New dog is still missing. I went to the park this morning before I got ready for work to see if I could find her. I pulled into the parking lot and got out. It was still very dark at 5 AM so I had a flashlight with me. I spotted something reflecting 100 feet away. It was a pair of dog eyes. I called out to the dog as if it was New Dog but this dog barked. A lot. I was not so sure this was our dog but I kept calling. I called my wife (who had been up since 2 AM...she is so upset over this) and she ran over and immediately told me it was not our dog. I have pretty bad night vision so I was not sure.
After that I walked the park calling out for New Dog but I did not spot her anywhere. Some of the dog food we set out was eaten but we are not sure if it was New Dog or some other critter. It was mostly gone but some was left, which is a New Dog thing to do.
Right about lunch time my wife called me and told be that the rescue organization who had New Dog before we did sometimes has to tranq dogs when the are hard/impossible to catch. I gave my blessing on that and my wife agreed but she said she has a bad feeling we are not going to see New Dog ever again. I don't really think that is the case. What I think will happen is that we will never be able to catch her but see her all the time. One thing for sure is that if someone ever catches her, she will try to escape and since she has been spayed, she is not good for making puppies any more.
We have run into a lot of people who have spotted her but none who have been able to catch her. One man said his daughter, who is sort of a Doctor Doolittle with dogs, was unable get her to come very close. He said that has never happened before.
I am still pretty emotionally drained, which is making me tired and a touch depressed. I am on call next week so I will be on pins and needles for that...a nice addition to this issue.
And what really is amazing is that we have all kinds of other issues going on as well. Some with family, some with work...a lot with church. I feel so overwhelmed I am not sure I can take any more. I know that God never gives us more than we can handle so I am secure that I will make it but the pressure seems so intense.
I also need to go to the park after work and put up a few flyers there. Hopefully some one will see her.
Well, I plan on going over to the park tomorrow morning when it gets light to see if New Dog is there. I doubt that she will be...I think she has moved on to another neighborhood and finding her on our own will be pretty difficult. I still plan on putting up some flyers in nearby neighborhoods but the best chance is for the animal control to find her and hopefully they will call. My wife has dropped off a flyer to them both.
We are still praying for New Dog to come home. We miss her so much.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Owner of a Broken Heart
That statement describes both me and my wife...New Dog escaped and has been missing for 48 hours.
Tuesday night after prayer, my wife and I went our separate ways. She had errands to run and I came home to take care of the dogs. My wife called and asked me to walk both dogs since she would not be home until late, so I agreed. Knowing that New Dog was not an easy dog to walk, I decided to walk The Golden first. I got the leash and poop bag and hooked up The Golden, I unlatched the door and opened it just a bit and New Dog ran out. She stopped in the yard for just a second then ran down the block. She stopped again and did her business and I almost got to her when she took off again. I saw her go down the street so I took The Golden back in side and ran after New Dog. I spotted her at the end of the block so I cut over to cut her off. She ducked into a yard and through an open gate. I circled around but lost sight of her. I called but I did not see her. I talked to a lady who lived near where New Dog cut through the open fence and she said she would be on the lookout for her. Later on I found out that lady actually went out on foot to help.
I went back to the house and got The Golden, hoping she would attract New Dog back to me. We went down the alley and cut through some trees into the pocket park and spotted New Dog. New dog spotted me and ran. That was the last that I saw her. My wife and I drove up and down the alleys of our neighborhood but never spotted her.
The next morning (Wednesda) I got up and went to the park to see if I could spot her. As I was heading towards the trees, something bigger than a Raccoon took off before I could get a look. It was still dark and I did not have my flashlight pointed in the direction of the noise. All I saw was a branch moving, but I heard whatever it was. You don't hear rabbits and most other small game is rather quiet. New Dog is lightning quick so I think it was her, but I cannot be sure.
I made up some fliers and put them up in the neighborhood. My wife called just about every agency she could think of as well as put the story on one of the missing pet web sites. Later that night we went out again but did not see her at all. We were beginning to lose hope.
On Thurdsay, I had to go into the office to work so my wife stayed home and manned the phones. About 1:30 or 2 PM, she got a call from the animal shelter saying that they spotted our dog on their grounds but were unable to catch her. The animal shelter is just a few blocks from our house and just across the street from the park where I spotted her. According to the shelter, New Dog had crossed the street from other park which is just across the street from the pocket park. Think of a large "+". This is the cross street area near our house. The upper left is the animal shelter, the upper right is the large park, and the lower right is the pocket park. (we would be just to the right of that). The lower left is a gas station that is pretty busy.
My wife arrives and animal control says the dog is in the field just north of the animal shelter. That is private property but the owner has been alerted so he is cool with my wife being there. My wife calls out to New Dog and she sees her! We know New Dog is alive and appears to be unharmed. The bad news is she still is avoiding my wife. My wife said it was not a run away of fear, but almost like a game of chase. New Dog crossed the field and ran behind a wooded area. My wife lost sight of her but animal control told her that New Dog follows the road and found the bridge to cross a creek that separated the field from a small subdivision. It was here that both animal control and my wife lost sight of the dog. After work I met my wife there and we looked as well as put up some signs. We were both hungry so we went to a local BBQ joint and "pigged" out, trying to regain some energy. We went to the big park across the street from the animal shelter with some of her food to try to see if we could get her attention. When we could not spot her, we left the food in areas where people might see her.
The animal shelter thinks that New Dog spent the night in the big park. I think that maybe she spent the night in the pocket park. I hope she finds the food we left her.
This will be the third night that she has been out. We know she was okay when my wife spotted her and that is a big relief. I hope we can get her back home soon. I miss the hairy beast.
Please pray that New Dog will stay safe even if we cannot catch her right away.
Tuesday night after prayer, my wife and I went our separate ways. She had errands to run and I came home to take care of the dogs. My wife called and asked me to walk both dogs since she would not be home until late, so I agreed. Knowing that New Dog was not an easy dog to walk, I decided to walk The Golden first. I got the leash and poop bag and hooked up The Golden, I unlatched the door and opened it just a bit and New Dog ran out. She stopped in the yard for just a second then ran down the block. She stopped again and did her business and I almost got to her when she took off again. I saw her go down the street so I took The Golden back in side and ran after New Dog. I spotted her at the end of the block so I cut over to cut her off. She ducked into a yard and through an open gate. I circled around but lost sight of her. I called but I did not see her. I talked to a lady who lived near where New Dog cut through the open fence and she said she would be on the lookout for her. Later on I found out that lady actually went out on foot to help.
I went back to the house and got The Golden, hoping she would attract New Dog back to me. We went down the alley and cut through some trees into the pocket park and spotted New Dog. New dog spotted me and ran. That was the last that I saw her. My wife and I drove up and down the alleys of our neighborhood but never spotted her.
The next morning (Wednesda) I got up and went to the park to see if I could spot her. As I was heading towards the trees, something bigger than a Raccoon took off before I could get a look. It was still dark and I did not have my flashlight pointed in the direction of the noise. All I saw was a branch moving, but I heard whatever it was. You don't hear rabbits and most other small game is rather quiet. New Dog is lightning quick so I think it was her, but I cannot be sure.
I made up some fliers and put them up in the neighborhood. My wife called just about every agency she could think of as well as put the story on one of the missing pet web sites. Later that night we went out again but did not see her at all. We were beginning to lose hope.
On Thurdsay, I had to go into the office to work so my wife stayed home and manned the phones. About 1:30 or 2 PM, she got a call from the animal shelter saying that they spotted our dog on their grounds but were unable to catch her. The animal shelter is just a few blocks from our house and just across the street from the park where I spotted her. According to the shelter, New Dog had crossed the street from other park which is just across the street from the pocket park. Think of a large "+". This is the cross street area near our house. The upper left is the animal shelter, the upper right is the large park, and the lower right is the pocket park. (we would be just to the right of that). The lower left is a gas station that is pretty busy.
My wife arrives and animal control says the dog is in the field just north of the animal shelter. That is private property but the owner has been alerted so he is cool with my wife being there. My wife calls out to New Dog and she sees her! We know New Dog is alive and appears to be unharmed. The bad news is she still is avoiding my wife. My wife said it was not a run away of fear, but almost like a game of chase. New Dog crossed the field and ran behind a wooded area. My wife lost sight of her but animal control told her that New Dog follows the road and found the bridge to cross a creek that separated the field from a small subdivision. It was here that both animal control and my wife lost sight of the dog. After work I met my wife there and we looked as well as put up some signs. We were both hungry so we went to a local BBQ joint and "pigged" out, trying to regain some energy. We went to the big park across the street from the animal shelter with some of her food to try to see if we could get her attention. When we could not spot her, we left the food in areas where people might see her.
The animal shelter thinks that New Dog spent the night in the big park. I think that maybe she spent the night in the pocket park. I hope she finds the food we left her.
This will be the third night that she has been out. We know she was okay when my wife spotted her and that is a big relief. I hope we can get her back home soon. I miss the hairy beast.
Please pray that New Dog will stay safe even if we cannot catch her right away.
Friday, October 16, 2009
What Have We Gotten Ourselves Into
If you know us, you know we love dogs. We had Little Man (one of his many nicknames) for five years or so before we got The Golden. The two lived with us for 10 years before we had to let Little Man go. While we took great care of him, he had advanced renal failure. That, plus his severe allergies made him miserable.
We then were down to just one dog, The Golden for nine months or so until yesterday. While we had been talking about it for a few weeks, yesterday my wife adopted a dog from the humane society. It is a three year old Golden that was used in a puppy mill. She is adorable but she is very skittish. She tries to hide every time she gets the chance but she does not tremble nor does she cower when we pet her. So far we all like her, including our other dog, whom I simply call "The Golden". The Golden tolerates the new dog, mostly because New Dog does not challenge The Golden for Alpha-hood. But also she senses that New Dog is broken. Her spirit is just not there.
She needs a lot of work to get her to a point where she can function normally in a household. She reminds me of a character I read about in a fantasy novel, "The Guardians of the Flame". In that series of books, a warrior takes it upon himself to liberate every slave he finds. One, a dwarf whom was a slave to a very cruel man and has had his spirit completely broken, takes years to return to a "normal" life but even then he still slips into "broken mode" around those who freed him.
New Dog is like this dwarf in that she is broken and it will take a long time (if ever) to get her acting like a dog again. How people can treat animals this way is just something I do not understand.
Anyhooo, pray for us. I have a short fuse and it takes daily prayer just to keep it at the level it is now. Adding this to the mix is only going to test my mettle even more. God can do anything and I need him to help me be loving around this poor broken critter.
Just one thing to add. Even though my wife adopted this dog and she is more of a dog lover than I am, New Dog licked my hand and not my wife's. Maybe I am not such a bad guy after all.
Keep us in prayer. Pictures to follow. Sometime.
We then were down to just one dog, The Golden for nine months or so until yesterday. While we had been talking about it for a few weeks, yesterday my wife adopted a dog from the humane society. It is a three year old Golden that was used in a puppy mill. She is adorable but she is very skittish. She tries to hide every time she gets the chance but she does not tremble nor does she cower when we pet her. So far we all like her, including our other dog, whom I simply call "The Golden". The Golden tolerates the new dog, mostly because New Dog does not challenge The Golden for Alpha-hood. But also she senses that New Dog is broken. Her spirit is just not there.
She needs a lot of work to get her to a point where she can function normally in a household. She reminds me of a character I read about in a fantasy novel, "The Guardians of the Flame". In that series of books, a warrior takes it upon himself to liberate every slave he finds. One, a dwarf whom was a slave to a very cruel man and has had his spirit completely broken, takes years to return to a "normal" life but even then he still slips into "broken mode" around those who freed him.
New Dog is like this dwarf in that she is broken and it will take a long time (if ever) to get her acting like a dog again. How people can treat animals this way is just something I do not understand.
Anyhooo, pray for us. I have a short fuse and it takes daily prayer just to keep it at the level it is now. Adding this to the mix is only going to test my mettle even more. God can do anything and I need him to help me be loving around this poor broken critter.
Just one thing to add. Even though my wife adopted this dog and she is more of a dog lover than I am, New Dog licked my hand and not my wife's. Maybe I am not such a bad guy after all.
Keep us in prayer. Pictures to follow. Sometime.
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