Elsie arrived in Todmorden on Friday 31.7.20 from Bulgaria. The following day, Elsie slipped out of her harness while out and ran into some bushes at the side of the railway line and hid. Unfortunately we didn’t know about Elsie and it was very important of being alerted as soon as possible to avoid the flight risk of Elsie crossing busy roads and rail tracks. Luckily we saw the post on Sunday and offered help and went straight there with the trap. Unfortunately though, unknown to us and having tried for 7.5 hours with the trap and a bbq, she had moved on. There was a sighting further down the railway line at Hallroyd Crescent and another sighting came in at Oldroyd Rd across the river the following day and it was confirmed to be Elsie on cctv. Then more sightings started to come in at the Shepherds Rest Inn but this turned out to be a missing lurcher who was caught later on.
On Tuesday, Elsie was then seen on Lee Bottom Rd just over a mile away. The following day, 6 August 2020, I went and set feed stations up with cameras and spoke to local people. Later that day, Elsie was seen at 5.50pm and we had 3 sightings of her still in the same area. She was disturbed in a poly tunnel by the owner of a flower farm and she ran into the large flower field where the lady shut the gate. Elsie hid in some bushes and myself and her owners set off to go back there. The fencing to the field was wire mesh but large squares and Elsie could easily get out so we needed to be very careful. I went in with food and lay down near to where Elsie was hid. I pretended to eat the food and threw a piece near to Elsie. She popped her head out of the bushes and took the food. I carried on like this for a while with no eye contact and not talking and Elsie eventually was eating out of my hand. She was so frightened though that she moved away with any movement and I knew it would take a long time to get the slip lead on her if she let me at all. So I set the trap up with food and she eventually went in and was caught safely. I would like to give special thanks to the people of Todmorden who have been absolute stars and listened to us when we explained how frightened Elsie was and how being in survival mode made her very difficult to catch. Not once did they approach her when she was seen and instead phoned Elsies owners straight away. This ensured that Elsie stayed safe. Welcome home Elsie, you have a fantastic life ahead of you now with your lovely family 
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