The End of the "Tail"

Welcome to

Thawed Out Thursday!

Where the thoughts in my head come melting out!

Wow... who would think that loosing our dog would cause so much chaos in our home.  Not me, that is for sure.  Our dog Gable is truly the most perfect dog in the world.  And, while he does get ignored, at least by me, some days, is is ALWAYS there.  He never asks for anything but to go outside when Daddy gets home.  Seriously, we have to ask him if he wants to go potty.  He is almost 11 years old.  And by this point the hubby and I know him pretty well.  Gable has been with us since a week after we first met.  Every memory we have has our dog in it!  He has NEVER run away!  So when it did happen it was a shock.  He was scared of the storm and he had gotten in trouble and I guess he just freaked when I put him outside.  It is VERY hard to keep your composure so that your kids don't freak out.  We were out looking for him 5 minutes after he was gone.  But, even though he is old, Gable can still run!  

We did everything we possibly could right away.  We searched in the car for 4 hours, then we went home to eat and I made laminated posters to put up.  Over the course of 3 days we had over 45 flyers up all over town, I called every vet in the county every morning and around 4-5 when the were closing, I posted the flyer on the local dog park FB page AND on my personal page.  I asked friends to put tiny flyers in their car windows, I called and visited the local shelter.  I prayed and fasted with family and my kids prayed too.  I think the hardest thing was the not knowing.   I felt strongly that he was ok, but I just didn't know where he was!

It was hard for me to do simple things around the house.  I kept thinking, "I do this everyday.  I should be doing SOMETHING to find him."  Forget blogging, quilting, or preparing school lessons.  I took care of the kids and did what I could to find our shaggy black baby!

Apparently it all paid off!  The shelter takes pictures of the dogs they get in and updates their site automatically.  I had just checked the site about 30 minutes before, but...  just felt the need to check it again.  I was shocked to see a picture of what to me looked exactly like our Gable!  I admit.  I check the literature and only 16 % of lost dogs are returned to their original owners.  While I truly felt something telling me he was ok, I was attempting to wrap my head around the fact that he might not come home.  I was speechless when I ran back to the kids room to ask Aurora and Tyton to come and look at this picture and tell me what they thought.  Yep... they agreed with me!  We shoed the friends home, luckily they are dog lovers and totally got it, and headed to the shelter.  I again attempted to remain calm.  I put the kids in the car, forgot my shoes so I had to go back inside, then forgot my purse, got back in the car, then forgot my phone!  Calm was hard, but on the outside I think I did my best! But, what if it wasn't him!  

I passed 4 cops while going 10 miles over the speed limit cause I knew the shelter was closing any minute.  I am shocked I didn't get a ticket.  We got there 3 minutes before close.  The doors were locked, we pounded, they let us in, they called back the kennel attendant, I rushed to the back and there he was!  In a kennel between two snarling pitbulls.  He was clean.  He was healthy and knew me right away.  He was sitting in there fine until I came.  Then he rushed to the side of the cage and licked my hand.  While I signed papers to get him out they gave him a rabies shot, cause... in my panic I seriously couldn't remember what vet gave him his rabies shot.  So I told them I would just pay for another one!  Then they chipped him and brought him in!  He ran right over to me and the kids and sat down at our feet, wagging his tail!

Of course when we got home it was no big deal for him.  After the hubby laughing and smiling everyone petting him he went to his bed and fell asleep!  Poor baby.  He had to much fun on his adventure I suppose!

Since my last real post was about losing Gable I figured you guys deserved a good wrap up to the "tail"!  I truly had all good intentions of blogging everyday, but with losing our baby and starting homeschool on monday...  Life happens I guess!  I hope that this post is the start of some blogging normalcy!  Even if I am WAY past normal!