TheBanyanTree: Dylan's Great Adventure

[Roger Pye]

Last night I inadvertently left the back gate open and Dinny (Dylan) our 
Australian Silky terrier got out. 14 years old, half blind and no 
traffic sense, after two hours of unsuccessfully searching the streets 
around here less than two minutes from two major roads we despaired of 
seeing him again. Then I did what I should have done at the start - went 
home for a divining rod and walked down our street with it, making the 
statement 'Look for Dinny, find Dinny' over and over again.

The rod weaved from side to side a little as usual then made a single 
very large sweep before steadying on the direction I was going. After I 
had gone about two hundred metres or so, it suddenly swung to the right, 
pointing between two houses. I stopped and shone my torch around but 
could see nothing moving. So I went on a bit and up a laneway which 
leads to a parallel street about another hundred metres away. At that 
point I asked the rod again. It swung to point in the general area of 
the houses it had pointed at before.

I met Robin as I completed the circuit of the block and said I was going 
to door-knock the street. I told her about the rod and she suggested I 
start there. So I went down the street again, using the rod and sure 
enough it pointed between the same two houses. I knocked at the front 
door of the one to the left of the point. The young woman who answered 
shook her head, hadn't seen him but would keep an eye open for him. In 
the house I could hear a foxy barking. I had a quick look round the back 
garden (after asking permission) but saw nothing.

Out on the street I thought about going further on but asked the rod 
first. Again it swung pointing to the same spot so I knocked on the door 
of the house to the right of the point. A few minutes passed then an 
elderly man opened the door. I began my spiel. "I live up the street a 
bit and we've lost our terrier, I wonder if you see him ................ 
oh, there he is, look!!"

There he was indeed. Halfway through my suggestion that they give me a 
call if they saw him, he came trundling past me and thrust his nose up 
against the house door.

We were both very relieved (no more so than I as you may imagine) and my 
faith in the rods increased another notch. How fantastic!!


Roger