Customarily, when the alarm goes off at 5:30, I suddenly have three BC's in the bed with me saying, "Dad! Wake up and pet us!" and a corollary: "...and we REALLY need to go out."
So I get up and stagger to the back door and let them out. They run around and bark and pee and poop while I fix coffee and do other morning chores. While it's still cool enough, I join them on the patio for coffee (coffee for me, chewies for them).
This morning, however, I had a lot of work to do, so I let them out as normal. When I finally got up from the computer to go shower and change prior to heading for the office, I glanced out (as I always do) at them. They were sitting there looking at me and the gate, as usual, was closed.
As I arrived at the bathroom to start my get-ready process (my bathroom is on the back side of the house), I heard a lot of barking. This usually means, "A marauding squirrel!" or "Look! A bird!". I didn't pay any attention.
I came back to the back door to let them in---and the gate was open and Lucy and Ethel were nowhere to be found. Bessie was standing at the back door, frantic. Let her in, then went off in search of the others.
Long story short: 3 hours of driving around frantically, panic setting in (I live in Houston; dogs don't last on the major streets here), I realize that their tags have my old cell phone number (employer changed it in February); even if somebody found the dogs, they couldn't call me.
I called the old cell phone number and got this nice lady; I introduced myself to her and she said, "Are you missing some dogs? I've gotten a call on them, let me look at my caller ID and you can call them." So she did and I did.
These two nice ladies, dog rescuers, saw my dogs running across the major intersection near my house. The ladies stopped and called and Lucy and Ethel came right over. They called the number on the tags, then put the dogs in the back of their Lexus and were contemplating their next move when I called them.
Morals of the story:
- Always have the numbers on the tags up to date. (They're chipped, too, but still...).
- There is still good in the world. Nice ladies, to stop traffic in the busy intersection while they got the dogs out of harm's way.
- I'm going to call Reliant Energy and we are going to have a "disCUSSion" about their meter reader.
- Bessie has earned her stripes. The others departed and she stayed home. This the second time she's done that. She's been my rescue pup and I've been trying to adopt her out. No more. She's home. I don't know what the HOA is going to say, but we'll work it out.
and I'm really, really glad to have my dogs back. I don't ever want to go through that again.
Thank you, nice ladies who rescued my dogs, and nice lady who has my old cell phone number. I offered a reward to each; they declined. I offered a dozen red roses each; they declined. I was so obviously relieved, as I turned to leave I heard one say to the other, “Aww, that worked out nicely!”
All I can say is, “Thank you, ladies”.
Lucy
Ethel:
Bessie:
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