DOG GONE Oscar goes to Adelaide
WE live on a mixed farm seven kilometres from Warren in central NSW and one member of our extended domestic menagerie of chickens, pigs, guinea fowl, calves, peacocks, dogs and a cat, is a golden retriever called Oscar.
In mid-may of this year, Oscar went missing.
After accompanying my husband Jeremy and me one morning while we fed cattle, 12-year-old Oscar settled in the sun for a customary snooze.
That afternoon, a Friday, we drove the seven hours to Sydney to visit our sons at university and boarding school, and our house-sitter called that night saying Oscar wasn’t at home. Given the dog is a well-known wanderer who is partial to roadkill, we weren’t particularly worried and assumed he’d turn up the next day.
In the morning, still no Oscar so I posted on Facebook that he was missing. We half expected a call from our local council ranger saying he was at the pound, but we still weren’t particularly concerned.
It wasn’t until the Saturday night that I received a phone call, but it wasn’t from the ranger. My phone kept buzzing from an unknown number with an 08 prefix and when I finally answered, it was a lady from Central Animal Records saying Oscar was... in
and Jeremy Weston finally homeward bound.
Adelaide!
Apparently he’d been picked up on the highway by a truck driver who, for reasons unknown, didn’t drop him off until he got to a vet clinic in Adelaide. They scanned his microchip which gave our contact details. (Cue: plug for microchipping!)
Later that night I updated the post on Facebook saying Oscar had been located. When I called the clinic on the Sunday there was much laughter and head-scratching, but they couldn’t release the truckie’s phone number, so I wasn’t able to thank him or ask why he’d travelled close to 1200 kilometres before dropping our dog off.
Meanwhile, an old friend who lives in Adelaide had seen the post on Facebook and offered to look after Oscar while a lift home could be organised.
That’s one of the great things about social media. I hadn’t seen this friend, Henry, for nearly 30 years since we were at university together, but we’d kept in touch via Facebook.
Henry collected Oscar from the vet clinic, and apparently he “stank to high heaven” so first up was a bath. He called us and asked a few basic questions, like was Oscar an inside or outside dog (definitely outside) and what did he eat (everything), and said he’d look after him for as long as we needed.
Oscar took no time at all to settle right in. He had Henry’s twin daughters to play with, a big back yard with two resident cats, and the family lives close to the beach – doggie heaven.
Much to our delight, Henry posted regular photos on Facebook of Oscar’s “holiday” in Adelaide – at the beach, at a cafe, playing with other dogs, driving in city traffic – and created quite a bit of social media interest. He then began an Instagram page, @oscargoestoadelaide, which at last count had more than 150 followers.
Meanwhile, attempts to transport him home were proving difficult, with a number of lifts and an Airtasker arrangement all falling through, so eventually we decided we’d drive down ourselves to collect him. It was a long time since I’d visited Adelaide and Jeremy had never been so we thought it presented a great opportunity. We also wanted to thank Henry and his girls properly for all they had done for our naughty mutt.
So close to two months after Oscar first arrived in Adelaide, Jeremy and I, plus a friend of ours, Trine, who had been following the story on social media and liked the idea of a road-trip too, drove the 1180 kilometres from Warren to Adelaide.
We arranged to meet Henry, his girls and Oscar on the beach the morning after we arrived and while we knew it wouldn’t be a slo-mo, running towards each other, movie type meeting, we were interested to see if he’d actually recognise us.
At first, after all the excitement, the much-anticipated reunion was somewhat under-whelming. When Jeremy and I first walked up, Oscar was fixated on retrieving a ball and ran right past us. Once the ball was in hand, though, he did settle and I feel sure that after he focused he recognised our voices and smell, especially Jeremy’s!
He then looked very pleased with himself, looking from us to Henry, but he’s the sort of dog that’s very happy wherever he is so we felt he just thought his family had grown, with the added bonus of it being on the beach.
During our time in Adelaide we were able to meet Henry’s friends and other dog owners, all of whom knew Oscar from their daily walks. We couldn’t believe all the other dogs all playing and lead-free on this beautiful South Australian beach. No wonder he loved it. What a contrast to the current drought-stricken conditions at Warren.
After a week we loaded Oscar into the Landcruiser and headed home, and this time the speculation was about how he’d react to being back in his old environment. Again it was an anti-climax. As he hopped out of the vehicle it looked as if he’d never been away. He didn’t take long to find a big fresh cowpat to roll in, though, as if to say, “Now that’s something I’ve really missed!”
One of the things we have done since getting home was to buy Oscar a tag for his collar, printed with his name and a contact number. While this has all been a great adventure, I don’t think we need to do it again anytime soon and if it wasn’t for his microchip, we wouldn’t have found him at all.
Having said that, if he does decide to hitch another lift, I’ve already planted the seed to head north: we’d quite like a trip to Noosa.