We came home frustrated and Sunday morning I decided to print up half sheets and planned to tape them on mailboxes in the area where Abby was found as well as streets in completely opposite direction. I went into already covered areas and again, taped the flier on to mailboxes. We had people we talked to give us good suggestions... get the flier to local radio stations, newspapers, etc. All well and good except it was a holiday weekend the the public was pretty much shut down until Tuesday. I had one wonderful woman ask me to get her a full size flier and she would tape it to her car window and drive around and hopefully, someone would see it and call.
Early afternoon, Sunday, we got a lead. One of the runners we talked to on Saturday was talking to her husband about the lost dog people, and he said that he saw a "shaggy" dog at the trash dumpsters. This meant that Sky and Abby had never been together. Abby went east and Sky went west.
The trash dump is where we take our trash. We have the choice of pick up or deliver. We deliver because it's free. They have one attendant here to push a button and compact the trash in the dumpster. So after the call we high-tailed it over to the dump. We didn't see Sky wandering around so we asked the attendant if we could post a flier. What better place than the dump? Everybody goes there. Well, the local yokel tells me that this isn't his station as he's just filling in for the holiday so we couldn't give me permission to post.
I am so fed up with this holiday. So far this damn holiday has lasted me a lifetime. Now I was concerned because the dump is next to Highway 70 Sparta Highway. Speed limit 55mph. However if she chose to "go on" in the same direction she could have gone down the Old Sparta Highway which runs parallel to 70, but is a two lane with homes on each side. Out with the tape and the fliers. After a few miles we decide to head back home again. We got side tracked a lot. We would see a street that we hadn't covered and turned on it to talk to anybody out and tape up fliers.
So now it is late afternoon and we're going to call it a day and head home because we've been "on the road" since 8:00 a.m. My phone rings and it's a lady, very excited, telling me to hurry, "I think your dog is in our field!" She gives us her address and we rush over. We pass the house, have to turn around and they met us at the truck. "See her out there? In the back of the field?" Sure did! Both Brian and I jumped out of the truck and started yelling her name. It was like a Lassie movie... this little head pops up in the hay field and stares in our direction. We yell her name again and then I see this little head bobbing up and down toward us. The field was surrounded by barbed wire and Brian had to run quite a ways down the field to get over. He picked her up and carried her back to the gate and to me.
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| Sky's finding field, way in the back. |
I have to say that it was really a very weird sensation. The first night our girls were gone, I had a dream. I didn't dream about Abby, but I did dream about Sky. Brian was carrying her to me and she was ragged but okay. As they came closer, I thought about the dream and thought about how weird it was. Brian was carrying her in the same position as it happened in my dream.
The couple that called us said that she had been in their field the day before, but didn't see our flier until their morning walk on Sunday. They were worried that she would get lost again, because (one) the lady didn't have her cell phone on her and had to run into the house and, (two) she had to run to the mailbox that had the flier on it in order to call us. They were a great couple. The husband was a State Trooper and didn't chastise us for posting fliers illegally on telephone poles. Brian promised that we would drive around and remove the fliers.
After a short chat and many thanks to the couple who called us, we loaded Sky in the truck and headed home. She was a mess and stank like stagnant ponds and woods. She had a twig about half-inch in diameter and three inches long matted to the back of her right front legs. Cut that out and looked for any ticks I could find and hosed her down and gave her a bath. I sat in the driveway and brushed her and while I was brushing her belly she fell fast asleep. She was exhausted and didn't even wake up when Brian came out to check on us.
Poor baby, that's when I noticed that her paws were a mess. The front paws were swollen twice their size and part of the pads were missing. Sometimes when she walked both legs would just collapse. She had a bite/sting on her nose and her muzzle was slightly swollen.
About that time my phone rang and the lady on the other end said, "Hey you the lady with the lost dog? She kinda calico lookin' with blue eyes?" I said, "Yes, but we just found her and have her home now." She said, "Oh my Lord, she was in my house last night, but I didn't see the flier until today. I leave the door cracked for my doxie to go in and out and when I got home your dog was in my house! My daughter said she saw the dog in our driveway about 3:00 p.m. today." Bless Sky's heart, she was just trying to find a home to sleep in.
It's been a month now. Sky has been checked out by the vet and has a clean bill of health. It took her three weeks before she even showed an interest in playing Frisbee. I think she was truly depressed over the loss of Abby. All she did was lie around and sigh. I would take her out for a walk and she stuck close to my knee and sometimes even hung behind. She also refused to go near the woods. I picked up some poop and was walking to the woods to toss it in and she stopped short about ten feet from the edge and dug the paws in. I didn't realize it until I found I was dragging a leash and collar and no dog. I turned around and she was just standing there looking at me, then the woods, then me. I could swear she was shaking her head back and forth like NO WAY MOM. I know she wasn't but still...
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| Sky, that calico lookin' dog with the blue eyes. |
