the runaway

Cricket, Cricket, Cricket.  In her younger years she was a looker.  A real head turner.  Lately though the years have taken her beauty and some of her personality, her hearing and all her sight.  Some days she is "here" and other days she is just a shell of a dog.  We can't leave her outside alone because she can't find her way back to the house.  She can't find her way to the food and water either.  But she isn't in pain.  She still eats.  She is comfortable.

So this week we put Cricket outside to use the bathroom and she was forgotten.  About 30 minutes later I asked "where is Cricket?".  We quickly looked outside to the cul-de-sac where she usually would end up just wandering around in circles....but she wasn't there.  We looked in the neighbor's yard.  Nothing.  We looked up and down our street 4 times, knocked on all our neighbor's doors and looked behind their houses.  We looked in the woods behind our house and in the cul-de-sac.  Nothing.  Nothing.  It was getting dark and cold and starting to sprinkle.  I was holding it together but when I had walked the street for the 3rd time I started to cry.  I didn't know where else to look.  Richard felt the same way.

I told my good friend Joanne about our dilemma and she brought her whole family over to help us look.  They came right as I was about to *realistically* give up.  Just when I was about to let my mind go to the place where I would start to feel the emotions of this situation I heard the words "I found her!".  What?

Joanne's boyfriend had walked the woods starting at our neighbor's house and followed the fence to our yard and crossed over 2 barbed wire fences into the pasture.  He heard some rustling and a little whimper.  There was our baby girl!  She had fallen into a gulley and was badly tangled in thorns and briers.  She was covered in mud and all wet.  He had to cut away some of the thorns and she had a pretty long thorn still tangled that we had to cut out.

Even though Cricket exhibits no sign of "knowing" most of the time....she knew where she was this time.  She usually doesn't enjoy cuddling or snuggling but she showed how much she enjoyed this by licking our faces.  Once you get past the rotten-fish breath it is a sweet thing!

I don't know how we would have made it through the night knowing she was lost out in the cold.  That evening I would have moments of panic and then remember she was not lost anymore.  We can't thank our friends enough for helping us find her.  True friends.

After she was warmed up we put her in the bathtub, washed away all the dirt and told her many times how happy we were she was home!  I even warmed up her blanket in the dryer.  I think she liked that!