My two Lassies
Border collies save owner after she breaks leg on hill – by barking instructions at each other in the dark to guide rescuers
AFTER breaking her leg in a freak accident on a remote hillside, Pita Oates feared the worst.
The keen fell runner had left her mobile phone in her car and was unable to stand, let alone raise the alarm.
So when the weather dramatically worsened and night began to fall, Mrs Oates, 49, began to worry that she would die on the hilltop.
Fortunately, her beloved dogs, Buddy and Merlyn, had other ideas. The pair of blue border collies appeared to understand the peril of her situation and began working together to get help.
Perhaps Buddy was also keen to make amends because he was largely responsible for Mrs Oates’s fall.
‘Without the dogs I would have died, without a doubt,’ she said. While 18-month-barking
‘Communicating with each other’
old Buddy stayed with Mrs Oates, Merlyn, two, ran down the hill and managed to alert another dog walker.
All the while, both animals were barking and communicating with each other, Mrs Oates said. ‘It was just like something out of Lassie,’ said Mrs Oates, a social worker.
‘Buddy stayed by my side – I actually started telling him off because he was in my ear – but then I realised he was obviously shouting for Merlyn.
‘It was dark by then and I was worried because the dogs are usually inseparable and I couldn’t see Merlyn. It was only when I got to somewhere a bit more sheltered that I could hear him over the wind. I realised they were communicating with each other. It was amazing really.
‘The dog walker who found me said that Merlyn stood in the middle of the path barking and wouldn’t let he or his dog past. Merlyn directed him up the hill and they managed to find me.’
Mrs Oates, who is also a parttime running coach, had set out for a routine run up Great Hill, near her home in Chorley, Lancashire, at around 5pm on March 12.
The three-mile route usually takes her around 25 minutes to complete, but she had barely gone a mile when, in a freak accident, Buddy careered into her through a gap in a wall, smashing her left knee cap with his head.
While Buddy was unharmed, Mrs Oates realised that she had broken her leg. But, with her mobile phone back at the car, she was unable to raise the alarm.
All the while a storm, named Storm Gareth by meteorologists, was brewing. And as time dragged on Mrs Oates, who by now was being battered by freezing 75mph winds, started to worry what would happen if she could not get off the hill. She said: ‘I tried to get up off the ground and use the side of the wall to help me push up, but as soon as I stood on both feet I just collapsed again.’
‘I did shout for help but the wind was whipping, so I decided to save my energy and just try to get down as quickly as possible.
‘I started shuffling down the path on my bottom, but I was in a lot of pain and slipping in and out of consciousness. By the time they found me it was dark. I had been on the hill for three hours and was stage-two hypothermic.’
Bowland Pennine Mountain Rescue Team and paramedics eventually took Mrs Oates, a married mother-of-one, to the Royal Preston Hospital where she had surgery for a dislocated knee cap, and double fracture to her left femur.
She spent eight days in hospital and eight months on is still having physiotherapy, although the accident hasn’t diminished her love of running.