11 Dark Days

One beautiful summer day in June almost two years ago now, I let Gretchen, (my female boxer) and two of my other dogs out for a run on this 200 acre farm I live on. Her companions, Zues (my male rottweiler), big, big, baby by the way. Scared of his own shadow. And of course her other companion Tulla, (pronounced Toolah, a female black lab) Hours later after calling for them they still had not returned. Realizing that they were either not on the property or just ignoring me. I began to get a bit worried when I finally spotted them breaking through the hedgerow heading back for home. Zues looking totally exhausted and Tulla looking like she was high on life came strolling back into the yard. But there was no Gretchen.

Where was my baby Boo Boo? As I had adoringly nicknamed Gretchen as a small pup. I called and called and no response. I waited and waited and still she did not return. I drove up and down my very rural country road panicking, stopping at all of my neighbor's houses to ask them if they had seen my brindle boxer at all today. Nothing, no one had seen her. Or were they lying to me? I was going crazy with terrible thoughts of my neighbors stealing my beloved baby. I drove up and down the road at a turtles pace calling her name and all of the while scanning the sides of the roads and in the ditches praying that the worst hadn't happened. Praying that she hadn't been hit by a car and wasn't suffering in pain in the ditch, or worse that she was dead. Those were the only things that I could imagine that would keep her from coming home. Night came and went and she still didn't return. First thing in the morning I called my local dog warden to report that she was missing. He hadn't received any calls about her but took down my number incase he did get a call. I then called yet another dog warden in another nearby district, just in case. I called the SPCA. I called every local veterinarian to see if she had been hit and was brought in. Still nothing. By this time I was convinced that someone must have taken her. One more day went by. Still I drove the roads for miles looking. Trying to peak into everyone's back yards to make sure that she wasn't being held captive. I knew in my heart that she was still alive. I then got another idea, I called the State Police and told them that I wanted to file a report. Although the officer that responded was very pleasant he was also not very helpful. Of course my dog was not a priority and there was no proof that she had been stolen. So the only thing that I got out of my trouble was an official police report. But maybe that would come in handy for me if I did find her in someone's yard I thought to myself.

The next thing that I did was to place an ad in the local newspaper. I also called everyone else that had a missing dog in the newspaper to ask them under what circumstances their dog had disappeared. I was totally convinced by now that there must be some underground dog stealing ring going on in my town.

Finally on day number 9 on a Friday evening a woman called me and said that she had seen my ad in the local newspaper. She stated that her husband had recalled seeing a brindle boxer at the lumberyard, which was two miles from my road. He had been working there the day my dog came up missing. He also said that there were two other dogs there; a rottweiler, and a black lab. BINGO!!!! I thought. That was definitely her! The woman said that they were hanging around on the guys' lunch break being little beggars. Her husband also said that there was a certain guy, (which she named) that was teasing about how he wanted to take that boxer and rottweiler home. Her husband warned the guy that the dogs certainly looked as if they were healthy and cared for and had a home. After lunch he didn't see anything else of the dogs and he didn't see if this guy took them or not. I thanked the woman for the information and quickly started thumbing through the phone book for the name that she provided to me. Nothing! And the lumberyard was already closed for the day. I couldn't call the office to get this guy's address until Monday now!

The weekend was the longest weekend of my life. While I now had hope that Boo Boo was alive, I was still very anxious to get hold of this guy and make him give me my dog back. I had to go to work at 7:00 am on Monday morning and the lumberyard office wouldn't be open until 9:00am. Just as soon as they opened I called. The secretary at the office told me that this person was a young guy. He hadn't been with them for very long. She also informed me that the day that my dog came up missing was also the day that this guy quit his job unexpectedly and told them that he was moving. He said that he was moving to Fillmore, which is a little more than an hour from here. She did not have his new address, but she thought that his address on file was his mother's address. I quickly got that address from her. As luck would have it, I was working only a few blocks from the address she gave me and I had about a half hour break to run over there and speak to his mother.

I got right into my car to race over there. I called own my mom while I was driving and told her that I was going to confront this woman about where her son was and where my dog was. My mom told me that she was traveling through Fillmore as we spoke. Apparently she had business to take care of further past there. That was amazing because my mother rarely ever travels out that way. When I arrived at the address and pounded on the door of a very dilapidated house. Finally a very unkept looking woman answered the door. I didn't even give her a chance to protect her son. I demanded to know his new address and told her that I had already called the police, and I wanted my dog back! She caved in on the spot. She admitted that her son had been there with the dog days earlier. She claimed th have no idea that the dog belonged to someone. She said that she didn't want any trouble and she gave me the address in Fillmore. I quickly dialed my cell phone and called my mom, I put the woman on the phone with her and told her to give my mom the directions. The sun was shining down on me, my mother was two miles from his house and she arrived in his driveway quickly. Before the woman was off my phone with her she was headed up the walk to the door.

I headed back to work and waited anxiously for my mom to call with the results of her sneak attack visit to this man. My phone rang back within fifteen minutes. It was my mom. And she had Gretchen in her car! Oh my God, I thought! I was so overwhelmed with joy. I couldn't wait to get done working so I could see her again. It had been 11 days at this point. I couldn't believe that I had my baby back. She was now safe.

Because my mom had approached him so abrasively and unsuspectingly he had no chance to hide or deny that he had the dog. He returned the dog with no struggle. I never pursued pressing charges. I did however believe that higher forces were certainly helping to reunite me with my dog. Everything had fallen perfectly into place that day.

Losing Gretchen for those 11 days was the hardest emotional roller coaster that I ever been on. My family member was out there somewhere. The not knowing was the hardest. I have never forgotten the emotional trauma from that experience. I also have never taken for granite the value of my pets since then.