the hedges, but it also may be that he is so frightened that he hides away whenever he hears anyone coming.

It is still well worth looking out for him while you are walking, but it is probably best to look at the bottom of hedges in the middle distance. From the footprints in the snow we saw that he was either in the woods or sticking very close to the hedge bottoms, hardly ever going out into an open field.

From Sue at the excellent doglost.co.uk we understand that dogs often move in a triangle. I wish we knew the other places that Green Lane Black Labrador is moving to. We are now asking people to walk more in the surrounding areas than in the Green Lane itself, as it might be better for the Green Lane 'hot zone' to be quiet.

Pete has had the brilliant idea of asking friends or relatives in different time zones to look at the webcam through our night (and phone us if the trap has been activated). This is a wonderful alternative to us setting the 3am alarm again. So tonight our trap in Leicestershire is being observed from Australia, America and New Zealand! The hunt for Sky has gone international!!

Sat 24th Jan Update

Unfortunately another quiet day after the excitement of last Thursday. None of the food has been touched and no sightings.


We have decided that the only way that we are going to get close enough to identify the Green Lane Black Labrador is to trap it. This doesn't sound nice, but we think is our only option. A local farmer, Darren, has lent us a dog trap, which we have placed at a point where the Green Lane Black Labrador has been seen several times. Our technical expert friends Doug and Helen have set up a webcam which sends us a photo of the trap every 2 minutes. So as soon as there is something there we will know. This is such a great facility to have - as it means that we do not have to go an check the trap every couple of hours (as we would not really want any animal to be in the trap for long). Just for the moment click here to see a picture taken in the last 2 minutes.


So we will be setting the alarm to check the picture every few hours during the night, and no wine tonight in case we have to drive!

An Overview of Strategy

From Ann the Dog Warden and doglost.co.uk we have some excellent behavioural tips on how to approach a feral dog. Apparently calling 'Sky', whistling or moving towards the dog is seen as very threatening and he will run away. It is much better to stand still, keep low and just watch what he is doing. If you have binoculars and can look for the scar on his back that would be excellent. If he is near enough to see putting your hand in your pocket and dropping a biscuit on the ground then backing away might entice him nearer. Don't move towards him.

We are not sure if he will still respond to Ffion or me. Apparently feral dogs often need to smell the owners before they respond to them, but will not let anyone get that close. All very frustrating. If you see a black lab please just watch him and call us.

The strategy at present is to find his regular haunts. We know about the Green Lane area, but where does he go when he is not there? We are trying to get him to come regularly back to the same place with the feeding stations, so that we can then set up a trap. The fact that a dog took the food on Thursday was exciting as this was the first time that food had gone (although of course it could have been a dog on a walk down Green Lane whose owner did not spot him guzzling).

If you are looking for a walk this weekend the Green Lane is pretty well patrolled, but it would be good to see if his other haunts can be spotted - so a walk would be good anywhere in the area bounded by Nailstone, Carlton, Congerstone, Twycross, Snarestone, Heather and Ibstock.

Update 23rd Jan

Finally, another call. Well two in fact. One to Kirby Muxloe last night, where a frightened black lab was seen at dark near the car park. We went over but no sign.
But the real excitement was earlier with a call at 2pm - guess where? Barton end of Green Lane again. A black lab crossed the road as a lady was driving along. She called us straight away which was great. This time our "search party" mobilised with precision and fantastic communication. We've been rehearsing! Walkie talkies, cars and maps at the ready, our "trained staff" (fantastic neighbours, friends and Ann the dog warden) covered all points.
While we were disappointed not to see the dog ourselves, we were delighted to find Sky's bowl at the kennel feeding station licked clean, and the tennis ball we'd left outside was deep in the kennel. This is the first time that the food has disappeared in 3 weeks of laying fresh food daily.
Of course any dog could have done that but apparently not that many dogs like pilchards as much as Sky!
Our plan at the moment is to try to make this dog's behaviour more regular, hoping that feeding at this place can become a habit. Today Ann has issued us with tripe sticks. Yum.
At least today we feel we have something to hope for and something to keep busy doing again.

Update 19th Jan

Had a call this morning from a man who had noticed a hand written note in the CoOp in Autrey about a found Black Lab. Took a trip out there, but found that the dog had already been re-united with its owners. Very happy for them, but still sad for us.

At least this was a happier trip than last nights following a call about a dead Black Labrador in a pub car park about 15 miles away from home. Fortunately it was not Sky, but sadly it did not have an identification tag so I couldn't contact the owner - it will be scanned by the Dog Warden today, so I hope that it has an identification chip.

All of these calls add to the roller coaster of life at the moment. We have cancelled our holiday to New Zealand, so at least we have time to follow up the calls at the moment. We are also maintaining a feeding station in the Green Lane area, with the scent of home being provided by spraying water each day mixed with the dust from our vacuum cleaner (advised by the experts at doglost.co.uk and our dog warden). Various pieces of laundry complete the 'olfactory trap' and seem to keep the foxes off the food. However none of the food is disappearing so if there was a feral dog, it seems to have moved away.

Possible Sightings 2 weeks ago

There are of course a whole number of possible theories about what has happened to Sky. He may have been stolen, as his wonderful affectionate nature makes him an ideal family pet. He may still be living wild, as our advice is that this is quite possible, even in the UK in winter. He may of course have died and be hidden away, although the countryside near us is pretty well covered by farmers, shooters and walkers.

For the first three weeks after his disappearance there was no trace. As time went on we heard of possible sightings in the first few days in a semicircle which missed home! Then we had a 10 day spell with several sightings about 2 miles from home in an area called the 'Green Lane' between Nailstone and Odstone. This is an area that Sky knows very well as he often walks this route, trotting behind the horse, however we always go by car to the start of the walk so he does not know his way home. The sightings all described a thin black labrador like Sky, although no-one got within more than about 100 meters as the dog ran away as soon as he saw anyone.

Then since 5th January we have had no more sightings, despite a lot of publicity. Several people in this area have put food out, which we have watched with an infra-red camera. Unfortunately we have only seen foxes, cats and mice. Well we were saying it was a cat and mouse game.........

With no new leads it is hard not to get very sad, however we keep hearing stories of dogs who have been re-united with their owners after a long period of time, so we are keeping some hope alive.

What have we done so far?

Our spreadsheet of activity now runs to about 10 pages! We have:
1) Phoned the local vets (who record details in a 'lost and found' book).
2) Phoned the RSPCA and added details to their national missing pet register.
3) Phoned the local animal rescue shelters (Leicestershire and Warwickshire).
4) Phoned the local dog wardens (each local Council has its own and they do not share information so you have to phone all).
5) Phoned the 'out of hours' dog warden (as information does not routinely get passed on this needs to be a separate call).
6) Put up posters over about a 5 mile radius, giving our contact details and the cutest photo we could find.
7) Asked local radio to broadcast Sky's details.
8) Placed adverts in the local papers over about a 20 mile radius.
9) Asked people who are working 'out and about' in the local area to put posters up in their staff rooms - postman (lady), DHL drivers, bus drivers.
10) Talked to the local farmers.
11) Went and talked to the local Travellers.
12) Posted Sky's details on the various 'missing dog' websites - doglost.co.uk, lostlabs.co.uk and others that I cannot remember at present (will do a future post on this).
13) Had an article in the Leicester Mercury about our search.

14) Set up a night vision camera (thanks to Doug and Helen) to investigate if food has been disappearing from any of the feeding stations - unfortunately this is all we found:

A summary of the story so far

Sky is our 4 year old Black Lab. He went missing from a neighbour's garden on 1st December - was one minute playing with their dogs and the next was gone. With our neighbours in the village (we live near Market Bosworth, about 10 miles west of Leicester on the Leicestershire / Warwickshire border) we all turned the local area upside down that evening, but found nothing.
Since then we have been on a rollercoaster, with lots of different theories and lots of activity, but unfortunately we have not found him.
I will break the rest of the story up into several posts.