One Scared Puppy...and a Dog

I have been staying with an incredibly gracious friend for the last month and a half. He is a dog lover and has rescued a greyhound or 2 in his lifetime. Right now, his baby is Dexter. About a week ago Dexter got out. It's a horrible feeling and I was SO glad it didn't happen on my watch.

This week, my baby, Cecelia has been here too. Did I mention how amazingly gracious my friend is?! On Wednesday, I went to a movie and headed home. I wanted to get to bed early because I had an early meeting. I ended up getting stuck in traffic. I turned onto my friend's street and I see him walking toward me with a flashlight. Uh oh.

"Cecelia got out. It hasn't been more than 5 minutes" I wanted to barf. He climbed into my car and off we were. A neighbor overheard us and told us that he had just seen her. We set off in that direction - straight toward the retail area...

We stopped by a house where there were a bunch of kids drinking in the garage ~ undoubtedly the ones that set Cecelia off with the fireworks. "Uh, no, we haven't" "OK, if you see a 45 lb dog with golden hair, please try & get her" "Wait...does she look like a fox? Yeah, I saw her over there about 5 minutes ago!" (sure a fat short version of a fox...).

And we drove off. And around. And around. AAAAnnnd around... My friend walked around while I drove. Then I parked and walked. And then I drove some more. My friend ran into some fellas that had seen her at Gamestop - very close to the state road...

Still no luck. It had been nearing 2 hours. I dropped my friend off and made one more attempt. I drove north on the state road, on the shoulder with hazards on going about 4 miles per hour. I was just about to turn off the road and I caught a glimpse of a Cecelia shaped movement!

My heart leapt. My anxiety, still high, but overwhelmed with relief. I called to her & without even so much as looking up, she headed toward my voice ~ straight into traffic.

I was already on the shoulder and threw the car into park & jumped out. The intersection we were at is probably one of THE most dangerous ones in the area. It's wide and angled. Just all around dangerous and my puppy was walking into it.

She was southbound and the traffic was all northbound and far enough away that I was able to run out into the intersection without risk of getting hit, as long as the drivers were paying attention. Cecelia stopped and sat when I told her and I leashed her. She went straight to the car and sat in her place and seemed quite content to be there. I mapped it and if she only walked a straight line, it was 1.4 miles.

The next morning, she was being a royal bitch. I have been caging her since I am concerned that she would pee in my friend's house ~ well, she cussed me out and flipped her bowl. When my friend got home later that day, he came home to a stinky house and a urine saturated dog bed in the cage.

I can't blame her. She's confused and scared. My friend scares me too! :D

We didn't see where she escaped. we concluded that she had to have climbed the fence. I found it hard to believe, but we had no other ideas...until daylight. My friend found the escape hatch. In a matter of mere minutes, she managed to eat through the chain link fence.