posted
Yesterday evening I cut the yard around my fence and noticed a small hole. My two dogs didn't seem interested in them, so I figured I'd spend today fixing it up.
Then last night, chasing a wild coyote, our newer dog got out.
Our older dog we nicknamed houdini, since he loves to get loose and run around. However, being a 14 year old Chow, I guessed those days were behind him.
Wrong.
When he got the chance this big dog slipped through the small hole and ran out.
Here it is 10:30pm and my dogs are running for the woods.
I woke Cindy, grabbed our flashlight and went out.
I came back with the newer dog--Misty, because she is smart enough to come when called.
The older dog refuses. He loves to chase and slurp on cats, so I think there is some cat in him.
Being jet black, there was little chance of me finding him last night. I stayed up past midnight and yelled for him with every light in the house on.
Except the light in Sasha's room. He slept through it.
We've had this dog for 12 of those 14 years and are quite attached to him, so him missing was upsetting.
The last time he ran off he was gone for a month. We had given him up for dead. Cindy's tears were real, and mine were barely restrained. Luckilly it was months before we had Sasha. I did not look forward to telling him his favorite dog was gone.
Radar (the dog) came by one time, around 10:45, to the front door. I went to let him in, but he just looked at me as if to say, "Hey, I'm a big dog now. I'll be ok. See you later."
Then nothing.
I awoke at 5:30am after a terrible nights sleep and with a bad headache.
Guilt gives me bad headaches, and I felt guilty about letting the dog get away.
I drove around the area looking for him.
Nothing.
Sasha got up and went with momma to school/work while I worked from home. We avoided telling him Radar had run off. We were just too busy to go outside and play with him this morning.
Then, about 1/2 hour ago (10:00am Central time)I went outside to call for him again.
And there he was, sitting on the drive in the sun looking exhausted.
I slowly walked out to get him and he looked up at me as if saying "Man, what a night. Hey, I'm getting way to old for this."
As I put him inside the newly mended fence Cindy called asking if there was any news. The joy in her laugh when I said "Heeeee's back" almost made my headache go away.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
That happened with our cat once. He was gone for three weeks... It turned out he had gotten lost during a rainstorm and ended up under someone's shed a few blocks away, too scairt to come out. They were feeding him. My mom was so happy when he came back. He did it one more time, but we were ready for him that time.
Posts: 4816 | Registered: Apr 2003
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My Maltese did that to us too. (looooong time ago) We looked for him everywhere, and put an ad in the newspaper. Our neighbors were looking for him too. A couple of weeks later he showed up, dirty and all matted. But he a huge smile on his face.
Now my Shiba is always on a leash!!!! She also has a micro chip planted as well.
Posts: 333 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
Smokey likes to run away too. If you chase her, or even just follow her calling, she goes further away. She's not even aware of cars and will chase after anything that moves (leaves, rabbits, carbon atoms).
I worry about her getting out constantly, but there's no way to stop it from happening EVER. We've had leashes break, for example. And sometimes she just pulls hard at just the wrong moment and voom!
Oh well. Dana says I'll just have to live through the fear.
I think she's secretly jealous of Smokey and wants to kill her. Either that or she's right.
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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Our dog Harpo is a roamer. Every chance he could he'd get out and take off for a day or so. Later, worried sick, we'd get a call from a neighbor or someone a few streets over to come get him.
After a while we started noticing he always went to the same places - houses with young children. Turns out he had a route he followed, as faithfully as he could, to go and play with the kids (and get fed each time, of course) until someone called for us or he headed home.
We had to get really strict about keeping him on a leash or inside after the area started building up and kids started racing three-wheelers in the area. I think he misses it.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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