Panic over

This photo reminded me how lovely natured and what a clown Jacob is.
We'd moved some hay and put it into a rubble bag, only to look around 10 minutes later to find he'd made his very own nest and lay quite happily in it, legs tucked in tight, very comfy indeed !

Out of the quiet that was yesterday came the shock call from the mobile phone number we have desperately been trying to trace, and that was in the hands of the Essex Police, and a few other people helping us track down the caller to ensure she/they didn't have Jacob.

At 6.23pm last night, just as we were finishing working in the garden Jon's mobile rang and he immediately noticed the number.

Answering the phone he was greeted by a youngish sounding girl, maybe 15 years of age who proceeded to say that she had spoken to me last week, and was very sorry for all the trouble she had caused by not answering and not texting us back.

Poor Jon was in shock, he was very angry and did well to control his emotions knowing that this girl had rang us claiming to have Jacob, deliberately cut us off, turned off her mobile and then not another word. This girl went on and said she thought she had seen Jacob in Debden near her home there, and that the next day she saw the dog in question again only this time with someone being walked. It wasn't Jacob after all, it was a villagers dog.

Jon questioned her about the dog she saw, and they agreed it definitely was not him. More over he told her that she had caused an utter furore with her actions, lots of stress and worry for us as we thought she had him, and quite frankly could have been anywhere for all we knew.

She continued to apologise, and I think Jon almost felt sorry for her as this joke of hers (and possibly her friends) had somewhat seriously backfired on them bigtime. He said that she should now call Paul Webb at Essex Police and tell him what she had told us.

So in a 4 minute phone call, the answer to who the person was on the end of that call last Monday was answered.

I don't know whether we were relieved or disappointed not to be moving further ahead, maybe getting a call saying he's been dropped of at so and so, and we'd be bringing him home. Most of all I guess we are just over the moon that we've solved the mystery and can stop worrying ourselves half to death who this lady (or as it materialises, girl) was, and why she had evaded us for almost a week. Silly, stupid girl, she should feel utterly ashamed.

Other than that we've been inundated with kindness as far as the tracing of that caller, we've had calls from people who don't know us from Adam, and who felt they would help us in one way or another with help and advice as to how to go about tracing the call, or by them doing it for us. THANK YOU to you all for your utter kindness, it goes without saying that we are grateful for taking the time and effort to call us.

So, after a huge sigh, where do we go from here ?

Well, we'll dust ourselves off and pick ourselves up and carry on again in a new direction. Moving the search further afield would be a good idea, and we need to start to tackle making people in larger cities around the UK aware that we have a missing dog. If they hadn't read the national newspaper coverage back on the 9th February, well they would be none the wiser that he was missing so we need to readdress this in a big way, and try to get TV coverage and or more national press coverage.

We need to target a much wider audience somehow, I just need to work out how !