On the trail of the unlikely runaways who’ve stolen Britain’s hearts
Sniffer dogs. Pet detectives. An army of volunteers. Even a £1,000 reward. So where ARE Bella the lamb and sheepdog Blake?
AS SHE sniffs the air, sucks a damp clump of grass and stops for a comfort break among the ferns, all eyes and hopes are firmly pinned on Wispa, an 11year-old German pointer-lurcher cross. Or, more accurately, her tail.
‘It’s all about the tail,’ says Phoebe Cooper, her trainer. ‘The minute the scent goes red hot, the tail swings.’ And right on cue, it starts wagging. ‘Take it easy Wispa. Stop and think. Smell the air. Don’t rush it. I think it’s time for another shout.’ ‘Blake! BELLA!’ we yell into the gloaming. And then silence as we peer deep into the woods until our eyes hurt. Because still there is no sign of a big bouncy border collie and a teeny black and white lamb called Bella.
‘The tricky thing here is that Blake isn’t acting like a normal, rational sheep dog,’ says Phoebe. ‘Bella might be a lamb, but his head is turned. He’s gone all soppy and he’s never going to leave her. He might as well be in love.’
It is five days since Blake and Bella, a five- week- old lamb, went missing from Natalie Haywood’s back garden near the village of Perlethorpe, Notts.
Their disappearance, which was completely out of character for the year- old dog, has sparked one of the biggest animal hunts in Britain since the Tamworth Two — two pigs nicknamed Butch and Cassidy — fled an abattoir, spent a week on the run, gripped the nation and were finally rounded up by the Daily Mail back in 1998 to live out their lives in an animal sanctuary.
So were this pair stolen, did they pop out for a stroll in nearby Sherwood Forest and get lost or, in one of the most unusual love stories of recent times, have they eloped into the late spring sunset together? Whichever it is, their unlikely friendship and untimely disappearance has touched our hearts and no stone is being left unturned in the race to find them.
All week teams of volunteers, park rangers, animal rescue workers and now professional ‘pet detectives’ from Doglost with sniffer dogs — cue Phoebe and Wispa — have given up their spare time to scour the forest and its environs for any sign of canine/ovine life.
There’s even talk of thermal imaging drones being brought into play in the desperate search. And on Wednesday, This Morning presenter Philip Schofield pledged a £1,000 reward to anyone who brings them safely home.
Posters are plastered all over the village pointing out their distinguishing features — Blake has an unusual white face and one blue eye; and Bella, well, she’s a lamb.
Social media has been going crazy with tens of thousands sharing details of the missing pets on Twitter and Facebook and dog rescue charities Team Collie Alert and Harvey’s Army are sending out regular updates.
Even the Daily Mail phones have been ringing off the hook with calls from concerned readers, desperate for an update.
The drama began on Monday afternoon when the pets were playing football together (yes, really) in the garden. ‘Blake taught Bella how to play — she’d started head-butting the ball,’ explains Natalie. ‘He taught her everything.’
One minute they were there, scampering around in the sunshine. The next they were gone — disappearing through the back gate after the wind pushed it slightly ajar.
First they gave the local postman the slip.
The next day they eluded a passing driver who pulled in and tried to round them up — Bella was having none of it, and nothing could part Blake from his woolly charge.
But then Blake was never your average dog, from the moment Natalie and partner Jordan Knight, both 22, picked him up from a breeder in Sheffield, a year ago.
‘He’s so gentle, he thinks he’s a person,’ says Natalie. ‘He’s not like other dogs.’
He was amazing with Natalie’s two young children. And until Bella trotted onto the scene — a gift from a farmer to whom Natalie lent a hand during lambing season — Blake would play for hours with the family’s chipmunk, Leroy, without being tempted to take a bite out of him.
EvENso, the connection between Blake and Bella took them all by surprise. If Bella mewled and baa- d, Blake would rush over and give her a reassuring lick. If Blake went anywhere, Bella would follow.
‘I think she thinks he’s her mum,’ says Natalie. ‘ They spent virtually every minute together.’
At night they’d cuddle up together on a mattress in the front porch. During the day they’d chase around the garden, play football and stretch out on the sitting room rug together — Blake with a protective paw out, and Bella by his side in her pink leather collar and size four nappy.
‘I really don’t like mess,’ explains Natalie. ‘I’ve been trying to housetrain her, so when she’s indoors I put her in the same nappies as my son and they fit perfectly.’
Though it turns out it’s a lot trickier changing a lamb than a toddler.
‘You have to put her front shoulders between your legs and sort of do it backwards. I tend to do it outside and then leave it off when she’s playing in the garden,’ she says. (Jordan was going to build Bella a pen when she was fully grown.)
Not everyone would entertain the idea of a lamb as a domestic pet — ‘I think the farmer was joking when he offered and was a bit surprised when I said yes,’ says Natalie.
But she and Jordan took it in their stride, bottle-feeding Bella up to eight times a day and night, and bathing her twice a week in just warm water to protect the lanolin in her wool. And throughout Blake would sit patiently and watch.
The hole they’ve left in the family is gaping. Bella had even become the mascot for Jordan’s football team.
‘I keep expecting to wake up and find them both sitting at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for me,’ says Natalie sadly. ‘I’ve never wanted to wake up at 2am to feed a grumpy sheep so badly.’
The children, particularly Natalie’s four-year- old daughter, Olivia-May, are heartbroken.
‘We keep telling her that Blake’s just taken Bella on a long walk, but she knows something’s up.’
Meanwhile, out in the woods, the search goes on. And on.
WEWALK slowly, led by Wispa in her smart orange harness. Phoebe, who in a previous life was a professional carer, talks me through her essential kit: gloves, secateurs to cut through the undergrowth, snacks, water, compass and stick; and explains the best tracking conditions.
‘Early morning or evening is best. Even better if things are a bit damp, because if it’s hot, the scent evaporates.’
The pair have been volunteering for Doglost since 2008.
‘I first realised Wispa had that little bit extra when she found a cow stuck in a river,’ says Phoebe proudly.
Since then, they’ve been all over the country, helping distressed owners and their lost animals.
It’s usually dogs. Though a friend’s labrador once tracked a lost tortoise — into a neighbour’s vegetable garden. And there was one horse.
‘It was lost in the snow in Yorkshire,’ says Phoebe. ‘ We tracked it across the fields until we were shoulder deep too.’
It turns out different tracker dogs have different skills.
Beagles are good at ground cover. Wolfdogs (wolf- dog hybrids) are excellent all-rounders but difficult to live with. One lady in Stockport apparently has a Chihuahua-Papillon cross — ‘excellent in undergrowth, but needs lifting over gates’.
Because she’s tall, Wispa is good at finding scent on the air and on walls or trees. When she’s on the trail she marks the path with urine, cocks her ears, waves her tail and even ‘sucks’ the scent off long grass to activate special smell sensors in the roof of her mouth.
This is Phoebe and Wispa’s fifth trawl. The night before they were out so long Wispa snored all the way home in the car to Harworth, Notts.
It doesn’t help that the search area is vast, covering several dozen square miles, including Thoresby Hall estate — where Natalie’s partner Jordan Knight works — along with neighbouring Clumber Park and
Sherwood Forest. But Phoebe is quietly confident.
Over the past decade, she and Wispa have been involved in more than 100 searches for missing dogs (plus that one horse) and have a fantastically high success rate — not always actually finding the missing dog, but invariably pinpointing the area and the direction it was travelling in.
Despite their phenomenal hit rate, there isn’t always a happy ending. One arduous search took Phoebe and Wispa right to the edge of a deep ravine.
‘Wispa was so upset — she knew we’d come to the end of the line.’
Happily things look more promising for Blake and Bella.
Over recent days the dogs have sniffed out all sorts of tantalising clues — fresh lamb droppings and hoof prints about a mile from where the pair vanished on Tuesday, new strong scent trails, dog poo and animal prints on Wednesday, together with evidence they’d been drinking at a nearby lake.
‘ With so many clues to their whereabouts, I think it’s likely they’ll be found soon,’ says Phoebe cheerfully.
Let’s hope so. Because five days and nights is a long time for a pet dog to be missing, let alone a five-week-old lamb used to being bottle fed eight times a day, however closely cuddled up and in love they are.
And while Blake is likely to snack on the corn in the pheasant feeders in the woods, or even a pheasant if he got the chance, Bella has only just started the weaning process and could struggle with grass and lake water.
At least the weather’s been warm, and mostly dry. Until yesterday.
So everyone here is clinging onto hope and refusing to consider the awful alternative that some nasty person might have stolen them.
If they have run off together, given their extraordinary bond the increasing likelihood is that Bella has become weak and struggling and Blake, who should be able to find his way home without too much trouble, is too loyal and protective to leave her side.
Sadly our outing is not going to mark their homecoming. After one more loop through the woods, Wispa is exhausted from bombarding her senses and Natalie needs to get home.
But a new search party will be out looking for those naughty escapees this evening. And tomorrow morning and evening. And the day after that.
Because no one is giving up hope. How could they when, back at their house, little Olivia-May comes running out asking: ‘Are they back yet? Have you found Blake and Bella?’ Not yet. But we will.