Monday, March 23, 2015

Prodigal Dog

The last week of last month, Connie in I were in California visiting the kids. Connie's sister Paulette was house sitting/dog sitting for us while we were gone. I have mentioned a number of times before that we have an "invisible fence" system that works pretty effectively to pin them in and lets the dogs roam on their own over a couple of acres.

One morning Paulette let the three dogs out for their early morning potty break and when she was going to let them back in for breakfast, Buck, the male blue merle (see above), was nowhere to be found. She checked the box for the fence system and it was working. She went all over the yard calling and didn't see him, and drove the neighborhood to no avail. We were stuck in California and couldn't really do much of anything to help. We contacted the local vets and shelters and Animal Control with no results.

I don't do Facebook, but Connie does, and she discovered there is a large community of people there who help to look for lost pets. She put up information about Buck on there and told me that there were something like 650 followers to the post. We found out later that several people we don't know otherwise, were driving the neighborhood looking for him and checking Craigslist to see if a dog matching his description was being offered for sale.

He disappeared on a Friday morning and we heard nothing all weekend. I was certain he was a goner. Then Monday morning, Paulette heard a noise at the front door, and there was Buck crying to be let in.

There had been a snow storm over the weekend yet Buck looked dry and clean and none the worse for wear. I find it hard to believe he stayed out in bad weather for three days and came back looking like he did. Also we checked his collar and it was still functioning. Did somebody take him (he's friendly and would go with just about anybody) and then bust him loose after three days? He had our contact information on his collar, but no one ever called.

It's a mystery and he won't tell us what happened. Sure glad to have him back.

Here's the whole crew reassembled.

    

2 comments:

Peculiar said...

So glad to read the happy ending, Reid!

Phil Yearout said...

WElcome home Buck!