A friend told me of a new nature reserve, about ten miles from where I live.
I drove there yesterday with the children and our dog.
Once there, she saw something, bolted and we lost sight of her.
I spent most of the day looking for her, then had to give up.
I drove back home with two very sad children.
We were looking, and she was not chasing behind us or anything – no sign of her.

Today at 1.00 p.m., I went into the garden and found our dog, now very smelly, asleep by the garden wall.

She had no trail to follow, as we drove both ways, had never been on that route before, and had not been looking out the car window as the children were fussing her all the way there.
The car windows had been closed as we had the aircon on, so no smells to identify as route markers.

She had found her way home, crossing both major roads and a motorway, TEN MILES in less than a day.
Between home and the reserve are masses of obstructions – houses, trees, you name it – no clear path for scents to travel.

Basically, “How the hell!”

Incidentally, my neighbors are all Malays, not allowed to touch a dog – and I checked, no one had found her for us.

Dogs have a sense of direction. When I was a kid, my parents had a dog that they rescued from the pound. We had this dog for less than a year. We took her to the park (20 or so miles) and the same thing happened. She bolted and disappeared. About a week later, she appeared on the doorstep. Smiling and happy.

Nobody was around. She just came up and scratched on the door.

Dogs are strange, but they are WONDERFUL and loyal.

Thank whatever/whoever you need to, because that sounds like a miracle. Glad you got your dog back.

Well after all, the Incredible Journey was a true story. God the end of that film makes me howl, although not as much as the end of Eight Below. Bloody Disney and their traumatic childhood weepies. Alright – top five Disney sob-a-thon moments: (in no particular order)

1. The death of Bambi’s Mum
2. Dumbo being rocked by his Mummy’s trunk whilst she’s locked up in the mad elephant cage
3. Eight Below when he finds 6 of his 8 huskies alive after 9 months of an Antarctic winter alone.
4. When the 2 dogs and a cat make it home in the Incredible Journey
5. Simba trying to wake a dead Mufasa up in the Lion King

Disney was one maudlin sadistic bastard…

Heh! You left out ‘The Fox and the Hound’...talk about a freaking tear jerker.
Now, those 101 Dalmations are a bit too happy…I think I will make a coat out of them, to make sure Disney keeps to it’s animal cruelty standards. Plus, it’ll piss off PETA ;P

Seriously, I love dogs (animals in general), and while I agree that animals do have a homing instinct, it is entirely possible that your dog still followed you home by a scent trail. Even in a car with the windows up and air-con on, dogs can follow a scent and can certainly decipher that specific scent even with other deterents such as peed on tree’s, urban areas, even the smell of food can be smelled by the dog, but can still be distinguished as a seperate smell. We humans smell in combinations of scents. Dogs smell in ‘layers’. Good example, vegetable soup. Smells great, dog or primate. But we smell ‘vegetable soup’. Dogs smell meat, carrots, potatoes, peas, corn, cabbage, etc. but can distinguish each scent as different rather than ‘mixed’.

Sorry, I just watched some amazing shows about dogs and their way of smelling. It actually showed a dog scent trail a man in a car, windows up, all that jazz. It was in a city, so there were plenty of ‘smells’. They even put a trail of hotdogs as a deterent, but the dog prevailed and found the man on a beach miles away.

Karma, do you have a name for those shows – I’d like to look them up and watch them.

I couldn’t remember which show it was on, and, shame on me, I couldn’t remember the dog’s name either :(

However, I did search animal planet’s site to see if I could find it, but I didn’t have any luck. It could have been on Discovery channel, I’m not certain; but I did copy this link for you, maybe there is some useful info in there. If I run across that show again (pretty sure it was a one-timer, not a series), I will be certain to let you know!

http://www.animalplanet.ca/reports/article.aspx?aid=666

this one will be included on the above link, but has some nifty info in itself: http://www.animalplanet.ca/reports/article.aspx?aid=686

I also read this and found it interesting (from this link {I am spacing the hyphens/dashes b/c this had a huge strikethrough): http://www.firesociety.com/article/11212/The – - quot – Molly – s – Law – quot – - Project/ )

“We drafted a proposed law, named after a Bloodhound (then in California) that followed the scent-trail of a baby that had been stolen from his mother and taken in a pick-up truck.

Using the “drop-trail” method, “Molly” and her handler followed the trail over a two-day period of time, along more than 35 miles of busy highways and intersections; from one town to another; through residential areas… right to the front door of the kidnapper!”

Karma – The Fox and The Hound – you’re so right. I actually thought of that first but couldn’t remember which bit, so Googled “Sad bits disney” and they listed the Lion King and so I chose that one. Maybe it needed to be a top ten…

Talking of lions making me cry, have you see this video? It made me howl too… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVNTdWbVBgc

Oh My God!! I am soooo crying right now…that was the sweetest thing! It was so freaking awesome!

BTW (by the way), I DON’T cry…but I just did…time for Kleenex. I’m saving this link! Thanks for it!

BTW – I knew that one!!!

I’m glad you cried. I sobbed like a baby, cleaned my face up, took a deep breath, watched it again and cried even harder. This was last week. Yesterday I told my Mum about it (she’s a pathetic weeper) and showed it to her and yep, you guessed it, I cried like a baby AGAIN didn’t I? She didn’t though. My husband thinks I’m pathetic. I guess different things push different people’s buttons. You and me Karma – it’s obviously all about the animals.

Here’s one to make you laugh then: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzRH3iTQPrk It’s pretty famous. You’ve probably seen it already.

(God, we’ve really gone off topic now…)

Goes to favorites. Thanx bravis, fantastic choice. Sweet sweet sweet!

I showed it to my fiancee’...he kept under control, but I tell you there were tears in his (strained from trying not to cry) bloodshot eyes! It’s just so touching; so emotional; so happy; so sweet; so everything that will make an animal lover weep – BONUS!! – without having to see a trajedy! Talk about a rarity!

The Pandas were funny.

Have any of you seen ‘The Battle at Kruger’ yet? It’s amazing footage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM