Drone SAR for Lost Dogs UK - Thermal Drone

MISSING DOG PEARL - STORY

Story starts Monday 22nd January; Debbie Buttle (my mum) realised 3 out of our 4 dogs were not in the house, even after just cooking up some lovely breakfast. Debs immediately checks the garden, to which she realised the back corner fence panel had shifted with the wind and the dogs had gotten out. Daisy (eldest sibling to Derek, Peggy & Pearl) had not left the house despite the chance (thank goodness)! Nick (my dad) and Debs were driving around the block looking for the three dogs. Shortly after starting to search, Debs had a call from the vets to say a kind person had handed Peggy in and unfortunately she had hurt her leg. Mum collected her from the vets and Peggy returned safe home after a check of her leg. About an hour later, Debs had found Derek just down the road from home. He also returned safely home. Pearl was now the only sibling of the 4 dogs now missing. It had been 2 hours since they had gone missing, and now the hunt for Pearl became more and more serious. Shortly after the others were taken home, Pearl was spotted heading down a small road around the block. It turned out she had headed for the construction site opposite the Redlands, Swaffham. She barked at a digger driver and then hid under some construction material. She got scared and ran across the road, and there was a very close call between Pearl and a lorry. A young lady jumped out of the car she was in and headed towards Redlands where Pearl was headed after this near miss. At this point, we had lost sight of her. As the hours went by, this nightmare grew after searching the housing areas with no luck at all. We had searched South Pickenham Road, Redlands, Swans Nest & Heathlands expecting to find her in a garden, under a car or just waiting for someone to collect her. Around 4.30pm my sister Katie pointed out what we think was Pearl in the field (the field to your left when leaving Swaffham heading to South Pickenham road). As excited as you can imagine, we headed over to the field in hope of catching her and returning home. She ran off before we could get close, and now more and more worry built as she was heading to fields and fields, away from housing areas. After a few hours of looking at maps and guessing where Pearl could be, we spent a few hours walking round the Redlands but nothing in site. Already we had people out with us late in the evening looking out for Pearl & it was amazing to see how in just hours the word had spread and people actively looking. We had no luck, so left the fence panel open that night with her bed and food at the front door hoping that she would make her way back home at night. Unfortunately this did not happen. I’m sure you can imagine how much of a nightmare we were living in day 1.

Now on day 2 after little to no sleep, Debs headed to the field we think we saw her the night before and around 10am Pearl was laying in the middle of the field. We had researched the night before and there was a good chance Pearl was in ‘survival mode’ in which she would dart and not know her name or who her family are. Mum attempted to walk towards Pearl in the field, and despite being so close, Pearl ran off towards the wind turbines further away from Swaffham. She was not seen the rest of day 2, and we so desperately wanted to catch her despite the worry of where she was is such a huge open area. We would not lose hope until she was home. Searches for Pearl continued all day, but ended with nothing.

Day 3 came by, and we hadn’t seen her all day after searching the areas she could have possibly ran to. We needed a drone in these areas of fields, and more specifically a thermal drone as we would have been able to spot her easily and locate her so we knew where we should be headed for searches. Unfortunately this was unsuccessful as it was too windy for any type of drone to be out, and thermal drones were not available in Norfolk due to lack of resource and qualified persons. It wasn’t until 9.30pm that Wednesday night that we saw a post on Facebook by a helpful lady who had spotted a dog running along South Pickenham Rd near the South Pickenham Estate/Home Farm area. We immediately headed there, and to our surprise Pearl came round the sharp corner of the road and was going to continue past us in the car if we didn’t stop and get out and attempt to catch her. She ran through the Estate and into the sheep fields. We could not enter due to security and the time of night, but luckily we had a former worker who used to work at the Estate who rang the owner (or site manager?) who allowed us to enter and look for Pearl. Debs sat at the gate where she was seen running through but we had no luck. We now had a sighting ready for plans the next day. If we hadn’t seen her that night we would have been searching almost a mile out to where she was so thank you again to the people that reached out and shared the sighting with us. The whole story could have been different if we hadn’t received this information. It was very late after this sighting so headed home and hoped we would catch her the next day. We were happy to know we had seen her as we hadn’t in over 24 hours and I’m sure you can once again imagine the feelings we had, especially with the strong winds and heavy rain in the night too.

Day 4 (Thursday) myself and mum took Derek to the Estate where she was last seen in hope he may pick up her scent and take us in the right direction. He was understandably distressed and was taken home within an hour; Derek is happy that Pearl js home now. We had up to 6 possible sightings on Thursday, all around South Pickenham in the morning, and heading more North Pickenham way later in the day. We hadn’t seen Pearl personally, but the sightings seemed pretty strong and very likely to be her. We knew she must be getting hungry and tired and we knew we had to get her home sooner or later. We’d like to thank all of you again who responded effectively when Pearl was sighted as this could have changed the whole story if you weren’t out looking and if they weren’t communicated, so big big thanks to you people. We had a kind man named Ryan Cámc come to the Estate with his drone to help find Pearl, and he was able to rule out areas she may not have been able to get to due to the river that was running through the fields she was later spotted, and guided us in the right direction when she was spotted. It was after the second sighting that we met Craig Scott who was overlooking fields and getting his drone out to help further to look for Pearl. Craig is a volunteer for Drone SAR For Lost Dogs UK; this was his third job. Craig’s drone was attacked by a bird of prey whilst searching, but all was well eventually with the drone! Debs, Katie Buttle, myself and many other helpers continued investigating the sightings for the rest of the day. Thank you to all those people who were on the ball and acted fast in the sighting occasions. You’ve all played a huge part of bringing Pearl home. Thank you. I will just add the funny moments we had on Thursday, including myself and Mum rolling under a barbed wire fence, falling over in the mud, and sinking and sitting in bog.

Friday (Day 5) Mum and Katie and more helpers continued searching areas she was spotted the day before; South Pickenham, North Pickenham and in the middle. We had no luck, and Mum and Katie returned home. Very shortly after returning home, my sister Alice Buttle called me to inform us of a sighting behind West View houses next to the Estate in South Pickenham; the same area she had been spotted Wednesday night, and Thursday afternoon. Myself and Mum headed there immediately and went to the field behind the houses in hope of spotting her and catching her; we really had high hopes. We couldn’t see her in sight, however we had reports from a kind and thoughtful family at one of the houses next to the field that Pearl may had been visiting their garden due to food left for cats outside had been going quicker than usual. We have fairy lights on in our garden, and this house in particular had these too, and this made it very possible that Pearl has been going to this garden for comfort and food. With this thought, we left her bed and some food with some clothes from Mum with her scent out in hope she would head that way and get comfy and be ready to allow us to scoop her up and take her home. We headed home for the night. We asked people not to search for Pearl that night as if she was in that area still, we didn’t want her to be scared and run elsewhere and be back to square one not knowing where she is. Once again, a thermal drone would have been a god send at this point. Unfortunately like I’ve said previously, lack of resource and qualified persons kept the days going by with our Pearl not returning home. There was another possible sighting from another kind and helpful lady later Friday evening that she was seen next to one of the air raid shelters just a field away from the houses where she was spotted about an hour before. We couldn’t find anything after investigating, but left some food out in case she was looking for warmth that night.

We now reach the day Pearl came home. Myself, Debs and Alice headed back to the garden with the bed and food early hours to see if she had been this way. Unfortunately there was no sign of Pearl. There had been a frost which we had been worried about all night and heading into the 6th day of Pearl being missing, we wasn’t sure if she had been eating. It was still dark so headed back home as we try to make a plan for today, Saturday 27th January. We were due to meet Craig at 8am where she was seen last between the air raid shelters, and the houses near the Estate. Just as we were going to leave home, another one of my sisters Sarah Adams called to inform us of a sighting of Pearl at Latimer Way, North Pickenham. Another thank you to the individual that informed Sarah of this sighting and we were able to act accordingly which led to our outcome. Craig arrived at Latimer Way before myself, Debs and Alice. Craig guided us in direction of where we needed to go, and he put his drone up and confirmed that it was Pearl who was seen in North Pickenham. She ran into someone’s garden, and we have heard several people tried to catch her, so big thank you to those people. Alice headed off with Craig’s partner to keep an eye out on the roads, and so did myself and Mum. We had no luck, so headed to Latimer Way, and headed to the playing field where she could have gone. She was not there. After not very long after her sighting at Latimer Way, Katie called me to say she was seen running towards the crossroads in Holme Hale. Thank you to the individual(s) who managed to send a video of Pearl running (slowly) down the road towards the crossroads. This was so so helpful to see as it was 100% confirmed Pearl was there, we knew where she was & we could tell Craig exactly where to go if we needed the drone to go up in the surrounding fields of the road and search. The kind individual(s) in the car following Pearl said she went into a ditch just off the road near the crossroads at Holme Hale. A man named John was in the ditch searching with his dog when we arrived. John hadn’t seen anything come out of the ditch if Pearl was in there, and while the family and other helpers were searching the ditch for about 10 minutes we started to try and plan what to do next as we had no clue where she was. John mentioned at this time there is a pipe in the ditch and his dog was signalling that there was something in the pipe. John shone his torch and saw Pearl, and Alice confirmed it was definitely her. Mum immediately made her way through thick brambles (she couldn’t have chose a worse bush to hide.. lol) to get to the other end of the pipe to stop her going anywhere. Alice had tried calling Pearl but the tunnel was so small, Pearl would struggle to turn around. When Mum reached the other end, we knew this had to be it. Mum was about 6ft away from where the paws and nose were in the pipe. Mum held her hand out, and Pearl went to Mum and Mum finally got to hold Pearl in her arms after so long of all the worry and the nightmare we had been in for the last 6 days. Mum said there was no way she was getting away; Pearl was content in her arms immediately. John cut away the brambles to allow mum out of the hedge and happy tears were all over. Without John, we would have continued the search and Pearl could have got away, or we wouldn’t have even known a pipe was there. A massive thank you to you, we’d love for you to reach out so we can thank you personally. Pearl could still be missing now if it wasn’t for John, and every single one of you sharing posts, putting up posters, out

searching, taking different routes home from work to search, and every person coming together. The help we’ve had has been overwhelming and we can’t thank any of you enough. The Swaffham, Ashill, Cressingham, Watton, the Pickenhams community and all the others have come together so just our one family can have our Pearl back home. We truly can’t thank you all enough, and you’re all so caring and it’s amazing to see everyone pulling together. It brings us all hope for the future for more situations that could be ahead with such a strong community we have around.

After Pearl’s adventure, we would like to raise money for Craig, who has been consistently fantastic help, to get him his course to fly a thermal drone, and hopefully raise enough to buy Drone SAR for Lost Dogs UK a thermal drone for further situations like ours and we’d like Craig to be the holder of this in the Norfolk area. A thermal drone would have been a god send and the whole story could have been so different. We are so lucky to have Pearl with us today and we really want others who could end up in our nightmare to have people like Craig around with the better resources and qualifications to do this. Out of the three jobs Craig has been on, this was his first successful job so huge congratulations!

We appreciate every single one of you. Huge thank you.

From the Buttle Family xxx