Karma finally came back to bite me for every time I rolled my eyes at people who said their dogs got lost because someone must have opened their gate and let them out.
Everyone knows how VERY diligent I am about my boys' safety. I regularly check my gate to make sure it's closed securely. It's wonky and REALLY hard to get open, so it's just as hard to get it shut. But nobody had been here. Nobody had been in or out of my yard in at least a week. I'd checked the gate 100 times since then and it was fine. It was fine at 4:00 yesterday afternoon, so when I let the boys out around 6:30 last night I had no reason to think otherwise. I went back to watching TV and shortly thereafter, Chicken Wing came and perched on top of the couch to watch with me. Everything seemed perfectly normal.
I got a call from a former Animal Control officer and thought nothing of it. What's up, dude? "Is Beau with you?" I checked his crate. I checked my bedroom. I checked the office. I looked outside and saw my gate open. I immediately went into a terror panic, running up the middle of the street screaming, with her still on the phone. An Animal Welfare and Management truck was heading up the street straight at me (she was in my neighborhood on another call and had recognized my dog). She pointed and I saw Beau trotting up the sidewalk. Luckily, he came to me with relative ease, and I was able to get him home safely. I started screaming for Cheeto. He was gone too.
As the AMW officer and I continued to scour every street in my neighborhood (with me sobbing uncontrollably) I got a call from a sweet young lady who lived several streets farther away than where we were looking. She and her daughters had found Cheeto, wet and scared, but otherwise relatively unscathed. They had him back to me in a matter of minutes but it felt like an eternity pacing my sidewalk. I gave them every dollar in my wallet because I felt like I couldn't thank them enough for bringing my boy home. It was only $14, so it's not like they won the lottery, but maybe she got the girls some ice cream.
The moral to this story is that no matter how careful you are, accidents still happen. Although, I'm convinced this was no accident; my gate didn't accidentally "fall" open. Someone with a grudge WANTED me to lose my dogs, and it worked. People really ARE mean just to be mean. So, take an extra second to check your yard next time you let your dogs outside. It may seem silly, but it might also save their lives.
Oh Shea I'm so glad you got them back. My Angel got out when a contractor didn't shut the gate properly and the wind blew it open. She was gone for 24 hours. Up until that day she had been in great condition at age 13. After I found her she was never the same again and started going downhill until she could no longer get around and had lost half her body weight. It broke my heart to let her go.
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ReplyDeleteI'm glad to know your boys are home safe & sound from their adventure! You are right, Shea, things happen beyond our control, even in a normally safe, secure environment. We never know what can happen, and, need to be aware of our pets just like children. Dog owners (at least in Amarillo) should also be aware of the significant increase in stolen pets recently. One of our clients' dogs, a Maltese, was stolen by a man in a black sedan who pulled up to a group of kids (4-7 yrs old) playing with her in her front yard, grabbed the dog & took off with her. A friend of mine had her Chihuahua stolen out of her fenced back yard - witnessed by neighbors. Two nights ago, this was posted by Emily Fox of Amarillo on FaceBook:
ReplyDeleteTonight I had a run in with what I am assunming are dog thieves in the area of Ross & Osage, in a white truck in my alley. I've made all the right contacts, but, I am sharing to help spread the word, and, possibly prevent it happening to others. This evening I was alerted & startled to find two , White men & one Hispanic man in the alley, attempting to lure my PitBull to them with calls & whistling. They were brutally interrupted by my Shepherd escaping my fence going toward them,nearly being hit by their truck when they escaped. One thing that was noticed and heavily taken into thought is that my fence was flagged with a red ribbon that I do know was not there earlier, so, please, please keep watch on your fur babies when they are outside and for any suspicious ribbon on your fences!
News Channel10 also reported on the recent rise in stolen pets:
https://www.newschannel10.com/Global/story.asp?S=26521868
May have to copy & paste the link in your address bar, which, does work - since it didn't copy like it was supposed to.
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