This am… Isabella, our 16 year old Lhasa Apso (dog)… got herself lost. Mostly blind and deaf…. she somehow got herself confused when she went outside and for the first time in the five years we have lived at our new house…. she got herself missing.5:40 am – I let Isabella outside (for the second time)… “Boy Joe it’s cold out.. 17 degrees… brrr”… 10 minutes later.. “Joe did you let Isabella back in?”….nope.. hmm… I shine a flashlight from the door into back yard.. out window into side yard, out front door into front yard.. listen.. no noise.. nothing… hmm.. “Joe where the heck is she?”..
So I ..(ha..please don’t laugh).. am in my footed skull flannel jumping jammers (PJ’s), a housecoat, and I slip into some knee high flowered rain boots, hat, gloves and coat and with flashlight in hand venture outside to look for her.. wading through the snow…
…I am calling her name.. (she is deaf by the way)… I am starting to freak out.. I mean HOW FAR COULD SHE HAVE GONE!!??.... after walking a couple circles around outside of house and yard, I start to walk up street.. Heather is now outside too with her flashlight.. mine just went dead.. Heather said she is going to get her car… Heather goes up road in car… I get another flashlight and Joe joins the search.. now all three of us are calling her name (AGAIN.. she is deaf)… and shining flashlights up and down the road.. all our neighbors still appear to be asleep.. it’s now about 6:15 am …
I check down by the creek.. fearful I may see her frozen solid in the water.. no.. phew… good.. she cant see, so if the snowplow comes down street she most certainly will be plowed into a snow bank….panic… its very dark…hard to see anything…Isabella is white and gray.. and so small.. not going to make it easy to spot her if she is hurt and not moving.. listen.. NOTHING… got a huge pit in my stomach…
I didn’t want to lose her this way.. her suffering out there alone and frightened….. I thought I would have myself a cry… but it was too cold… Joe got in his car and went back up road..
..I don’t take her for walks anymore because her legs tire so easily… so she doesn’t wear a collar.. so not good.. no one will know where she belongs.. no id.. what if she just freezes to death and we never find her.. ??
… so now I play detective .. Heather and I recheck a “trail” of something that went into our neighbors yard and down through their woods to their drive way..then the trail went cold.. or so we thought.. I shined my light a bit… very faintly in the snow are a couple small dog paw prints.. two of them. ..I follow them…. nothing.. sigh… . very faintly it started to get less dark.. this should help.. then I saw something…
Heather stated later she had seen this but didn’t realize it could have been Isabella’s prints.. there was a set of prints that went from our other neighbors driveway across their yard and around their house… I called Joe and Heather over… they took one side I took the other.. Joe said he thought he heard something.. we stopped and listened.. nothing.. it’s about 6:50am now.. we had been out in the cold looking for her for well over an hour… I had a horrible deep down feeling of dread… then I heard it.. and Joe and Heather heard it.. a faint bark.. ISABELLA… we listened again…. where is she????
Joe and Heather sprint through the back woods of our neighbors… and through the next development and she was standing there barking in the middle of no where… cold, lost and lonely… wanting her family… I don’t think much can express how happy all three of us where. We were BEYOND ELATED… !!.. I started to tear up.. I got her in a big towel and held her tight… she is getting way too much love now.. (I am sure she will promptly piss on floor once we get inside.. oh well.. )..
BY THE WAY.. THANKFULLY it had snowed because if it had not snowed we would have never found her… the trail she left in snow was what finally led us to her… (after we determined what was her trail and not deer or rabbit trails… ).. not only did she walk farther than she has in over 10 years… she did it through 3 inches of snow and being partly blind… AMAZING.
YES.. we wont let her out of our sight now…
