The Search for the Dog

Tonight Missy played a cruel dog joke on me. Since the weather was not quite so hot today and since my cat Yoda is about ready to kill anything that moves (and somethings that don't) from dog-induced stress, I left Missy outside today. She usually comes in during the middle of the day and sleeps during the hottest part of the afternoon. Today, she came and peered in the door with her right ear aloft quizzically, but I didn't let her in.

About six, I started trying to get the dogs in for supper. Yelldo came running with his perky little tail wagging as usual, but no Roux. I called and called, received no response, decided that Missy wasn't ready to come in yet and sat down to eat my own supper. Seven came and went; no Roux looking in the screen door.

At eight, I started calling her and walking around the yard. I checked the ditches and the pasture. No Roux. I started getting really worried and not a little panicked. When the last of the day faded, I came to the house, got Roux's training clicker and turned on every outside light attached to the house. With the porch lights blazing, I made the rounds again calling and clicking. No Roux.

I grabbed my car keys and got in my car. I took my poor little PT Cruiser out into the pasture to the far end and called and clicked. No Roux. I managed to back and turn without hitting a tree or a terrace row and crept back up to the house. I love my car, but it wasn't made for off-roading, even in a recently mown pasture.

I decided to go up and down the road and check the ditches again. By this point, I had already started crying. I couldn't stop thinking about Britta and how similar the situation was. I was on my way down the driveway, and I heard the faint jangling of a collar tag through my open windows. I slammed on the brakes, looked in my rearview mirror, and there was Missy. I literally felt my heart unclench.

I jumped out of the car and grabbed her. She was panting heavily like she'd just come a long distance or had been running hard. It's possible that she followed me from the far end of the pasture. I don't know where she came from, but I am so happy she's back. I loaded her into the car and we came back up the driveway. When we got back to the house, I brought her in (on a leash) and she went directly to her water bowl and drained it. I fed her, she ate, and she immediately curled up on the loveseat and went to sleep. She seems exhausted.

I guess all this was her way of paying me back for leaving her to her own devices all day. I have some news for her....it's going to be a LONG time before she gets to have an outside-all-day day again soon. Of course, that may have been the point to begin with.....