All quiet on the Jacob front :-(

We seem to have come to a silent pause here in Jacob-Land.

After the buzz that was Monday and Tuesday, and having those 2 sightings in Bishops Stortford it now materialises after many (many) long and drawn out phones calls between the Police, dog warden, and numerous rescues, that the dog that could have been sighted as Jacob on those 2 occasions, was in fact a brindle greyhound......

The dog warden assures me that there are two loose and have been on the run for many weeks in the area Jacob was apparently sighted.

After letting out a rather huge and somewhat disappointed SIGH, we dusted ourselves off and with stiff upper lip decided to start a new plan of action.....I think we must on Plan E or F by now !

Having postered all the areas locally and the towns beyond, we really don't know what else to do, we feel helpless and guilty just sitting doing nothing, so have decided that our next campaign at Jacob HQ will be for Crufts.

We'll get ready hundreds of laminates that we can ask stall-holders to display, and also print off 1000 flyers to hand out to passers by.

As much as it will be an emotional reunion with all of our friends (and their gorgeous Spinoni and Bracco) at Crufts, we know deep in our hearts that it is an opportunity not to be missed, so brave faces firmly in place, we shall go into battle and poster and flyer the British public to our hearts content.

Who knows what people know or are privy to as far as information goes, there most certainly might be someone living next door to someone else who has mysteriously just got a 'new' dog -

Stranger things have happened and we may get a valid lead from our efforts.

We look forward to seeing all of our wonderful helpers and those people who have offered us so much support these last few weeks (and it has to be said over the past few years too for the other 'upsets' which I won't go into here)

I know for sure there will be many Thanks to give out to you all. Waterproof mascara is a must for me that day I think !

We have to give a mention here to Ffion and Tim who right now are in the middle of exciting times where Sky's sightings are concerned. Having brought in a trap on loan from Martin Soar (Thanks Martin) they are now waiting to see if their boy has finished his adventure and is ready to come home. I am sure it's his turn now for reunion and we have fingers and paws crossed for you both for some fabulous news this week

As for us, we we will await our turn as patiently as we possibly can, and know that it will come.

As the PD's keep telling me.....

..............Positive thoughts, positive thoughts

Just like buses.....

......you wait and wait and then 2 come along at once !

We had our second call today, a lady called saying she thinks she saw him in the car park of a children's play barn in Birchanger, Bishops Stortford on Wednesday 18th Feb around 7pm.

She said she was sure it was him, he was tall, very, very skinny, and orange and white.

She saw him on her way past initially, as she was travelling towards the airport at Stansted.

On her return back past the same road half an hour later, he was still there (oh how I wish we knew that - that is SO painful to know)

She said this time she got out to see if he would come to her, but as she had 2 young children in the car couldn't make a chase for him.

She also said she remembered his eyes, and thinks it was him having seen a poster yesterday.

The lady said he ran off towards the car sales place just across the road to the play barn, and then disappeared.

Jon came hurtling back from work about 11.30am and we gathered 120 laminated posters and 100 flyers and went off to the area. We have literally postered the whole place and surrounding villages to within an inch of our lives !

Now we have to sit, and wait......

I really hope that someone sees the posters in the next few days.

Surely one person only couldn't have seen him.

The road is the main road through to both Stansted, Stansted Airport and Cambridge, so people would be going through there all hours of the day and night.

Again, we are at the mercy of the public, and all we can do is hope for that call.

We have called the local police, dog warden, Homebase, children's play barn, Focus DIY, car sales lot, BMW garage all of which are in the direct vicinity of the sighting.

The JD's (our name for the 5 Jacob Detectives!) have been keenly emailing and calling everyone from taxi companies to dog trainers this afternoon.

Once we get a call, those JD's act with military haste, whilst we get out and search and poster, to have such dedication and help from these girlies, well, they are just brilliant.

As I said earlier, now we just have to sit patiently (yeah right) and wait for the calls -

Much the same scenario is playing out for Ffion and Tim with their missing Labrador Sky.......

3 calls today, something that no doubt would have had them reaching the ceiling with hope, but sadly all were about a dog which seems reliant of dashing their hopes. ROCKY !

I wish Rocky's owners would keep their dog from wandering.

Keep the faith you two, we'll share that champagne once our boys have found their way back from the Dogs Club on Mars....!

Wratting affair ?

We've not long had a call from a lady stating that she saw a dog that she really thought was Jacob along the Balsham/Wratting road.
This was going back to roughly the 29th Jan. The lady thinks it was a Thursday and near the end of the month. If it was the previous Thursday, then lost hunt dog may have been who she saw.

She and a lorry stopped in their cars, and she said she saw 'him' face on, he was very muddy and tall and slim build.

She said she would have stopped and tried to catch him if she'd have known, but she couldn't as she had her son in the car.
Jon was quick to ask her if she could be confusing the dog she saw with a hunt dog, as we have still had those 'sightings' nearby this area. He also asked if she could remember if the dog had a tail, which she couldn't sadly.

The main call from that way some 3.5 weeks back eventually led us to the hunt people stating the dog that a lady and another driver had caught was theirs.

It was duly collected the same evening from the house it was dropped off at, and therefore not logged as missing.

We've left messages again with the hunt people, in the hope we can find out for sure what happened there.

Of course this would be another 'hunt' dog if not Jacob as the dates of the other dog don't coincide.

We have already postered that area well, and so know that it's covered, but we'll drive out there again tonight and have a wander about.
It's a long time ago, so we're clutching at straws again, and of course as there are weekly hunt meets, it might another hunt dog after all. BUT then it could be Jacob.

We just have to keep an open mind......
I just wish these calls weren't getting reported weeks after sightings, (though we're grateful they do call of course) ...it's just they are a little stale and past there due date by the time you get them, but do help to piece together another part of the jigsaw.
We just crave that FRESH sighting now, or a call from someone who knows something about his whereabouts.
Fingers crossed

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Stop Press !

A lady just called back from the hunt in Thurlow. They did not have a hunt locally in Thurlow on the 29th January..... They had a hunt over our way, in Gt Chesterford.

So the dog that the lady who called today, could well have been Jacob IF the dates are correct and she can confirm the day she saw this dog was definitely the 29th.

We are now going to call this lady and ask her to look at some photos of Jacob, maybe that will trigger her memory as to the dog she saw that day.

Will of course keep you posted with any developments

Oh dear oh deer

This weekend marked us putting out our first lure in the shape of a dog cage.
It felt like quite a step forward for us, having had a long spell of silence, we feel that maybe this is a step in the right direction.

We had a call late Saturday afternoon from a lady called Val who lives near the water tower on Thaxted Road.

They had seen in the fields directly behind their house that a deer leg, very gnarled and chewed had been left nearby. They also noticed lone paw prints of a large dog, and decided to call us, just in case.

We of course went immediately to investigate the prints and the deer bones, and we also walked the area around the water tower, although this was hindered by the failing light.

The prints in the mud could well have been Jacob's - it was a large dog, and definitely there were no other human footprints nearby. The owners of the house also said they had seen the same size lone prints around the back of the house in the snow, but never put 2 and 2 together and thought it could have been Jacob. That's fine, we are just over the moon that Val called us as it might well be a lead, maybe he is in the area still as remember, we have a number of sightings out that way, and so many other things pointing us to that same area.

We decided that it would be worthwhile putting out a cage in case Jacob was round. This is not a trap, just a simple black anodised dog cage, with the door wedged open. We have put a pair of Jon's stinky socks inside, (Oh Jacob for that alone I apologise !) as well as Tiva's blanket and another blanket over the top to make it look less threatening. So far today, Val reports nothing has been touched, no food has gone.

It's of course a long shot, but it's worthy of a try for the time it took to organise.

We might well get lucky and if Jacob finds the cage and familiar smells he will stay closeby, I know from reading up that the dogs will usually just stake out nearby and check the cage is not a threat firstly, so for the next few days we will have to sit tight and wait and see.

I know there are many people willing Jacob to go to that cage, I SO hope that for once he is ears pinned back and he is listening to the advice !

Highs, lows and conspiracy theories

For the past 2 days we seem to have gotten back onto the rollercoaster.

Although the silence was absolutely driving us both crazy, sometimes when you get third hand information, that could or could not be true, you feel you just cannot ignore it.

As such we have now been trying to locate local hunt kennels having been given information that Jacob was being held, not by the hunt individuals themselves, but by people that are in some way connected to them. I wont go into detail here, because I do believe that for the most part, those that are involved in the hunts around the local parts are good people, and really have absolutely no valid reason to be intent on having kept our dog on their premises.

The doubts we have of any involvement are really slim, but those on the 'outside' of the hunt, we need to eliminate from any involvement based on the information we have been given.

So, for 2 days we've postered and postered around the places the local hunt kennels are, and also around the areas where each hunt takes place.

We haven't gone in guns blazing and accusing anyone of anything, because we don't have any evidence of that. We are purely just trying to make another area aware that if he's out there, and someone has him, we are hot on their heels to find him.

Maybe someone knows something, maybe we're on another wild goose chase, but when you are intent and bloody desperate to find something you love and miss more than words can possibly say, you will grab at any straws that could offer a maybe..... or a means to an end.

We have spoken with our local gamekeeper, who has only to be applauded for the help and advice he offers to us very freely. He himself has said he would be ashamed if it were found that someone locally had been involved in any way with Jacob's disappearance. I know he really thinks that too. He would be really genuinely upset.

We were given information from a few people today that know the local hunts people and also those involved. They will make enquiries for us where we could never do.

It's knowing that they can ask about and do that in the right way that makes things an awful lot easier for us.

We don't believe deep down that these people are holding our dog, our minds race with possibilities like no tomorrow, but I don't see that there are any real reasons as to why they would need to keep him.

Jacob is entire, but i'm sure he wouldn't be the first choice for most to choose to mate a dog with. It would only offer a cross, effectively a mongrel, as if they chose to try to breed a Bracco to Bracco we would be alerted in a heartbeat. It just wouldn't happen.

So, you see their are many things swimming around like time bombs in my head, waiting to explode into a 'what if' scenario.

Sometimes these days I find it hard not to imagine many things. Conspiracy theories, where he can be, who is with, why he is with them. I also have these awful visions of him lying somewhere curled up, helpless, broken and dead. That breaks my heart because we should be there for him, we are his protectors, and we feel we have truly let him down. That's a bitter pill to swallow I can't tell you.

I know, i'm sorry, this blog is just reading like a bad luck story these last few days, and i'm really very conscious of that. I wish so much I could write it in an upbeat manner, it would read so much nicer than this.

I do try to make light of the situation where I can, and try to reason it's not all doom and gloom, and yes, I know there are people out there in much more awful and desperate situations than this will ever be. But to us, this is a crisis, and we make absolutely no apologies for treating it as such.

Right now we feel well and truly fed up and very sad, we don't want much, we're not asking for thousands of pounds, diamonds or new cars, we just want our dog back, there's nothing else, surely that's not much to ask ?

We just need to resume normal life, go back to enjoying it, rather than just going to bed wondering and worrying what tomorrow will bring, and whether it'll be yet another crazy day of plastering another place with missing posters.

We just hope tomorrow will be the day that cures all this grief and heartache.

I so hope so, I hope that Wendy is right, that he will come home soon.

I can't tell you that that day just can't come soon enough.

Slow down, I wanna get off.....

What a day.......

Does this ever get any easier !?

This morning we had an email from our local Police Officer Paul who said that a very kind lady had called him and was concerned she might have seen Jacob.....

in Welshpool, Powys.

At first I thought - surely not, it cannot be, but as those of you know, you cannot doubt anything where a dog is concerned. They are not always in control of how and where they get somewhere, and of course within a few hours they can be halfway across the UK, or in this case Wales.

I left a message to that lady who spoke to Paul, and waited for her to call me back.

Meanwhile I contacted all the dog wardens in that immediate area, and unfortunately was told they only take calls between 8am and 10am each day.

A very helpful lady at the council agreed that I could email her all of ours, and Jacobs essentials along with a poster, and some clear photo's for identifying him if the need be.

So, this was done, and I sat back and hoped it wasn't Jacob, then I hoped it was, as then at least if they had him, we could be home by midnight with our boy safely back where he belongs.

I called the lady again around 4pm this afternoon, and she picked up. She had just that second walked in only to find herself being bombarded with questions from me.

She was really kind and answered everything with great precision and detail, even down to the exact places she had seen this stray dog.

I wrote down absolutely everything she told me, and we agreed for the sake of ruling this out for sure that I would email her clear photo's of Jacob, to which she would be able to really see the distinct shade of his colouring, and see if it matched what she remembered she saw.

This was all done and dusted, and we knew we could do no more until the dog warden and the lady had checked details.

Surely he couldn't have been picked up the day after he went missing ?

But then, everything is just a possibility now.

At 9.45pm tonight the lady from Welshpool very kindly called back.

She had taken time tonight to investigate and call a meeting in her area of people who she thought could help us, and it now materialises that a farmer in the area the dog was spotted has a young, light coloured hound, who quite often is loose in that same area as the dog in question. They all came to the same conclusion that this is what dog she saw, and it most definitely wasn't Jacob.

I don't know if we were relieved, or sad to be truthful, I guess a little bit of both.

Sad that perhaps it could actually have been him, and we might have been able to retrieve him from a kennel somewhere in Wales, but then on the flip side, relieved it wasn't him in case he was loose in a very strange and far away place that none of us would know where to start to look.

I'd like to say a huge Thank You to this lady for taking the time to call, I wish there were more people out there doing just the same as one of them could lead us to Jacob.

One thing we decided to do, was to really try to see that the rangers at Audley End did definitely see Jacob on the Monday after he went missing.

We aren't doubting what they saw, we just need to know 100% that Jacob was the dog running about there that afternoon. As we have a few niggling doubts perhaps about the Purton End sighting, we need to have some form of reassurance that Jacob was at Audley End that day. Otherwise, worryingly, he would not have been seen since Jon last saw him running into the distance on the 21st January.

One thing that struck a chord tonight, the kind lady all the way away, some 175 miles from our area, had taken the time to call up the police after the 2nd sighting of a dog she perhaps thought just possibly could have been our missing dog. She took time and effort to rule it out for the sake of knowing how much we wanted to find him.

Surely it goes to prove that others would have most probably have seen the same dog, and just totally dismissed it even though it was running loose, dirty looking and wandering nearby a road on it's own, quite clearly not with any owner in sight.

Belies belief really, and yet, here we are 4 weeks later, and in the local area, and where supposedly only 2 people have seen Jacob in all that time he has been lost.

What does this mean ?

Are people scared of involvement ? if so WHY?

Does it mean that he has been/is laying hurt or injured somewhere and has unfortunately succumbed to that injury, hindered only by the bad weather and freezing temperatures ?

Does it mean that because he hasn't necessarily been seen, it's because he isn't in this area to be seen ?

I don't know, but I do know that between Jon and I we have to remain positive and think that he can survive out there, yes it's a vast, vast area, yes we've covered an awful lot of ground in the last 4 weeks between us (personally for us some 600+ miles just in the car alone) but hey, it doesn't mean we've covered the ground where he is at.

Hopefully that day will come soon.

I'll only accept a HAPPY ending for this story, absolutely NO substitutes.

Memory Lane

I love this photo of Ollie (our epileptic Spinone who is no longer with us)

and an 11 week old Jacob, purely as it epitomises everything we love about

the 2 breeds we have

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Today we acknowledge that it is 4 weeks since we saw Jacob
4 weeks, it feels like a lifetime to be honest.

After trying to settle into normality yesterday, and then sitting here scouring email addresses for vets, dog walkers, dog groomers and couriers in the Cambridge areas, I did what I know I shouldn't have, and took a trip down memory lane.
Those that know us well know we don't have any children, that was not to be, so the dogs in our life became 'furkids'. Consequently where most people our age have a hard drive full of cute kiddie pics, we have a hard drive full of cute doggie pics, that is, some 25,000 odd to be precise !
No wonder this computer is slow !


As I sat here looking back from puppyhood and to the future browsing through the photo's it suddenly hit me as to what we had lost, what the work we are putting in each day (and night) is to bring back home.
I won't lie and say that it wasn't a relief to have yet another good cry, it felt lovely looking back through the memories we'd all created together.
I could only liken myself to the episode of 'Everybody Loves Raymond', whereby Deborah takes her 'me' time away from the kids to secretly sit with slushy love songs playing, and a box of tissues to make herself cry.


For me after the tears, it spurred me on to get Jacob, find where he is, and never let him out of my sight again.

We decided last night that we would have a late night drive around the areas we cover on a regular basis. Sometimes when it's dark, things stand out more clearly, or you can just sit, and listen.
We were planning to go out early hours, but it seemed unfair for Jon who had to be up and out by 8am to do this, so we went out just after 8pm and drove round, sat, got out to look through the NVG's and generally had a good look around.
We saw 2 badgers scurrying along the verges, in 2 separate areas, so it was nice to watch those through the NVG.


Thankfully, I think in the 2hrs of being out we met about 4 or 5 cars, and that was on the busier country roads. The back roads were absolutely silent, eerily quiet actually, especially as the fog came down more heavily. It did reassure us that if Jacob is moving around, and moving around at night particularly, then crossing the roads wouldn't hopefully be causing him much worry.
By 10.30pm we had to come back home as the visibility wasn't beyond 10ft in front of the car.


I really hope that in the next few days we hear something positive.
We need a boost, we desperately need something to say he really is out there

Silence is NOT so golden

Jacob's most favourite sleeping position !
Happy, content and most of all... 'home'.
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I don't know why, but I knew that we wouldn't get a call today -

I guess you can call it intuition, but I just knew it would be a quiet day.

Jon went back to work for the 1st time properly today, daring to venture out of the 5 mile curfew for the first time in 3 weeks.

I could see in his face he really didn't want to go, but you can only put off not working because of the snow for so long....well, especially when there isn't any that is !

Between the 'J' girls, we decided that a new plan was the order of the day, and between the 5 of us we're emailing far and wide now. Covering a further distance each between us so that we can be sure that towns some 20 miles away get the same coverage as the local area.

Jacob could be moving further out, so we need to leave no area isolated.

Between us we'll cover everyone from dog walkers to DHL in the hope that we can let people know he may be out there whilst they go about their daily business.

Someone must know something, surely ?

It occured to me today that there are definitely people not in the know about Jacob being lost, where we think the publicity is doing wonders, and I know that's true, I just feel some people need a constant reminder, so we need to ensure the profile of Jacob is kept high.

First things first, i'm trying to get the papers to re-run an update, and will let you know if i'm successful.

Most of all, Thank You for all the thoughts and kind words everyone still has for his safe return.

We have had people sending cards just addressed 'The Haggerwoods', Saffron Walden, Essex, (with a note to the postman to 'get it to us please') and one just addressed to to Tiva, Solly, and Clouseau -

Needless to say they all arrived safely with us and really went that extra mile to lift our spirits.

Sometimes they arrived just when we most needed them, like they were meant to arrive just when you needed a huge pick me up.

I just hope that the same powers to be are looking after our boy, keeping him safe and from any harm, wherever he is right now.

Send him home to us now please......enough is enough.

The Sunday Blues.....

Oh how we wish you were right there Jacob, looking guilty having found our bed, and making Bracco eyes at us as a stand against getting off.

What I wouldn't give to see you curled up there now.

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Is it me or do the weeks seem to be roaring by ?

Before we know it it'll be March, and that's just 9 month's to Christmas.

A scary thought I have to say, but true all the same.

Today we spent most of the day putting up more posters, and flyers through doors in the Thaxted, Broxted, and surrounding areas. A kind lady called Grace feels he is around that area, and not ones to doubt, we duly scoured the area again today, and made sure we felt it was covered.

We also made sure that having put down a fresh scent yesterday, we also drove around the areas we walked, just in case these fresh enticements would bring Jacob out somewhere where we could see him.

As many times as we drove by, and parked high on the hill at the back of Newport (our 'vista') to view the mass of fields beyond us, we saw nothing more than a few deer in the far distance, and two baby hares playing not far in front of the car.

I think we've started to become accepted by the wildlife out there now, we're hardly noticed !

I think word is out there are two sad, and somewhat lonely folk, who spend their entire waking hours driving round in their 4x4 taking in the view !

If only it were true.

We came back home at 5.30pm tonight, having stopped at our local Tesco to fill up on essentials (Old Mother Hubbard has nothing on me) that would at least let us have toast and soup for a few more days at least.

Driving home, we had a call from a lady in Harlow, who was totally upset by Jacob's going awol, and who offered us her help if and when it was needed. It really lifted our spirits, as this lady is not known to us, and out of the blue was calling us up offering a helping hand to find our missing dog.

It's always a sad time for us both when we make the decision to end the search for the day.

I don't know why, but as it gets dark and we put the car headlights on, it's like we admit defeat for yet another day, and possibly subject our lovely boy to yet another night under the stars, in the cold, the wet, sans duvet and no log fire to singe his bum on.

It's just so bloody heartbreaking. Why can't he just come home ?

Just to add to the sadness we both feel for Jacob, Jo told us the sad news of the Beagle that was reported as being Jacob last weekend, the dog Sarah and Stewart went to try to locate for us near Southend, lost her battle to survive the elements today.

This poor girl had been living rough around a 'Sally' Army farm for weeks, and although the Police and the RSPCA both knew of her being seen daily in this farmland, they chose to do nothing to capture her, and offer her a new life if she was not anyone elses.

Noone had reported her missing.

Sadly having been caught today, she was found not only to have had puppies in the past 4 months, but also to have a very badly dislocated hip.

She was in much pain, and the vets feared the anaesthesia for any op was not an option.

I do believe that as she was noone's pet, unloved and alone, that may have made the decision to end her life, and not prolong her agony of the injury that little bit easier.

She was sadly put to sleep, a dog that was missing from someones home, had perhaps served her purpose as a breed dog, and who was not missed by those she once trusted.

To me that is just heartbreaking. I am not naive enough to know this dog isn't one of many who fall by the wayside, for whatever the reason, but knowing of her plight made the news she was now gone all the harder to bear.

I rest in comfort only knowing that Jacob is much loved, and much wanted back home by all that love him.

RIP Mrs Beagle, let's hope what goes around, comes around to the one time owners who knowingly left you to fend for yourself.

With the sad news in of Mrs Beagle, it kind of set our minds racing.

Jon and I both have no idea as to what's happened to Jacob, that is one thing we discussed today on our driving round. We went through every conceivable scenario imaginable, and couldn't decide between us which we thought was most likely the possible answer to his whereabouts. Some we didn't even want to discuss, others were not even mentioned even though we both thought the same thing.

More than anything we just want answers, but when will they come ?

It's probably very wrong to compare the agony between lost dog, and lost child, (but I won't apologise as Jacob is our child, so please do forgive the comparison) but today I found myself thinking of Madeline Mccan's parents, and that lingering despair they must live with, day in, day out, that not knowing where their Daughter is. The sheer fact she could be happily nestling in oblivious, with people she now calls Mummy and Daddy. Those poor Mccan's.

How do they carry on ? My heart goes out to them.

I truly hope it's soon we can have that phone call we long for for bringing Jacob home, and finally this huge tidal wave of emotion we find ourselves riding on will be absolutely well and truly be over.

A perfect day if only.........

.....Jacob was here and we were all out walking through the woods, enjoying the freedom, the sunshine, the open space and the absolute quiet.

I can hardly believe really how the dynamic has changed at home since Jacob has been missing.

It's just one dog taken out of the equation, and there are 3 others left here, but as I said to Catherine my friend today, things just feel really strange, like a loss surrounds us, but one where you cannot grieve.

I guess that is because right now, we have no idea where Jacob is, is he alive, out there surviving the elements or sitting happily on someone elses sofa being fed toast and cake ?

I wish more than anything I knew the answer to that question, I really do.

The not knowing is what hurts more than anything else, we cannot ever move forward without not knowing, how can we ?

One thing that keeps us alert, and positive is the fact that 10 weeks into their search for Sky, Ffion and Tim are still upbeat (or as best they can be on this rollercoaster ride) and they remain pretty positive they can bring Sky home.

Their efforts and sightings this far into the dog lost saga can only spur us on knowing Sky is out there, waiting on being found.

10 weeks missing and he's beaten the weather and the lack of food.

If anyone should be rewarded for their love and efforts to bring their dog home, it has to be them.

Today for us started off with a call from a local builder, he had seen a flyer we'd dropped through through his door from yesterdays mission, and had thought he saw a dog similar to Jacob running at speed across fields near Wimbish on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.

Colours matched, rough type of dog matched, but as he was seeing from the car, at a distance, obviously we cannot be 100% sure it actually was him.

The things that worried us was would Jacob still be able to be running at 'speed' across a huge field. Surely energy levels would now be suitably low, unless he was being fed regularly.

Of course that is a possibility by now, but we are not sure.

I guess it could have been Jacob seen in the midst of capturing his dinner, and that would make sense of the speed, or failing that maybe what this man saw (as he saw a few cars parked nearby) was hare coursing in action ?

All the same, we deployed our fab helpers into action, and headed out to comb the area for signs, knowing that on route we'd leave the scent of both us and our dogs around in case it would draw him out of his hidey hole for someone to see.

Regardless if this builder had seen Jacob the walkabout and scenting would be a good exercise done now the snow was gone.

I have not long come back with Clu, and Jon and the menfolk are now on the way home too having gone through a huge wood near Carver Barracks that they wanted to rule out again.

I guess as with all of the leads we have, we have to duly rule them out, and it's just so frustrating that the pieces of the jigsaw seem to always come a few days too late to be fresh, and to get our adrenaline pumping in the sheer thought you just might be there at the same time he is.

Still, it's put fresh scent down today, and if he is in the area still, then between 6 of us, we've covered a good 4 points of it today.

Fingers crossed something good can come it it, I hate the thought of another week being nearly here, and another 'anniversary' of him being missing (4 weeks) coming up.

I keep thinking if I pinch myself, this nightmare will be over, and i'll wake up and laugh to myself as I see Jacob curled up on the end of the bed grunting with content. Ahhh if only eh !

Seeing double ?

We today released a reward amount of £500 for Jacob's safe return

Today we decided to 'stalk' the village of Wimbish as there have now been 2 separate phone calls to us reporting a dog very similar to Jacob, being walked on the lead by a man.

The first call early this week, from a reputable farmer, who knows his dogs, and who even went home to check his breed book. He phoned us back and said was sure it was Jacob.
It just seemed incredible that anyone would have enough gall to walk a missing dog past the many, many posters, and through the village without a care in the word ?
Surely not......?
The second call came through last night from a lady, also stating the same man, walking the dog described as being Jacob. Spooky.....

Having been out in Wimbish with friends earlier in the week to rule out the farmers sighting, this second sighting kind of prayed on our minds, we needed to rule it out, find out whose dog looks like Jacob, and mark it off the list.
So, this morning we set off armed with 50 more laminated posters (would we find a bare telegraph pole there needing postering I wonder!) and 100 flyers.
Between both of us, Jon and I used every last poster, and came home with about 10 flyers left.
We spoke to many people in the village, asked about this dog that had been sighted, but no one seems to know anything.
Hardly surprising really though....

Wimbish is a drive through kind of village, whereby houses are set into clusters, or large farmhouses are set back from the road and are lonesome.
If someone did have Jacob there, he could quite easily be being kept without causing any reason for suspicion.
To try to fathom out who he is, we have put flyers through each and every door and farm, basically in the hope that others in the village might also report a dog being walked by this man, and know who and where he lives so we can go and talk to him and see the dog in question.
We have 'stalked' the place this man and dog were seen, and at the same times, but have seen nothing.
We just have to rule it out as a dog that looks similar as we know through friends there are no other Bracco in that area.

I guess that the problems in general you are faced with with a scenario of people 'seeing' our dogs, or any missing dog are pure and simple, and it makes all the difference as to who it is that 'sees' him or her.
You are faced with a few things that really can and do hinder information being forthcoming:

1. Some folks simply don't like dogs, so wouldn't really care if they saw your dog, knowingly aware that it is missing, matters not
2. Some folks don't want to be 'involved', so even if they are privy to info, choose not to pass it on for fear of getting involved
3. There are folks out there that believe a dog without a collar, rough, underfed and 'found' means it's anyones for the keeping - i.e no collar, no home. I am sure these people really do exist.

These 3 pointers worry us, and I guess most others riding this rollercoaster.
You have to rely on information from all of those above, and more so on the good people out there that have dogs, and generally do care and want to help you be reunited. They are the ones who have the ability to bring the missing dog back home.

It will be 2 weeks tomorrow since we had the Purton End sighting, it's been a long 2 weeks, but we are very hopeful that now we have released a reward sum of £500 for Jacob's safe return, someone who knows something, or even anyone that has him, can let us have him back.

Hoping so much that tomorrow will be (as Jackie would say!) 'J' Day, and the day we can all celebrate his homecoming

Monopoly money isn't legal tender sadly

Today was the day when we we both had to return to work.

As we are both self employed, we just couldn't take any more time than the 3 weeks off unpaid.

Those bills that keep appearing in the post box apparently can't be paid with Monopoly money...... buggar it!

We did have a little bit of a detour from work first thing though, Jon was live on Radio Cambridgeshire at 7.30am, appealing for anyone having seen Jacob, and then we decided to take a look around and poster out towards Thaxted and Broxted area, an area that a friends colleague, a psychic said Jacob could be located.

We endeavour to leave no stone unturned, so decided to scour the area to see if we could see anything at all.

We looked through the woods there, pulled into many of the farms and buildings on the side of the roads that could hold clues, and we stopped many people going about their day offering them our flyers about Jacob being missing.

Each and every person we stopped, called in on, or flagged down on the road had already seen his missing status somewhere already.

The publicity is working I guess, there's no doubting that.

Maybe Jacob is out towards this area, we will keep searching it and not rule it out. As always around here, the areas are mainly agricultural land, so vast open spaces as pretty as they look, can hold an awful lot of hidden 'treasure'.

Maybe that treasure is our boy. I just hope he is somewhere, healthy and surviving.

Each day that goes by, we worry that little bit more for him, but alongside that worry, we have to bolster it with much hope and positivity.

There's nothing difficult about this, it's plain and simple.

We just miss him so much.

Where are you Jacob ?

This blog is dedicated purely to keeping both ourselves and other people kind enough to care, updated about the search for Jacob, our missing Bracco Italiano.
Jacob went missing on the morning of 21st January 2009.

I guess in this, my very first post, there will be lots to catch up on.
These past 3 weeks have been something of a blur for Jon and I.
There have been some incredible highs when a call came through to say he had been sighted, and despairing lows when they sadly came to nothing.
People who have gone through this missing dog scenario tell you that it is one huge and bumpy rollercoaster, one where the ride is free, you just pay with your heart until it's time to jump off......They are not wrong.

In order for me to update this blog to be absolutely current, I will summarise from the very beginning.

Jacob went missing from the back of the woods near to where we live.
This area is CB11 4XB - Littlebury Green, Saffron Walden, Essex.
A rural area, a hamlet village, for the most part open farmland surrounds us on all sides.
Jacob knows the area as we are lucky enough to live this rurally, and he gets a good walk in the immediate area he was lost each and every day.
He has gone missing for a few hours here and there in the past, (that nose of his sure does get some neat smells!) but always he has been found, or at the very least, has come home after a good few hours to himself.
I have to say he has never ever disappeared off the face of the earth before, which i'm afraid to say seems to what's happening here.
I'm not one to query David Bowie's perceptions about "is there life on Mars?" but if Jacob is as elusive and Houdiniesque as he's proving to be, I may well be forced to reconsider his apparent alien abduction !

So, we'll start at the beginning, and to the 21st Jan, the day Jacob ran off happily playing within a pack of deer, Jon was hot on his heels but sadly lost sight as the herd and Jacob crossed into fields and wooded area at some speed.
The whole of that day and night, friends and us alike, spend hours and hours looking for him, returning home at 3am after scouring the area.
I have to say we were convinced then that we would hear a familiar Bracco wail in the early hours simply to say, "okay guys, adventure over, i'm home, where's the duvet ?"
Sadly this was not to be.
Jacob was posted on Doglost, and the fabulous Jo, is still ever helpful offering advice and encouragement that yes we can find him and all be reunited.

For the next 5 days Jon and I alongside a team of friends, doggie friends and family scoured the areas we thought he could be in.
We bought a night vision monocular to enable us to search in the dead of night, and left more wee trails than can be possibly decent for health and safety limitations.
Still nothing.
We found it hard to sleep, hard to eat, and more than anything found it hard to comprehend where the hell our dog had disappeared to ?
Dogs just don't disappear like this do they ?
Sadly, after looking at the lost dogs on websites such as Doglost, it seems that unfortunately it's just a common occurrence, and you wouldn't necessarily know about them, unless you became a 'dog missing' victim yourself.

The one thing I have to say here, is the absolute mind boggling amount of help and advice, time and effort all of our friends, e-friends and complete strangers have given to us.
At a time when the world seems to be teetering on the edge of madness and hardship, there are people out there, offering advice, driving miles to be with us in the searches, spending money phoning everyone from dog groomers to DHL, as well as sending out posters to farmers and businesses about Jacob being missing.
The absolute generosity of you all, well it's just astounding.
We just can't begin to Thank You all for your continued support.

Extra Special Thanks must go out to our fabulous friends and absolute towers of strength Sarah, Stewart, Catherine and Simon, Tracy, Shaun, alongside Jane, Janet, Jackie and Carol for their continued support and advice.

Sincere Thanks to you all for the shoulders to lean and cry on.

The Spinone and Bracco communities are as ever the most wonderful group of people you could wish to have around.Their help and advice, and utter kindness really does hold no boundaries.

We do feel we should mention a very kind lady in our Thanks also. Joanne Hull, www.joannehull.com a reputed Animal Communicator, who that if through her dedication and free giving advice, thoughts and visions alone, would bring Jacob home in a heartbeat.

Despite a huge search on Saturday 24th Jan, with over 20 people and dogs arriving from all parts of the UK to form help (and nearly ending up in a few of us being arrested for deer poaching!) we all arrived back home, tired and aching, and with heavy hearts, there just wasn't any sign of him.
We de-clogged our walking boots, and hung up our coat for yet another night without our boy.

On the afternoon of Monday 26th Jan, we were out scouring the back roads and postering some 15 minutes away when a call came through from a ranger at Audley End House, a stately English Heritage house some 2 miles from our home.
They had apparently spotted a dog in the parterre garden, and it matched Jacob. 4 rangers agreed it was him.
We shot through those back roads as speeds I daren't remember, knowing that time was of the essence to get there before he had gone.
Sadly, even though it was some 10 minutes before we arrived, the area was vast, and the rangers hadn't really watched his whereabouts, so on foot we went and searched and searched the boundaries, anywhere he could be holed up, trees, buildings, but not a snifter.
Jon and I stayed out that night, and was still trespassing (ahem!) well into the early hours, NV firmly in hand. Again Jacob had outrun us, he wasn't waiting around.
Another low moment, we felt we were so near, yet obviously so far.

The days after the sighting meant we stayed pretty local to that particular area, late night searches and trespassing seemed order of the day (and night) but it turned up nothing at all despite our huge effort.

Again, after the 1st sighting, we had real hopes someone would see him around. Surely no dog can choose to be that elusive ?

To not see a distinctive orange and white large breed dog trundling along the fields or dare I say it, the roadside, well how can that be ?
We knew that the hundreds (and hundreds) of posters we'd put out were in prominent places, they were evidently being seen as everyone we stopped, already knew about Jacob, sadly they didn't know where he was.

We decided to set about trying to gain some media coverage in the local weekly papers, and thankfully were warmly greeted by them both covering a spread about the length we'd gone to to locate his whereabouts.
This week was only dampened further by our worry for his safe return to us as the worst snow for 2 decades hit our area (and largely most of the UK)
The night Jon and I were out, snow falling at such a heavy pace, must have been the lowest point in the search so far. How could he survive this weather. Would he survive it at all ?
We tried desperately to push those thoughts to the back of our minds, knowing that by now he surely would be resorted to losing the domestic dog identity we had given to him, and duly gaining that of a feral being.
We hoped he would be okay, we hoped more than anything he had somewhere warm and dry to shelter, and even more than that, we just hoped he could find food. He needed food to survive.

On Saturday 31st Jan, another sighting came through when we were out in convoy with a group of trusty friends. We drove through the town, to a 'blink and you'll miss it' hamlet called Purton End, apparently a passer by had seen a dog similar to Jacob ambling alongside the deep ditches on the country road passing through there. She thought it was definitely him having stopped nearby the town to get our number from a poster.
We all jumped into our cars and split up to get there.
We couldn't have been there more than 5 or 7 minutes later, but there was no sign of Jacob. We spent the whole of that afternoon, off in groups, looking, scouring woods, old buildings, walking miles to see if he was around there.
Sadly nothing again. Another low point.
I myself have some doubts about this sighting, just based on the fact that one of our friends who was out helping that day had driven by the very spot the passer by noticed 'Jacob', and was confronted with a liver and white Springer in almost the exact same spot.
On a friendly phone call back to her in order to reconfirm, she was adamant the dog she had noticed was most definitely not a Spaniel, and that she knew her dog breeds, Jacob and a Springer looked distinctly different. Amen to that. But I have this niggling feeling about it.
Especially hindered only by the fact that further investigation with the neighbouring houses led us to find out that yes, the Springer was 'always hovering in those ditches, and yes, one day it would be dead on the road if the owners weren't more careful'. Hmmmmmm

Since that time, we have had no real further sightings of Jacob.
We have had numerous possibilities that we have followed up, some which were definite no go's and some that are just plain silly.
All of them we have taken very seriously indeed, just because you just never quite know.

On the morning of Sunday 8th Jan, we received a call from Dr Ffion Coates, who with her husband Tim, has also been desperately trying to find their missing black Labrador Sky.

Sky disappeared on 1st December 2008, so has been missing for some 10 weeks now.

Please take a look at their blog, http://skyisstillmissing.blogspot.com/ and see if there is any help you can offer should you be located nearby.

Both Ffion and Tim are going to extraordinary lengths to find Sky, they too have a great team of support and have mastered their response to sightings in militray fashion which can only be admired.

Unfortuntely, their huge efforts have recently been hindered by the upset of those out to make the search that little bit more difficult for them, (like they need that) that is, by trashing their cameras and traps.

Sometimes other humans can be so cruel and absolutely mind bogglingly idiotic.

Thanks for the advice and support Ffion and Tim, we can't wait for both our boys to be finally back home.

We have managed this week to obtain media coverage on many radio stations,
Radio1, Heart Fm, BBC Radio Essex and Cambridgeshire, as well as full page articles in some of the weekend national papers, Daily Mirror, Daily Mail, and the Telegraph.
Jon also managed to gain airtime on ITV Anglia news whilst out on a major search on Monday 9th Jan with Solly our Spinone, and Stewart and his Spinone Barney.

We are very confident now that we have reached the local (and somewhat national) heights of people knowing about Jacob being missing.
We just hope that after all of our combined efforts that 'call' will come to say he's been found.
Our hearts still leap every time a number we don't know flashes up on the mobile, just hoping and praying that perhaps this one call will be the one call to say they have our boy and he's safe and sound, ready to come home.

I can't wait for that moment. I just hope it's destined to happen.