Fluffy's Escape

This morning was less eventful than yesterday morning (thankfully!) "Fluffy", my husky x, dug a hole under the fence and went on an adventure.

Here's the email I sent to my good friend in SJ describing what happened (a few identifying details have been changed, and names changed as usual...)

Yesterday morning I was ready for work, and was just running the dogs one last time before I put them away for the day and got dressed. I put the Fluffy and the two schnauzers out, and when I went to let them in, only the two schnauzers came in. PANIC. After checking to ensure that Fluffy wasn't just outside hiding next to the house, or hiding in the basement somewhere, I crated Puppy & The Old Girl, and headed out to call for Fluffy. When I investigated the compound, I discovered a hole had been dug under the fence on the far side! I ran around calling for him and searching. Nothing. I called mom and dad, I'm not sure why! I searched some around the yard. I called Hubby and left a voice mail. (Hubby doesn't have voice mail. I ended up calling a number like his, but it was off by a number but I didn’t realize at the time - my brain was NOT working! I left a sobbing voice mail on the phone of someone in Grand Falls. Haha!) I went outside and looked some more. Then I called mom and dad and asked them to call the radio station to get it put on the air. After that I got in the car and slowly drove up and down the street to see if I could find him. No luck. So I called my friend since she only lives like 7 minutes away and she offered to come help. While I was waiting for her (it took her like 25 minutes to get there… I woke her up when I called and they still had to take care of their dog before they could come), I grabbed a leash, dumped the cat's food on the counter, threw some doggy treats into the dish to rattle, and started walking down the street, shaking the dish, calling for him and sobbing. All of my neighbours were sticking their heads out their doors to see what was going on, and they all promised to keep an eye out for him. I stopped in home on my way by again to see if anyone had called (since he was wearing his tags with our phone number, I thought maybe someone might have grabbed him.) No luck. I thought about Hubby and tried calling him again. As I was dialing his number I realized that I had called the wrong number earlier. I woke him up, since it was only 5am in Texas! He didn't have any ideas other than what I had already thought of… Keep looking! So I was about to start looking in the other direction (out toward the dead end) but I saw something in the distance that made me walk back the way I had already gone. I ended up chatting with the old lady who lives across the street. It just felt like she was wasting my time – I wanted to get back out there and search! As I was getting away from her place the thing I saw in the distance was gone (I doubt it was him anyway.) Then my friend and her husband drove by. So I ran home to meet them. We quickly talked about where I'd looked, and I kept going out toward the dead end and Natalie and DA started in the yard. As I was walking out the road, I turned around and guess who is running towards me from the ditch on the other side of the road?! Good ole' Fluffy! YAY!!!! I grabbed him and leashed him up and then sat on the side of the road bawling! He had twigs hanging from his bum fur, and stuff stuck all in his fur on his back and chest! What a mess! Just as we returned to the house and were chatting in the driveway, mom drives in! She came all the way out from her place (like a 25 minute drive!) to help me and make sure I was okay!

I'm a very lucky girl! :)

Last night Dad and Brother came over to put some steel pins in the ground and fill in the hole so that my little Houdini can't escape via that same route again (hopefully!)

It was probably the worst hour I've ever had. In my head, I had written him off as gone for good. Everyone is saying now, "Oh, he would have come home." But it's Fluffy. He'll follow his nose for days. And what if he had been hit by a car? *shudder* When I caught him in the middle of the road, a van was coming towards us. What if I hadn't been there to get him off the road? The possibilities are sooo scary!

Anyway, that's my drama for the week. I'm so glad that it had a happy ending! But yesterday was awful. I was a wreck and kept crying at my desk. I think it's because I was so certain that he was gone forever… It was hard to believe he was actually back in the basement.