There's a Shadow in the house!



Well. So, Shadow went on quite an adventure barely an hour after arriving at my house on Saturday evening. He slipped his collar during a walk around my neighborhood, and though two young boys, a friendly father and his 8 year old daughter, my own dad and brother, and I chased him around the neighborhood for hours, we were unable to catch him. When the sun went down and we lost sight of him, I admitted defeat for the night and went home completely crushed.

 

I don't feel like rehashing Shadow's ensuing "adventure" (or in my case, gut-punching ordeal) in detail here on the blog, but I do intend to write the whole thing out, especially the end when things got good. The important thing to know is, Shadow is back safe and sound, thanks to the above-and-beyond efforts of lots of people. From Sunday through Tuesday my days were spent communicating with an incredible network of dog lovers, all of them strangers who heard about my lost dog situation from the various alerts and notifications I posted on the internet (I never even got the chance to put up my paper posters, of which I had printed over 50...but I ain't complaining!).

On Wednesday afternoon I got Shadow back and found a new hero. A good samaritan named Steve chased Shadow ON FOOT after he, two young women, and my dad helped me track him by car nearly 5 miles away from where he had first disappeared...I will never know how Steve managed to get the choke chain around his neck, because I was still in my car, idling helplessly in the parking lot Shadow had disappeared into, while Steve pounded the asphalt with a speed that (in my opinion) is worthy of the Olympics. I can only guess how he managed to wrangle Shadow, but whatever he did, I say he should join a rodeo if the Olympics don't work out.

 

The important thing is, Shadow is back, he's unhurt, and he's safe. He walked back into the house (on a leash!) yesterday just two hours shy of exactly 4 days (96 hours) from the time he left it (on a leash). It was probably the longest walk he's ever been on in his 5-ish years of life...and he's not going on any more while he's here with me! He'll have to settle for exploring my nice and secure backyard. Last night when we went out for our nighttime potty break, he lifted his face in the air and sniffed and sniffed...I wonder if he could still smell traces of his adventure in the neighborhood, or if he was just glad that he wasn't smelling hot asphalt and car exhaust anymore!

After taking a nice big drink of fresh water

Several people who know the full story have put in their two cents: "Meryl, you have to write the whole story." "Meryl, you know you could get that published, right?" "Meryl, make sure you record every detail of your experience, it's gonna be a novel someday."

This story is definitely one for the books, so look for it on the shelves in the probably-still-pretty-distant future! In the meantime, I know a boy who's gonna need a lot of rest. As for me, I'm  just happy that my days will no longer consist of continually refreshing my browser on every Found Dog listing on Craigslist and beyond, and hopefully now my phone will stop ringing every 5 minutes! Speaking of which, I guess I better change my voicemail so it no longer talks about a lost dog.

And of course a HUGE "Thank You" goes out to Steve, Lindsay, Lisa, Jere, G.G., Dennis, and everyone else whose names I either never got or just couldn't hold on to in the rush of events that made it possible to bring Shadow home. Every single one of them made it possible for Shadow to be found, and I am eternally grateful. And I am so deeply humbled by the fact that they all acted out of the kindness and goodness of their own hearts; if anything good can come out of a lost pet, it's being able to witness a community of strangers coming together purely out of love for the animal. If every action taken, word spoken, and deed accomplished had that much love infused within it, we'd live in a completely different world. Don't you agree?



Sleeping off his wild adventure