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.

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