Tears of joy coupled with a sense of “huge relief”: that’s how a Raglan family described their reaction when their beloved pet Bentley – the tiny, tan dachshund-cross who kept everyone guessing – was finally found three weeks after disappearing into the dunes during a walk on Ngarunui beach.
“It was a miracle,” Erica Smit told the Chronicle of the dog’s discovery. She said it felt like divine intervention considering only hours before the family had stopped actively searching, resigned to the fact Bentley would come back if it was meant to be.
As active Christians who live on site at Camp Raglan overlooking Ngarunui, she and husband Zane resolved to simply put their trust in God and the strategy they had in place after talking by phone with renowned dog-tracker Don Schwass.
There had been numerous sightings of Bentley – including one at the Te Uku Wind Farm four days before his eventual recovery – but each time he was gone before the family turned up and their hopes were dashed. “It was too distressing.”
Erica reckons she learnt lots about the nervous system of dogs as the saga unfolded, especially the need to just sit and wait quietly in her car with the doors open wherever Bentley was seen, which she did for many nights, in the hope he’d come to what was for him a safe space.
Don the tracker had explained how dogs on the run reverted to survival mode and that neither seeing nor hearing their owners calmed them down. Only familiar scents would entice them home.
Which is why Erica asked online for concerned locals just to text or phone if they sighted Bentley, and not to call out or approach him. While grateful that so many people were trying to help, she was also fearful of scaring him away.
The sighting which led to Bentley’s recovery occurred on an Okete farm. Fortunately he hung about long enough to be spotted again by his family who rushed to the scene and began scouring paddocks with the help of landowner Roger Peart and the headlights of his ute.
Hardly daring to hope, Erica and Zane had their son Dallah-Shade – Bentley’s “favourite human on Earth” – approach cautiously, softly calling his name. The fugitive dog submitted and crawled towards him, his body shaking but tail a-wag.
“It was unbelievable,” says Erica, “shock mixed with joy.”
She says Bentley’s a little thinner but looks really well for a pooch that roamed much of the Te Uku/Te Mata area for weeks.
Now he is never off a retractable lead when out walking. As a rescue pup Bentley was always timid, Erica concedes, but he’d got a big fright that day on the beach when three large dogs chased him towards the sand hills.
He’s actually “a really clever boy”, she adds proudly, his survival instincts well honed after so long foraging and running for his life in the wild.
