Lost Dogs and a Loving Wife

Last Friday, the wife and I took the baby to his first football game. Can’t beat a Texas high school football game that comes down to a last second field goal for the win. (And might I add that my little brother provided the key, turning point in the game) The baby was surprisingly alert and, by the end of the game, was over his fear of loud noises. We got home around 10:30 PM and I opened the back door to find an empty yard. Our 2 dogs were nowhere to be found. I immediately started looking for holes under the fence. No holes. I checked the gate. Still latched. So I walked out front to look around.

We’ve had our 70+ lb lab mix hop the six-foot fence before, but she was always skittishly waiting at the front door when we got home. It’s pretty impressive, actually, to see her figure out how to climb up and over utilizing the corner of the yard where two fences meet at a 90. I thought I had remedied the problem. But this time, both were gone and neither was timidly awaiting us on the front porch. So, I began to think that someone stole them, which infuriated me. My wife stayed at the house and called anyone that could have helped us that late at night while I frantically drove around the neighborhood. I drove up and down the backroads near our house and still couldn’t find anything. The night’s darkness seemed to lay an extra heavy blanket on my headlights. I finally came home to look for any clue that might have helped me figure out where they were. Still no luck. So I left the back gate open and set a bowl of food in the back and opened the front door and set another bowl there, hoping that they would find their way home, like they do in the movies. I think I sat down next to my wife at around midnight, clearly distressed.

I didn’t know what else to do and felt helpless and useless not being able to do more. So we sat there, on the couch, with that very vulnerable, uneasy feeling that we might not see them again. I felt angry, gutted and robbed of members of my family. Right then, my wife stands up and walks out of the room. She comes back with a tower of blankets and declares, “We’re sleeping by the front door!”

As irrational and pointless as that sounds, it was exactly what I needed to hear. My wonderful wife had come up with the one idea, outside of hopelessly driving around all night, that gave me a sliver of hope.

So we slept in the foyer, all three of us, door cracked, listening for the 4th and 5th member to return home.

I woke up several times but not once to a lick to the face. Saturday morning I set out again to retrace my steps around the neighborhood and stopped everyone I came across to ask if they’d seen our two dogs. Still nothing…back to the house to sit and wait. At about lunchtime I went out again to search around a natural gas drill site behind the house. I was rapidly losing hope as I headed home. But I got a call from my wife: “Hurry home! Someone has them! I’ll give you the address!”

They had managed to make their way about a half mile north to another development. They looked exhausted and disoriented when I picked them up but fine otherwise. They came home and slept all day Saturday and through the night too.

I might be overreacting and I’m pretty sure those without dogs wouldn’t understand, but having them back makes me feel like my family is whole again.