The Prodigal Dog Returns

A few weeks ago Rosie had a big 15-hour adventure. She darted off after a bunny while I was out getting the mail one Thursday afternoon and since both girls were inside sleeping, I wasn't about to chase after her in the woods. So, I watched her wander along from the back yard for about 30 minutes, imploring her to come back, but alas, the woodland creatures were just more inviting.

Truthfully, I wasn't all that concerned at first, Rosie's not really one of those dogs who runs away, I figured she'd show up at the back door after a while. However, after about an hour had passed since she'd wandered off, I started getting a bit worried. So, after the girls woke up, we piled into the stroller and took off on the neighborhood trails looking for her... to no avail. We came back home and got in the car, driving the streets and calling for her (Ellie thought this was big fun)... to no avail. Daniel got home from work (about 4 hours since last Rosie-spotting at this point), and jogged in the woods looking for her... to no avail. I sent out an email on our neighborhood list-serve... to no avail. By this time it was dark and we hadn't seen her in almost 6 hours and we were definitely worried, and worse, Ellie was full of questions about Rosie's whereabouts and upset that she hadn't come home.

So, we made a bunch of fliers (which were washed out with a 3:00 am thunder storm, so we replaced them with poster-board at 6:00) at the exits to the neighborhood and hoped for the best.

At about 8:30 Friday morning, I got a call from a woman in a neighborhood down the road who had Rosie! I was elated (which, by the way, surprised me a bit, since most of my days it seems are spent wondering why we ever got Rosie in the first place!) Here was the chain of events that led to her safe capture and return:

Thursday Afternoon

5:30 ish: Neighbor down the street found Rosie, but wasn't a "dog person" (Not sure if that meant not a "dog-person", or not a "Rosie-person", because clearly the two are different)

6:00: Non-dog-person neighbor pawns Rosie off on her dog-loving next door neighbor. However, this woman was single with two big dogs already, so...

6:30: Dog-loving neighbor takes Rosie to local dog park to see if we're there looking for her, when no one claims Rosie, she gives her to whoever will take her (not sure how many people she had to beg, I mean ask, before she found a taker... it could have been hundreds. Seriously.)

7:30: Kind people take Rosie home for the night and basically plan on adopting her if no one claims her (Seriously, they already had a leash, collar, and bowl for her!)

Friday Morning

7:45: Kind people's nephew (who lives in our neighborhood) is on his way to Driver's Ed and sees a sign about a lost dog. He remembered that his Kind Aunt and Uncle took in a dog the night before and thought it might be the same dog... He calls Kind People with my number.

8:30: My phone rings with Kind Lady telling me how to get to her house and collect Rosie. She kept going on and on about how nice and well-behaved Rosie was.... (This saddened me, because I thought it was a mistake... surely she must have had a different lost dog. There's no way it could be Rosie. No way.)

8:35: Ellie jumping up and down in the kitchen in celebration of finding Rosie!

8:40: The girls and I pile into the car to get Rosie, taking signs down on the way (meanwhile, in classic 2-year-old-fashion, Ellie's asking about a MILLION questions from the back seat).

8:50: We pick up Rosie (Ellie was totally hyped. It was a great reunion), and thank the Kind People for keeping her safe.

9:00: We pull through Dunkin Donuts to get a celebration breakfast.

9:15: We arrive home, still so happy to have Rosie back, Ellie takes one bite of her donut, puts it on her plate, then Rosie promptly saunters by and eats the rest of it in one gulp. Life is normal again.

Rosie slept almost non-stop for the next 3 days, I think she was so worn out from all her "wild living" that she just exhausted herself (which may explain the "good behavior" that the Kind People reported!) We're glad to have her back and so thankful nothing happened to her. It was very difficult to get any sleep on Thursday night not knowing if she was hurt in the woods somewhere, or wandering lost, or worse. I guess I learned the most from the situation, aside from always keeping her ID tags on (which, by the way, I had taken off because it was nap-time and I didn't want the jingling to wake up the girls), I learned that I actually do like having Rosie around. Sure, she's a pain and can drive me absolutely crazy most days, but she's my dog and I love her in spite of her short-comings and bad habits.... and perhaps, the best of all, she loves me in spite of mine!