Man’s furry friend shows his smart side
Pablo, in his usual routine, takes himself downstairs and the security guards let him out the door.
Man’s best friend will from time to time show how smart they are.
This was the case with resident James Delaney’s dog Pablo as he ventured off only to be recovered in a familiar place. Sharing the story, Delaney who is also a volunteer at The Wilds, said a week back Pablo disappeared after his usual morning pee outside their building, an apartment block in Killarney. Pablo, in his usual routine, takes himself downstairs and the security guards let him out the door.
“Pablo has been pretty instrumental in the fix-up of The Wilds because I only ventured in there in the first place to take him for afternoon walks,” said Delaney.
“Having no garden of my own, he needs a proper walk every day. I arranged a key for the pedestrian gate on my street, and every day we’d walk and slowly I started tending the plants, fixing the paths. It’s been six years now and he’s gotten used to walking there every day of his life. He’s almost seven years old now.”
On the day Pablo went walkabout, Delaney said someone called a while later saying Pablo was at the 10th Street pedestrian gate of The Wilds, as Delaney’s number is on Pablo’s tag but Delaney told the caller not to worry because Pablo would come home as he always did.
“Since lockdown, access to The Wilds is only permitted through the main gate, not these pedestrian gates which had been used so much by the local community, and Pablo.
“After a while there was still no sign of him and I got worried, so I jumped in the car and drove along 10th Street, 9th Street, Newtown Avenue, still no sign of him. At a roadblock on Houghton Drive a policeman said, ‘Oh a golden dog? Yes, he ran that way’, pointing to the main gate of The Wilds.”
Delaney added at The Wilds, the guards told him Pablo had come in and gone for a walk.
“I waited for a while, and there were loads of dogs and walkers, and eventually followed by Pablo, wagging his tail, having a great time. He had run 1km from my house to the gate, along four roads. And what’s even more extraordinary is that I’ve never walked him to The Wilds through that gate – he’d figured it out himself.”
Related articles:
https://www.citizen.co.za/rosebank-killarney-gazette/273982/sarah08sustainabledesign/
https://www.citizen.co.za/rosebank-killarney-gazette/241466/planting-on-the-wilds-side/
