Monday 22 June 2009

'Alfie' the little dog - 2.

Yesterday afternoon the full team were tasked to a ‘dog over cliff’ up on The Downs above Swanage. A small terrier ‘Alfie’ had gone for a wander and was stuck on the cliff. Alfie was a very safety conscious dog and was wearing a doggy lifejacket – no seriously he was – but sadly was not rigged for climbing.

On arrival one CRO was sent to the bottom of the cliff to advise of Alfie’s positioning while the other members of the team set up. We were joined shortly afterwards by the St Albans Team who brought more CROs to make the number up to 8 which is the minimum for a cliff rescue.

Austen went over as Cliff Man , while I was acting Cliff Top Safety Officer for the first time. Once Austen was over, Alfie decided to test him by running along the cliff face. Luckily with the owner calling his name and Austen waving some dog biscuits Alfie decided to come back over to Austen and was promptly rescued. (The owner had given him a pack of 5 dog biscuits).

Due to a slight mix up in communications with the team on top of the cliff – entirely my fault - Austen got dragged face first through the grass and mud, he held onto the dog though. Sorry for that Oz, my fault, although to be fair it was slightly amusing.

Now I’m no mathematician or CSI forensic scientist but a pack of five dog biscuits went over the cliff and Alfie ate two - but none came back. In my book that means three biscuits went ‘missing in action’. Where could they have gone? A clue might be in the fact that the cliff team who were pulling Austen up by hand said he was a bit heavier than usual. Investigations continue.

So Alfie was safely retuned to his owners, who did the right thing in calling us rather than attempt rescue themselves. We had a team photo at the top with Alfie and once the photo is forwarded by the owners I’ll put it up.

Thanks to St Albans Team for their assistance, Brian for driving around half the town, and Rid for going for a long walk to the bottom of the cliff. Apologies to Austen for the mouthful of grass.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Glad to hear Alfie got rescued. I'm the girl who had a look over the cliff to check Alfie's whereabouts and was really pleased to find him OK and looking unhurt. I'll let my friends know too, as we were all concerned about him.