Two miniature schnauzers who were missing for four days were finally found when their owners decided to use an unconventional yet effective method.
On June 16, John Hampson was walking his parents’ dogs, Charlie, 7, and Theo, 15 months, on top of Red Pike, a scenic lookout near Buttermere, Cumbria in England, when a fog rolled in.
The dogs were both off leash and due to the thick mist, the 21-year-old lost sight of the pets.
As soon as the pups went missing, John called his mother, Liz, who was distraught by the news.
“I was beside myself when John called,” Liz told Times & Star, a weekly newspaper in Cockermouth, England. “The dogs walk off lead when there is no livestock around and are used to being on the fells.”
After the call, Liz and her husband, Graham, put together a search party. They called friends, family and mountain rescue teams. They also posted about their missing pooches on Facebook and Twitter.
More than 120 people and two drones searched for the dogs all around Red Pike.
After 96 hours of searching, the family came up with a last-ditch effort.
They decided to grill sausages close to the spot where the dogs went missing.
“They absolutely love sausages,” Liz told the Metro. “They have them every Sunday for breakfast, so if there was one food they were going to come back for, it was sausages.”
After two and a half hours of grilling and calling the dogs’ names, the two miniature schnauzers eventually showed up.
“They absolutely love sausages. They have them every Sunday for breakfast, so if there was one food they were going to come back for, it was sausages.”
- Liz Hampson, the dogs' owner
“Then I spotted the dogs at the top of the tree line. I couldn’t speak. I stood there crying,” Liz told Times & Star. “I was a gibbering wreck.”
Aside from Charlie and Theo being “very smelly and hungry” when they were discovered, the two dogs seem to be doing just fine.
“We took them to the vets the next day and they were given a clean bill of health,” Liz told Metro.
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