Tobe's big adventure

Tobe was round today for his usual Friday play-date with Mr D, while his 'official' human is at work.
Despite the traditional couple of hours of supersonic zooming in the bush in the morning, around lunchtime Mr D evidently became a bit boring, so Tobe slipped out for a bit of a sniff around on his own.
As these things tend to, a casual stroll to the gate extended itself and by the time he was missed, about ten minutes later, he was nowhere to be found.
Mr D called in the troops (me) and we split up and checked everywhere - the zooming park, all the neighbouring yards that contain dogs, the highway (very busy with holiday traffic - at least the volume of traffic made it slower and there were much fewer trucks than on a normal working day - it was a great relief not to find a furry body on the side of the road...), then up to the shops - nothing.
Any number of people were asked to keep a look out.
While I was talking to the taxi driver, it occurred to me that even though Tobe's house is a couple of miles away and he's only ever travelled between his and ours by car, you just never know, so off I went in the taxi to check.
We arrived just as Mr D arrived on his bicycle, having had the same, not very hopeful, idea. Alas, no dog.
We were just about to take off again to search goodness knows where, when out of the next door house emerged a little boy, complete with the very dog in question! He'd heard us calling and figured it out. Clever lad.
So back up to the town (dog and I in taxi - taxi driver: "I wonder what route he took?") - for coffee and buns and much holiday crowd excitement for dogs.
This dog seems to be friends with half the town. Every second person that came along seemed to know him and was greeted with great enthusiasm.
I snapped this shot just as he spied his good friend Mary (with the red bag) approaching in the distance. She got a thorough licking a minute or two later.
So today we learned:
Don't leave the door open if you're not paying attention.
Tobe is a good deal smarter than he looks.
Dogs are fickle.