Lost Dog?

Around 11:40 Bailey & I left home for a nice long walk. We crossed the street, went down the block, then across the field, to the entrance to the Woodland Trail. I always let him off the leash here as we are well away from any traffic. He's good about staying close. To reinforce this, periodically, I call him to me, make him sit, then he gets his reward treat. I also play hide & seek with him by ducking behind a tree & waiting for him to come find me, when he does, he gets a reward. My husband keeps him on the leash when he walks Bailey through the woods.

There are about 3 different interlinking trails within the Woodland Trail. The Green Trail leads off and connects with a long bike trail, not quite sure where the other end goes. The Yellow Trail & White Trail intertwine in the woods. We have explored these trails many many times, Bailey knows them pretty well at this point I suppose. He's probably sniffed every leaf & twig on these trails. Not to mention the squirrels, deer, chipmunks, bunnies, and butterflies that Bailey has chased around the woods.

We took the White Trail up to the 1 Mile Loop. As usual, we had played our little game of hide n seek, but only a couple of times, as I was still a fighting off a cold, and a little loopy on cold medicine. About three quarters of the way through the loop, I ducked behind a tree & waited for Bailey to come find me. From the corner of my eye, I saw him stop & look around, then he was out of my sight. I was probably there about 30-40 seconds, all together, then popped out to find Bailey nowhere in sight. I called to him repeatedly, following the trail to the end of the mile loop, then back to where the Yellow & White Trail meet. No Bailey.

I backtracked to the spot where I lost him & went down the Green Trail, wondering if he veered off that way. I came upon a couple of fishermen fishing in the pond, who said they had not seen a dog. Figuring he couldn't have gone this way, as he would have been drawn to the fisherman out of curiosity, I backtracked to the lost spot, then continued to the end of the mile loop again. No Bailey. Still calling for him with my scratchy throat, a bit more frantic at this point, I followed the trail towards home. I hoped I would find him playing with another dog or something, but no such luck.

In full panic mode, my mind was racing over all the bad things that could have happened to him in the half hour since he's been missing. We lost our lab Guinness to cancer early this year, she had been with my husband for 13 years, and me for 8. My husband was devastated by the loss. We rescued Bailey at 9mo's old, and have only had him for a few months now, but are quite attached to him. He has filled a void in our hearts that could only be filled by a pooch. My husband has been overly protective, on my case about letting him come in contact with other dogs before all his shots, buying the most expensive dog food, etc. I couldn't bear the thought of calling my husband & telling him I lost our puppy.

I got to our street & stopped at a neighbors house to see if he was home to help me look for Bailey. No answer. I continued down the block & ran into another neighbor who lives across the street from us. "I lost Bailey in the woods about 2 miles from here" I told her frantically. "OH NO!" She replied, I told her he was chipped & has my cell phone number on the tag and on the collar around his neck; and that I was headed inside to call Animal Rescue, print up some Lost Dog Flyers, then go back out & post them along the trail. She said she would keep an eye out for him. The time was about 1:10, I lost him around 12:30. So he had been missing for about 40 minutes now, the more time passes, the further away he could be running. My husband is gonna kill me, I thought. With that, I turned around, and began to cross the street. What I saw stopped me dead in my tracks, and I couldn't believe it. I called to my neighbor who was still in her yard with her dog. "Look at this. Look who's up there on my porch." Low an behold there was our little 7 month old puppy, tail thumping, sitting patiently on the porch. IT'S BAILEY!

Very happy to see me & looking at me like "Hey where have you been, I've been waiting up here for you for a half hour now". I excitedly greeted the pooch & told him how worried I was, He looked as if to say, "I couldn't find you, I thought you were lost, so I figured I'll just go home, and find you when you come back." He got several treats for being a REALLY REALLY GOOD DOG, then a nice tummy rub when we got inside. So I stand corrected, Bailey was not lost. I was lost, He knew exactly where he was, and now I know even from several miles away, he knows exactly where home is.

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