Lost

A couple of weeks ago there was a near tragedy in our house. We were leaving the house and we put the dogs outside. Gibby usually stays inside when we are not home, but that day he went outside. It happens pretty regularly. No big deal. We got in the car and left. We dropped Carolynn at swim practice, we went to the Best Buy, we bought some groceries, we picked up Carolynn and we came home.

Usually, when we come home from somewhere Gibby gets overly excited. He jumps and yelps and runs around. But there was no Gibby. I looked in the back yard everywhere. Only Elvis and Drizella were there. I went out front and looked all around. Still no Gibby in sight. The kids went to ask the neighbors. Nope, they had not seen Gibby.

The girls put away the groceries and I started searching the neighborhood behind our house. Neighbors began telling me horror stories of coyotes and giant owls that would eat small dogs. I was frantic. I called and called. He didn’t come. No one had seen him. I started home hoping David and the girls had found him. They had not.

David had driven all around north of our house. He went all the way down to the park to see if he was there. Still no Gibby. Catherine was in the house crying. It was getting dark. I knew if someone had found him they would have called. He is licensed and wears a name tag with our phone number. He is also microchipped. We had gotten no calls.

It had been four hours since we had seen him. It had been over an hour since we got home and we still could not find our Gibby. I was crying and crying. David went out into the big field across the street to look. But it was just about dark by then.

Carolynn got a flashlight and we hopped in the car and began looking in neighborhoods south of our house. We asked everyone we saw. No one had seen him. We finally decided to go home.

We pulled into the driveway and all of the sudden, out from under a bush in the yard, comes Gibby. I had no idea where he went, but he was back. David fixed the gate where he got out and we don’t leave him outside when we go out anymore.

I nearly had a heart attack.

Stupid dog.