Rosie's Gone Missing - 5 April 2004

Monday evening, 5.30 pm, first Monday of the month and it's team practice at Gosforth.  Need to be there for 6.30 pm prompt as it will be an evening practice outdoors.  April showers and cold!..........urgh!! - Team Leader had put out a pager message earlier that afternoon " Come in your old gear as it might get messy"........urgh!!!

Monday evening, 5.39 pm, pager goes off again "Volunteers needed to search for Rosie the dog at Cleator Moor Contact Mill Forge"  ........ah ah

Now those of us who know Rosie and her handler Stephen Walter and his wife Saffron had to think for at least 0.5 secs before phoning Mill Forge and saying we will be there.

Monday evening, 6.05 pm, I am at the Leconfield Industrial Estate, Cleator Moor along with all I can describe as a large number of fellow team members, wives sons and friends all wanting to help. [around 50 people including the guys from Groundwork Trust where Stephen works]

Cleator Moor was quickly divided up into search areas and team members set off to do their thing.  Every dog walker in Cleator Moor approached with the same question - "Have you seen a black and white Border Collie with a rescue tag" - Shopkeepers asked to keep their ears and eyes open, children asked to keep their eyes open and the young lads polishing their wide wheeled, darkened windowed, boy racer flying machine also asked to look out for the missing dog.  They all were keen to help us find Rosie. 

So who is Rosie......Rosie is a trainee Search and Rescue dog undergoing a lengthy training period (up to 2 years) before becoming a fully qualified search dog.  Stephen and Saffron and friends had put in loads of time and tender loving care into getting Rosie ready for final assessments and there was no way she would be left out there on her own.

So how did it all end?

An hour into the search and most of Cleator Moor were now aware that something big was going on in the town.  The telephone calls were coming in fast and furious with dog sightings as far away as Whitehaven being reported.  A guy eventually came up to one of our team members and said his mate had found a dog fitting the description of Rosie and it was at his mates house.  The reported sighting was checked out and confirmed .......Rosie had been found.

Recall back to Leconfield Industrial Estate and then return to Mill Forge in Gosforth to continue where we had left off .......the evening practice  urgh!!

Stephen, Saffron and Rosie out in the first snow of the winter in December 2003, Mickledore Ridge, Scafell Pike.

Rosie was in the papers in December 2002 for a different reason - the story is repeated below

Rosie's A Top Dog - 12 December 2002

Stephen and Saffron Walter are a husband / wife team members of the Wasdale MRT and have started training a Search and Rescue dog for SARDA in addition to their team roles in the Wasdale Team.  The following is an article written by the Whitehaven News.

ROSIE the Border Collie has received a national gold award after she helped to save the life of another dog which was trapped down a five-foot deep hole on a cliff top without food or water for eight weeks. Saffron Price-Walter and husband Stephen, of Eskdale, say their dog, Rosie, had just started training as a Search and Rescue dog [for mountain rescue] when her talents were demonstrated while out for a walk last Christmas. She came across the deep hole on crumbling cliffs at St. Bees which provoked her to start barking excessively until her owners joined her.  At the bottom of the hole they found another Border Collie, Cap, who they later discovered had fallen into the hole some eight weeks previous and was existing on the little rain water available under the freezing conditions. Cap, owned by Egremont vicar,  the Rev Gavin Walker, and his wife Jo, of Bridge End Park, had bolted while out for a walk due to fireworks.

The couple assumed the worst after weeks of searching and were astounded when they received the news that Cap had been found - skeletal and ill - but now safe.  They described Cap's rescue as a "Christmas miracle".  Stephen climbed into the hole and lifted out a tired and shell-shocked Cap but the main credit goes to Rosie and her gold award, in the pro dog awards at Sandown Park race-course, held this week, was for Devotion to Duty.  The couple traveled to Surry with Rosie on Sunday and were delighted with her achievement. "It was really great to win the award and well worth the trip down there," said saffron. "And it's really good for Rosie because my husband is properly training her now as a search and rescue dog," she added. Pro Dogs is a national charity which works to encourage a better appreciation and understanding of the importance of dogs for the benefit of people.  It has been in existence for over 25 years and has a membership of several  thousands of dog owners.  Each year exceptional dogs in the fields of Pet of the Year, Lifesaving and Devotion to Duty are awarded with gold medals. Reproduced from the Whitehaven News.