Bourne End builder found dog 'impaled on gate'

Tim Barton was enjoying his usual Friday morning routine earlier this month when he heard the agonised screams of his beloved Bumble coming from outside his home.

And Tim, a builder who lives in Bourne End, was shocked at what he saw when he emerged from the house.

He said: “It was all quite silly really.

“I was just sitting there having my breakfast and as I looked outside I could see a fox running past my house.

“Then a few seconds later I just heard a lot of wailing coming from outside.

“It was Bumble squealing like hell and you wondered what on earth could have happened to him to make him sound like that.

“I went outside and found my dog literally hanging off the gate.

“My little fellow had obviously been chasing the fox through the garden and it had jumped over the gate, but Bumble had managed to get himself impaled through his mouth.”

Tim managed to unhook Bumble from his neighbour’s iron gate and took him to receive treatment at the Barton Lodge Veterinary Centre in Hemel Hempstead.

Vet staff went to work, and Bumble was soon on the road to recovery, despite having a lump the “size of a cricket ball” around his jaw where the gate had pierced through his skin.

Tim has already had lots of people asking how Bumble is recovering, as he is something of a local celebrity around the Bourne End area.

Tim explained: “Bumble is quite well known around the area – and it’s quite rare that people know the dog but don’t actually know the owner.

“I had been looking for a dog for years when I first got him, and I picked him up front a rescue shelter down in Eastbourne about two-and-a-half years ago.

“To be honest he was very annoying when I first got him! He would wee in the front seat of the car and chew the steering wheel, and he would always find a way to escape no matter how hard we tried.

“One day he even managed to get all the way over to the John F Kennedy Catholic School and break in. The students absolutely loved it, and they all know him.”

Bumble has since made a full recovery from the distressing incident, and may think twice about chasing foxes through the garden.