longest 24 hrs ever

I have so many blogs started, just haven't finished them and posted them. .

Last week I endured 24 hrs of HELL. . .the longest 24 hrs ever.

Nacht needed 6 points going into the weekend. .unfortunately there's no other ASFA until the end of June, and I'm hoping she's in Europe by then. . who knows, been hoping she'd be in Europe for awhile. . .unfortunately there was a conflict, with LGRA put on by my friends. I felt obligated to support them, since they were in the front field. . .and was just going to not worry about the ASFA, and hope it was cool enough in June to run and that she'd be here.

A friend said they were going, and after thinking about it a bit, she had liked him and been very outgoing and friendly with him the last time she'd seen him, had let others slip and catch her, I didn't think anything of there being problems when i asked if he minded running her.

Unfortunately when I handed her off, even tho I thought I had packed everything, her brain stayed home. Her teenage hormones were taking up all the brain space. . (she was in season in April)

Now, she ran Saturday at LGRA, was fine with all sorts of people handling her, walking away, boxing her, etc, etc. . .so she MUST'VE had her brain then, but somewhere between Saturday evening and Sunday morning,she misplaced it. Maybe Gibbs borrowed it for the day, but I have never had a bitch become such a complete nincompoop during her 'slump' as Nacht did Sunday. . .and things that hadn't bothered her before then did, tho getting attacked by a basenji probably didn't start her day off(thankfully the bad dog came away with only tail feathers). I don't know exactly what happened, was told she acted spooked that day, and suddenly I had a missing dog. . .

ANd thus starts the worse 24 hrs EVER.

I wasn't there to see what happened after she decided to play keep away coming in for BOB, been told conflicting stories, so not going there. . what all stories agreedupon was she got away thru a gape in the fence.

I got the call on the way there, and that trip, which normally takes about an hour, felt like it took 3. . .when we got there, they showed us where she had disappeared into. A heavy thatch of overgrown woods in the middle of farmland. . not a huge batch of woods, a couple of acres with house and a paddock of whitetail deer. They'd already talked to the landowner, and so I went traipsing thru the woods.

Four hours of here puppy puppy puppy. . .stopping to sit in the AC for a bit and rehydrate and then go out again, my friends drove around, talked to people, gave out numbers, while I walked the woods. Wanted to make sure someone was on the outside in case she went out hte back or sides. . .

Four hours, not a sign of her, mind you, she was wearing her pink blanket, but not a sign, tripping over dead wood, vines, getting attacked by wild rose and berry bush thorns, brushing against who knows what?

Oh yeah, did I mention I was in shorts? I am so glad I started to wear tennies to events since I hurt my knee, more support. . so I at least had them on and not my crocs of last year. . .I left Sunday looking like a survivor of a battle of cats. . .and praying I hadn't walked into poison ivy. Unfortunately, I think I did.

We decided that she probably was collapsed somewhere in that mess. It was somewhere around 90 with high humidity, and she had on a heavy black fur coat. . .needing fliers to hand out, and unable to do much more as walking that area in the dark was a leg breaking opportunity, we headed home.

Got her microchip registered and went to findtoto.com.

This is a WONDERFUL website. You put the zipcode of the area the dog was lost in, and pick an option from 250 calls to 10000 neighbors to call in that area, and an automated phone will call everyone in that area they can get hold of and leave them a message with a description of the dog, your number, and other pertinant information. It is a wonderful tool, ended up being unneeded, but I know it has helped others bring their dogs back home.

Homeagain gives you a flyer and Bonnie ran that to kinkos as I was so exhausted and stressed I was dead on my feet and sick to my stomach. . part of that was probably I hadn't eaten anything since 11 that morning. . tried to sleep, didnt' happen, up early with plans to brush a bunch of dogs, take her bed and a bag of food over with the flyers and seed the area with food and hair into an empty paddock on the land owner's property when we get a call.

She was SPOTTED!! First sign of her since she'd slipped into the woods. Workers at a speedway about half a mile away from the woods, headed back towards the coursing fields, were trying to lure her in with water. I was ready to jump in the AC-less Neon but Jim convinced me to wait a few minutes until he got ready so we could go out in the Prius which has AC, glad I did, as by the end of the day we needed it. Less than 20 mins later on our way there, they called back to say she'd been caught.

When we got there and she saw me, she couldn't stop talking, moan moan moan moan, and then she went to Jim and did the same thing. Not sure if she was saying OMG You came back for me, or OMG, I promise NEVER EVER EVER to do that again. . .

Seems she stayed in the woods as far as we can tell all night Sunday, and then headed across the fields saturday morning. . the workers found her curled up under the ambulance with her coursign blanket tangled around her backlegs. Got her out of that and she took off to hide in the bathrooms which is where she was when my two friends who were at the field for the event got there.

She seems no worse for wear, not even her paws seem sore. She's started on metronidazole for giardia, just in case, and she enjoyed being a house dog for a week, making sure her stools are ok, as we had no idea what she may've eaten. She is now back in with her siblings.

Thank heavens it was really less than 24 hrs, she went missing about 1 pm Sunday, and was caught by 10 Monday. . but it was the longest 21 hours I've ever dealt with. . .other dogs I know of have been missing for anywhere from 4 days to never found again, or if found, dead on road, so I'm glad it was ONLY 21 hrs. . .but it was the most horrendous 21 hrs ever.

Putting her collar and leash on her put her brain back with her, cuz she was back to her normal self when we got out to thank people at the field. Didn't want to leave my side, but back to mooching people she wouldn't let touch her the day before. . evil child

She will not be going running for a few weeks, her coursing was crappy post season anyways, so it'll give her time to get over this slump and cement her brain back into her head.

THe adventure seemed to affect me longer than her, I had stomach upset for a few days, but we're both back to normal. . .silly little Nacht