Finding missing Westie ‘better than winning the lottery' for farmer

Agriland

11-05-2025

When farming couple Des and Jane Cantlon realised recently that their 11 year-old Westie, Minnie, was missing, they searched high up and low down for her.
Twenty hours later, Des, who has a calf-to-beef enterprise, discovered that the beloved family pet had probably chased a rodent and got trapped in a pile of tyres on a silage pit on the farm in Marley, Graiguenamanagh, Co. Kilkenny.
The Cantlons were thrilled to find Minnie – who had just undergone an operation for breast cancer – safe and well among the tyres.
A constant companion to Des and Jane, who got Minnie from a friend as a pup, she has always revelled in accompanying them on farm jobs.
Des told Agriland: 'She's out all the time but sleeps indoors. When I get up on winter mornings and put on the wellingtons, she's on the tractor with the diet feeder.
'She's gone the whole time. She either goes where I go or with Jane if she is feeding calves,'
The cute canine also enjoys trips in the car.
'If we put on our good clothes, she knows she will be off in the car. She spins around the kitchen when she knows she is on her way. She loves going anywhere.
'The only place she goes without us is to our daughter's house, two to three fields down. She has two dogs,' Des explained.
Search for Minnie
Initially Des and Jane thought she was at their daughter's house.
'When she wasn't there, we started looking for her,' Des said.
'I got up at 7:00 am the next morning and went off looking for her. I searched sheds, everywhere, even places she couldn't have been like lofts. A neighbour came over and helped with the search.
Minnie, the 11 year-old Westie
Hindering the search was the fact that Minnie rarely barks.
'I was within 4 or 5ft of her, calling her by name. She fell down through the tyres and was on her side. She couldn't stand up straight,' said Des.
The breakthrough came when Des and Jane's daughter called with her dog.
'it [the dog] went straight to where she was in the tyres. When the dog was found, I said that for me, finding Minnie was better than winning the lottery. I have a young lad working with me on the farm and I gave him the rest of the day off.
'She's part of our lives. We were in Carlow at the Teagasc offices and she came for the drive. She goes to the marts twice a week during the winter, Enniscorthy and New Ross marts. She'll sit in the car.'
According to Des, the Westie is none the worse for her escapades.
'She had the ground torn with her feet from trying to straighten herself up,' Des remarked.
'I would have hated for her to die there, not knowing where she was and I knew she was in too good a form to just disappear,' he said.
Dogs can get stuck in rabbit holes and hedges on farms and for some, it can be too late when they are found, he added.
Meanwhile, Minnie is relishing home comforts since her rescue.
'If I'm having a cup of tea, I'll sit on the couch and throw up my two feet and she will pop up on me, just a lovely, happy and playful dog,' Des said.