A hero border collie has been praised after saving the life of another dog which had been missing for four days. Stuart Boocock said if it wasn’t for his collie, Alfie, the missing dog, Luna, might not have survived after getting lost in the mountains of the Brecon Beacons in Wales.
Stuart, who lives near Launceston, said his son-in-law called him on New Year’s Eve to ask if he would help find his friend’s dog Luna who had spooked and ran away while on a walk days earlier. As a former third battalion parachute regiment soldier, the 79-year-old was up to the task and was more than willing to help Luna’s owner since he is a fellow Para (as they are commonly known).
So, he agreed and headed to Pen Y Fan in the Brecon Beacons with Alfie to carry out a search on New Year’s day. The team met up at the Windy Gap Ridge and spent the next three to four hours looking for Luna, the bullmastiff.
“We searched down the valley, with guys on the left and guys on the right, middle and top,” Stuart told CornwallLive. “Alfie and I climbed on the top on one side and as we were walking across the Windy Gap, Alfie suddenly stopped and stared into the reed patch.
“I couldn’t see anything because there was no noise or movement but Alfie knew there was something in there and he just stopped and nose pointed into the reeds.”
Stuart initially thought Alfie might have seen a rabbit or something similar but he decided to walk over to the reeds to see what the collie had spotted. As he peered into the reeds, he saw Luna lying there, alive but freezing cold and curled up in a ball.
“Had Alfie not stopped, I would have walked past and I would have been 10 feet away,” Stuart said. “But because he stopped and pointed into the reeds, I knew something was in there.”
Stuart said Alfie then laid with Luna while they waited for the rest of the group to arrive to carry her down the mountain as she was too weak to walk. He added that whilst it was a team effort, he couldn’t be more proud of Alfie for finding Luna.
“It was a team effort really, it was just lucky Alfie was there to pinpoint Luna,” Stuart said. “I was absolutely proud of him when he found her. He waited with her until the other guys came and we could take her back down the mountain.”
Thankfully, Luna was reunited with her owner and was taken back home where she is now doing ok. Stuart said: “She had been out for four days and three nights and she must have just got to the stage where she couldn’t go anymore, so she just laid in the reeds, hoping for her family to come and find her. If she had been out there another night, she might not have survived.”
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