Hunting for Henry

On the night of October 16, I called Hunters Search and Rescue Team using the phone number listed on their Facebook page.

The woman who answered had a lovely voice – strong, kind, and welcoming – most likely reassuring to distressed people calling about missing loved ones.

“I know you look for missing people,” I said to the woman after we had exchanged evening salutations. “But do you also look for missing animals?”

Earlier that day, Henry, a Tobago dog recently adopted by a couple in Trinidad, had bolted through a just-opened gate at his new home in Maracas, St Joseph, and disappeared into the nearby river.

The woman on the phone said yes – some members of their team do look for missing animals. I gave her the backstory and she asked me to send photos and information. The team was currently looking for a human, but she would share Henry’s details via their bulletin.

On October 12, I had flown to Trinidad with Henry, the ten-month-old pup of a once-homeless dog named Little Bay that an English friend had rescued from a deserted beach one night during her Tobago vacation.

Little Bay (now living in London with her rescuer’s daughter) had been pregnant and skeletal. After giving birth, she and her six pups remained in my care and, within a period of nine months, four of the pups and Little Bay were adopted.

Two (Henry and Toffee) remained, awaiting adoption... until a few weeks ago, when someone in Trinidad expressed interest in Henry.

Henry’s adopter met me at the airport and we proceeded to the new home so that I could help settle him in. In the days that followed, I received video updates and progress reports of his new life. All was going well...and then he bolted.

A flyer was created, social media posts with photographs and his new owner’s contact information were circulated widely, prayers were said by us and by the many who had followed him for months via the Venus Doggess Of Love animal rescue (FB) page.

Having helped raise Henry and siblings from birth, of course I was extra-concerned and wanted to be in Trinidad to help search the area before he got too far – especially before we got any closer to Divali, with its likely firework and bamboo explosions.

A quick check for available Caribbean Airlines tickets revealed what we in Tobago experience with unsettling regularity – no available seats until X date... and no available seats back to Tobago until Y date, too many days later.

If anything, Henry would recognise my voice – the one he knows most, having heard it daily for ten months. In the absence of being able to be physically present, I recorded myself calling repeatedly to him, and made this file available to his adopter (and anyone else who wished to use it) with a Bluetooth speaker on walk-about searches. He might not respond to his name alone (especially when called by strangers), but a familiar tone would likely grab his attention and could draw him into eyesight.

Meanwhile, his adopter searched in the river and around the area, people, known and unknown, shared his information on social media...a friend, aware that dogs are likely to move around at night to early morning, drove around the area after midnight looking for him...a woman who followed Henry on social media searched the area for hours, armed with sardines, dog food, water, a sheet and phone numbers to give to people en route in case they saw him...a man from another hunters’ group (Hard Grounds Get Soft) offered to circulate photos and information to his network "all over"...friends throughout Maracas, St Joseph all the way up to Ortinola shared the "missing" flyer to their neighbourhood group chats...

(Three days later...) Thankfully the first ending I had for this article (featuring adopters’ number, etc.) is no longer necessary. I woke early this morning to find a video and WhatsApp message – "Henry came home. On his own. Apparently tired of his adventures on the street.”

Thank you to all who contributed to the incessant outpouring of love and prayers that grew towards Henry over the days on which he was missing. There is no way he could not have felt and responded to that.

Love is the greatest GPS.