Gone Dog

Last Thursday evening Dracen went over to Momaw Pat's after school and she brought him home a little after five.  She came in and we were standing in the living room conversing when I realized Charlie was trying desperately to get our attention...

"The door is open.  Where is Brisco?  Has anybody seen Brisco?  The door is OPEN!"  

I stopped in mid-sentence and began the frantic search for Brisco Darling.  If you've been reading this blog for very long then you know that he is a bolter.  Why?  Only God knows.  But we have all each chased his wiener tail over the water and through the woods on at least one occasion.  

It has been quite a long while since he pulled a fast one on us and I was really hopeful that he'd wised up about the whole bolting thing. I mean let's be honest, that pampered wiener is not exactly what you'd call street smart.  Once I realized he was indeed not in the house and began reaching for a jacket and some shoes, I noticed that Lucky the Lemon Beagle was also missing. 

And that's when I really panicked because if he was in the lead, they could have been halfway to Timbuktu already.  

We all set out searching the neighborhood which is pretty secluded, very wooded and about to be very dark.  Soon.  I was getting nowhere so came back to the house, hopped in my car and made my way out of the neighborhood to drive the roads, thinking maybe they'd gone through the woods behind the house and come out on the other side.  

No such luck.  I was sick with worry when I came back in the neighborhood that was just about all the way dark by this point.  I turned at the loop (our neighborhood is one long winding road but has a little loop in it).  We are right in the middle so it's about the same distance either way.   I turned left there and slowed because I thought I saw something and sure enough, it was Brisco Darling wandering around with that pitiful Are you my mother? look on his face and going in the wrong direction.   

That wiener was LOST.

I scooped him up into the car, squeezed him silly, exhaled, and headed back to the house hoping Lucky had shown back up...  

He had not.  

Dracen was frantic and the tears were just about to start.  I thought maybe Lucky had gone back to wherever he had come from before he showed up here shot and that we were in for a long, rough night.  

Momaw Pat had just gotten in her car to leave when I heard excited voices.  She had seen him lying in the front yard by the bushes, exhausted and Dracen, all of 60 pounds, had scooped up that 30 pound Beagle and carried him into the house with the biggest grin I'd ever seen spread wide across his face.  

Momaw Pat said, "I guess God does answer prayers about animals."  


I never doubted it for a second.