That Darn Dog!

What a night...

I've blogged about my dogs before.  They're rotten, but I love them.  And as much as sometimes I dream about how much simpler life would be if I didn't have three pets to take care of, the truth is, they're part of our family.

Delilah is a GREAT dog.  She was a horrid puppy, but she's grown up into pretty well behaved adult, except for one very unfortunate trait- she's a runner.

Delilah, happy after sanctioned back yard running in the snow.

For whatever reason, she gets the slightest whiff of freedom, and she's off like Flash Gordon.  Running at top speed, foaming at the mouth due to the sheer excitement of the situation.  And she won't stop for nothin'.  I kid you not when I say I could lay a steak on a silver platter in front of her, and she'd run the other way if she thought this meant capture.

Last night, as I was feeding the nugget his dinner, I heard a knock on our front door.  J answered, and I thought I heard mention of our black dog.  Panic immediately set in as I walked to the front door to hear the tail end of what our neighbor was telling us- that Delilah had escaped through a loose picket in our fence, and had headed for the woods.  J immediately runs down the street, barefoot.  And I sulk my way back to the kitchen, only to find that Gabe has emptied his fruit pouch onto his lap.  Good times.

Every other time Delilah has escaped, it's been through the front door, and we've seen it happen.  We've been able to track her, running after her through yard after yard.  And for no other reason than dumb luck, we've caught her every time.  Usually by some dive into the mud during which we somehow miraculously manage to hook a finger into her collar.  And always barefoot.  I'm serious, people.   

But yesterday, we didn't see it happen.  By the time we made it into the street, she was gone.  No sight of her anywhere.  We drove and drove, around the neighborhood, around the streets surrounding the neighborhood.  No luck.  I was devastated.  But I held onto the hope that someone would find her.  She is microchipped, and has a tag with my phone number hanging from her pretty pink collar.

I posted a message with her picture on Facebook, and was overwhelmed by the niceness of people.  Several locals re-posted her picture for their friends to see, and some friends even got into their cars and searched the streets.

Going to bed was the worst.  Knowing that she was out there somewhere, and there just wasn't anything I could do about it.  We left the gate to the backyard open, and also chose to lock the storm door and leave the front door open, so that Daphne could see outside and watch for her return.

I felt pretty hopeless about that.  After all, she had already been on the run for over five hours by the time we went to bed.  But I wasn't going to rule anything out.  Daphne was perhaps the saddest of us all.  She LOVES Delilah, and looked lost without her.  Since she sleeps in a crate downstairs, J knew that she would bark to alert us of Delilah's homecoming, should it happen in the middle of the night.

The pups, cuddling in happier times.  Daphne clearly loves the black one.

 I laid in bed, utterly fitful, sleeping for only a few minutes at a time, checking my phone, listening for barks.  And then, at 3:30, I heard Daphne let out a high pitched bark from her crate downstairs.  J and I  shot straight up in bed, and J sprung up and hurried down the stairs.  I stayed in bed, too afraid to get my hopes up, and truly thinking that Daphne had probably seen a cat wander by.

I can't tell you how happy I was when I heard two dogs THUNDER up the stairs to say hello.  SHE FOUND HER WAY HOME!  J said she had come through the gate into the back yard, and was jumping up at the back door to be let in.  YAY!

Today, after ten hours of running, Delilah is a tired dog.  She usually wakes us up by 6:30 each morning.  Today, she was not interested in waking up.  She walked downstairs and got right up onto the couch to sleep some more.  And as I was getting ready, she couldn't even make it to the dog bed, but slept on the floor right next to it.  But not without Daphne, who won't let her out of her sight.

They're holding hands.  The cuteness.

Happy puppies.  Happy me.