Bentley the puppy home at last

If you live in the Halifax area, you've probably got at least one - and probably many (!) emails about Bentley the missing papillon puppy in the last week. His Mom Ena was in a car accident coming home from a dog sho in Moncton and he escaped out a broken window in her vehicle and he's been on the run ever since then next to the highway where he escaped.

I think it's a miracle he's still alive, he's only like about 8 pounds - a week without food - and no one picked him up and took them home with them. Live traps really are the way to go - I was involved a few years ago with another dog who went missing - and that's the way we got her too.

Here's the story this morning that let me know the great news -

Bentley the puppy home at last

The merry chase is over for a pint-sized pooch named Bentley.

The 11-month-old papillon with big eyes and even bigger ears finally took the bait in a live trap set up to catch him after he fled the scene of a motor vehicle accident last Sunday on Highway 104 near Londonderry.

"They got him — he’s fine," said a breathless Shana Snow.

One of a large contingent of concerned people who showed up to search for the little dog last week, Ms. Snow found it hard to contain her excitement.

"It’s such good news — I can’t believe it," she said.

Scared, tired, shaky and in need of food and rest, Bentley was found in the trap late Saturday afternoon by his owner, Steve Angus.

Mr. Angus had spent long days searching for the little dog after his wife, Ena, was involved in a motor vehicle accident near the Cobequid Pass last Sunday.

Ms. Angus had some physical healing to do over the past week but she was grateful she had only scrapes and bruises.

"We were coming back from a dog show in Moncton and the next thing I knew the truck was in the air, flipping over," said Ms. Angus, during a telephone interview earlier Saturday.

They had tried his favourites: hot dogs, cheese and cat food, but nothing seemed to work as a lure for the obviously scared dog.

"He was scared and it seems like he’s still scared because he runs away when people try to catch him," she said.

Search teams had been looking for the sable- and white-coloured dog every day. The couple even hired a woman who uses beagles to track missing animals but they couldn’t capture the now-timid little guy.

For most of last week the couple fretted and worried.

They even brought his mother to the spot where he was last sighted but even that bait didn’t work.

On Friday they got a break.

"A truck driver called to tell us on Friday he saw Bentley running by the woods and he even got out and whistled and Bentley stopped and looked at him but then ran back into the woods."

Another driver called to say she saw what she believed was Bentley running out of the woods on Friday.

She described him as a small dog that looked like a brown and white shaggy cat.

Mr. Angus had set out live traps earlier in the week and he spent Friday night and all day Saturday in his truck near where the vehicle crashed.

He intended to spend Saturday night as well but it wasn’t necessary.

"He told me he’d gone to get a coffee and when he came back, Bentley was in the trap, so he was happy," said Ms. Snow.