A woman has told the 'terrifying' story of how her beloved family dog got off the lead and went missing for almost 24 hours. Julie Davis' daughter, Jodie, took their two dogs for a walk at a local beauty spot.
Jodie and one of her friends were playing frisbee with the pups, called Tess and Shep, when the incident happened. The canines were both on their leads while chasing the frisbee back and forth, but then the wind took the frisbee further afield.
Tess tugged on the lead in an attempt to chase it, and became unclipped from the lead. Jodie and her friend frantically searched for the sharpei cross Yorkshire terrier but couldn't find her so went back home to get help.
Miss Davis exclusively told North Wales Live: "They got to a very high point on the track with a drop that goes down the mountain side, the frisbee got caught in the wind and went down the drop, Tess pulled hard on her lead over the edge and the clip came off her lead that attached to her harness.
"The lead clip was often stiff to put on and sometimes wouldn’t close properly. The girls lost sight of Tess and called out her name continuously, they asked other dog walkers who were there at the time if they had seen her and no one had.
"They searched for an hour before deciding to go home to tell me. They didn’t have a signal on their phones so drove back home frantic and deeply upset." When Jodie came home she told her mum what happened, Julie went out to find Tess straight away. Julie's boyfriend, Jodie, her three sons and Jodie's friend were going to come straight after.
She said: "Tess went out of sight down the mountain side at 4:30pm that day, we were all there for 5pm searching for her. We went down the nant right to the bottom of the mountain that she disappeared over to see if we could see her at the bottom or stuck on a ledge somewhere.
"We only had our phone torches and darkness was drawing in. We fell over tree trunk’s and climbed crag’s up to the side of the mountain. - I have big bruises on my legs from falling over in the dark.
"My boyfriend Arthur and eldest son Jesse arrived better prepared than us, they had big torches and ropes and a 4x4 vehicle. They met us at the bottom and we all decided to walk back up to where she was last seen.
"Arthur and Jess drove up the steep track in the 4x4 stopped at the point she was last seen and both climbed down the steep edge of the mountain to look down the sheer drop to see if they could see her body at the bottom or find her alive stuck somewhere as her harness was still attached. There was no sign of her.
"It was dark, freezing cold and very windy and extremely dangerous. By midnight we all grouped back at the car park and had to make the difficult decision to go home.
"I was devastated, crying uncontrollably, shaking from the cold and didn’t want to leave her there. It felt like losing a child.
"Tess and I have a strong bond, she absolutely adores me and I do her. She’s very rarely away from me, she’s always by my side.
"My heart was breaking knowing she was out there somewhere injured in the cold weather or lying dead at the bottom of the cliff. I couldn’t sleep that night."
The following morning Miss Davis headed back to Nant Gwrtheyrn in the hope of finding Tess. However, weather conditions were poor, with fog, wind and rain blighting their search.
Having shared a post on Facebook about the missing dog, several locals had joined in the search, including Morgan Williams who is part of the Drone SAR for lost dogs. Another friend, Gordon Hughes, walked seven miles in search of Tess.
"We split up into groups with two way radios, high vis clothing and my boyfriend Arthur and my son Jesse brought up a quad in a trailer to use to drive over the mountain tops," Miss Davis said: "My mum and I took Shep the dog up so she might follow his scent.
"My mum and I eventually came down off the mountain soaking wet and cold and sat in the car. We had come to the conclusion that Tess was more than likely dead and that we were now looking for her body."
Having accepted the possibility that Tess had died, Miss Davis said that around midday the others came back up from the bottom of the nant in their car with great big beaming smiles on their faces. They pulled up beside her and shouted that they had found Tess.
"They handed her to me so I put her in my car she smothered my face with kisses," she said, "then jumped into the back seat where my sandwiches were and ate the lot in one bolt, she was starving and shivering.
"We found her without her harness on so are guessing she was caught in something overnight, perhaps the harness saved her life broke the fall. She has marks where the harness was like she was trapped in it somehow and managed to break free.
"We rushed her to the vets to get checked over luckily she was fine with only minor injuries. She had bashed her chin and has graze’s all down her legs and a few scratches.
"I would like to thank everyone who took part in sharing Facebook posts giving advice support and to all those who looked for her in the most dreadful weather conditions. It really was overwhelming the help and support we received to help find Tess.
"She is a little warrior. I would like to thank my boyfriend Arthur and Jesse my son for taking some risks to find her and all of my children and their partners, my mum and dad sister and her partner. Gordon and Morgan and to everyone else that helped look for her, it really was an impressive search party for my precious Tess."
