Flippy - I Rant, You Read
Monday, November 01, 2010
Day Two - It’s Much More Difficult
I know we were given weekends to ease off the stress of blogging daily, so we could just blog pictures or videos, but I think I’ll be fine by the weekend. It’s today that’s going to be tough. Dante & Mack, our two big dogs (Anatolian Shepherd & German Shepherd) decided to go out on an adventure. They were fed outside at 1am, and then they usually spend hours and hours together hanging out after that. None of our dogs has ever, in our 13 years together, gotten out or lost.. Early this morning when we went to take the little dogs out, we discovered the big dogs were missing. We’d had some people come over to help us clear out the weeds from the backyard and take them to the dump in their trailer. Well, the gate ended up not getting shut as tightly as it could have been. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, except for the dogs, for taking advantage of it and pushing against the gate to get it to crack open (the gates were chained together and they were pushed out to leave a small gap) and leave. We were driving around the dark dark neighborhood in the freezing cold looking for them, but we didn’t see them. We came back home to wait until it was lighter out, so we could see. While we were waiting, Mack came home on his own. We’re pretty sure that Mack is the one responsible for the initial act of leaving, since we’ve had Dante from puppyhood and he’s never shown any sign of trying to get out. Mack (who we rescued last year to keep Dante company after he showed signs of severe depression after Eli, his bestest pal died) tried to run off when we first took him home from the vet. Fortunately, there was a guy there who could whistle really loudly, and surprisingly, Mack came running back.
It got light out, we called Animal Control and reported Dante missing. We posted on FidoFinder, then we started driving around the neigbhorhood again. We met some really nice people, and one of them even went out on her bike with a clip, so if she found Dante, she could have him leashed to her. Still, we had no luck finding Dante. We took a walk, hoping we might find him near someone else’s dogs. We had to wait a few more hours and then we reported him missing to our local shelter, too. Finally, at 3p, the shelter called, letting us know that Animal Control had brought Dante in. It was such a relief. We still don’t know where he was, but hopefully Animal Control will be able to let us know. Since Dante is arthritic and old, we figured that he wouldn’t have been able to go as far as Mack. We’re assuming someone found Dante, took him in, then called Animal Control when they opened. Dante came home in perfect physical condition (although it cost us $40, ugghh, to get him out of the pokey), but Mack is limping really badly. He must’ve gone pretty far and at a pretty fast clip. He’s having trouble walking when he first stands up, at first only walking on three legs. Hopefully, he’ll loosen up over time.
Since we’d decided to take the little dogs out to take care of business right before we went to bed, discovering that the dogs were missing was a rude awakening. We were already sleep deprived, so adding another day onto it, plus the stress of the dogs being missing, multiplied the exhaustion. Here’s a reminder to everyone, if you’re moving, change your pets’ microchip information as soon as you have the new info and get them new collars or tags with your new info. Both dogs had collars and microchips, but the microchips had to be updated. Our moving experience was so awful that we’ve kind of just been recovering since then and feeling pretty lousy. But, that was no excuse for not updating the info. We got lucky that we moved to a small town with dog-friendly neighbors who probably weren’t afraid of our kids. The houses are far apart, there is very little traffic near where we live now, so all it came together for a happy ending. We never ever want to go through this again though. It was truly awful and I feel terrible for people who have had to go through it with worse outcomes. It’s so hard not knowing where your pets are and if they’re okay. So, everyone, if you don’t have updated info on your microchips and collars, update it RIGHT NOW. It will bring you some peace of mind.
Next entry: Uggghhh Previous entry: Day One - It Begins
