I now have 10 grey hairs

[*blackrose]

Let the dogs out into the yard to do their business this morning while I finished getting ready for work. About 15 minutes go by and I walk out into the livingroom to put on my shoes. I walk over to the door to let the dogs in. Abrams barrels inside for his breakfast. Cynder....Cynder? I call her name, no response. Survey the yard. No dog. Call again. No dog.

****.

Text my coworker to let her know I'll be late, grab my shoes and a coat, and head out in to the back yard. No Cynder. However, there is a Cynder sized hole in the fence that was previously blocked by a sheet of metal...which the bad wind we've been having blew away.

Okay. So maybe she is in the neighbor's yard. (We share a fence.) Call her. Nothing. ****.

Walk out to the road and start heading to the sidewalk towards the neighbors. Get to the other side of their house and realize they're fence gate is wide open. Awesome. Keep walking, scanning for a little black dog. Nothing. Keep walking. See a cat just chilling on a driveway. Clearly Cynder is not this way.

Turn around. Start walking back home. The panic at this point is almost choking. What if she left the neighborhood, what if someone picked her up, she's not wearing a collar...panic.

Get to the driveway, see a flash of black three houses down. THANK YOU GOD. I call for her and she stops, perks her ears, tilts her head, gets all excited....and runs away from me. (*face meet palm*) She can apparently not figure out where I'm hollering from. Call again. She comes back into my view, puzzled, looking for me. Call again. Light bulb moment, she sees me! Runs over as happy as a clam, covered in something disgusting.

THANK GOD.

You never realize how much you actually treasure something until you think it's lost. Go hug your dogs and give them all a cookie.

Longest 10 minutes of my life.

 

[houlahoops]

Pippa ran off on me for the first time ever about two days ago and it is the worst feeling ever. Glad you found her!!

 

[amberdyan]

Ah! I'm so sorry, that's so terrifying. Even when we're in off-leash appropriate areas I have this secret fear that Hugo will go out of sight and someone will steal him. So glad she got back quick and safe.

 

[Applebear]

So glad you got her back, I had a bad experience with Knarly years ago...except he got disorientated during the experience and wouldn't come to ANYONE, not even me. Took us [neighbors, community, ex and mom] 26 hours to get him back and I sounded like a wounded seal the entire time.

Very happy you found her and she is back where she belongs, safe and sound.

 

[teacuptiger]

I am so glad you got her back safely!! That is terrifying.

 

[CrystalGSD]

I'm glad she came back safely!

 

[Sweet72947]

I'm glad you found her! When I first brought Norris home almost two years ago, I managed to lose him TWICE. The first time he just ran out the door when my mom came over, not sure what was going through his brain. We got him back within the hour because I found him running around almost in traffic on a very busy street. I opened the door to my car and he ran over and jumped right in.

The second time he got spooked and pulled out of his collar and I didn't get him back for a whole day! I was beside myself. A person from FOHA that Norris really likes came over and helped me look for him and he came to her. Norris hasn't tried to run away since. It helps that he's not so terrified of everything anymore.

 

[Southpaw]

It's the worst! Glad you found her.

Only once have I thought a dog went missing - Juno - turns out she was just locked in a bedroom. To my credit, I was pulled out of bed by my mom who assured me she checked the whole house and couldn't find the dog, so I just went along with it. Although I was having a really hard time believing Juno would ever leave the yard. I heard her whimpering from the bedroom while my mom was out driving around the neighborhood looking for her.

 

[Dogdragoness]

Josefina did almost the same thing a few years back and was gone almost two weeks, and it was the worst two weeks of my life. she is my OH's dog and I felt like a piece of **** because I was supposed to be responsible for his dog and I LOST HER.

We lived in a very rural area and so many scenarios ran through my mind, there is a super busy road about 5 miles from our property and I know this is morbid, but every time I traveled it I would scan for a small, blue speckled body, thinking the worst. Luckily we had a storm about five days after she was lost and she finally got desperate and went up to one of the businesses in the area and some nice people picked her up and were driving her around, looking for her home (she was chipped, but no collar ... she ALWAYS wears one now with my name and number when she is out).

That dog had a guardian angel, thats for sure, anyone could have picked her up and anything could have happened to her, I don't wish what I went through on any pet owner, it's horrible. I am glad you found her so quickly.