Monday morning scare

When thinking about a dog what comes to mind?  For me it is; family, furbaby, life long companion, loyalty and much more.   In the Draino home our dogs are our kids, our furbabies as we call them.

Monday morning started as any regular Monday morning.  I walked all 3 furbabies, fed them, made myself a pot of coffee and relaxed for a bit.  I put Zeus out in the yard on the tie out and then Rocky.  I was enjoying my cup of coffee when Zeus started acting really weird, he thinks he is a lap dog and will come lay on me at anytime when I am on the couch or on the bed, but never at the dining room table.  Zeus was jumping on me, barking, whining and kept pacing from me to the back door.   I go to let Rocky in and see what Zeus' problem was and Rocky was gone, there laid his harness on the ground.

PANIC, struck over me.  We have only lived in the new house a few weeks, he does not know where home is, what if he was hit by a car...a million thoughts ran through my mind staring at that empty harness laying on the ground.  I gathered my thoughts and went down to the police station to file a missing dog report.  The secretary must have thought someone died with how emotional I was that Rocky was missing.  I gave all important information, started tearing up, said thank you and walked out the door crying.  I also called the Grundy county animal control.  At this point Rocky had been gone about 45 minutes, the scary thoughts were creeping back in.  I had to focus, I got in the car and drove the neighborhood for about 30 minutes.  I realized I was getting nowhere, I headed home to get a better game plan and to get out of my pajamas.

At home I thought about the Lost Dogs Illinois facebook page.  I went there and did a "lost" report.  Within 30 minutes Rocky's missing flier had "200+ likes, 80+ shares and a bunch of warm wishes for a safe return".   While home I also got a picture of him, I asked everyone that was outside and showed his picture, no hits, not a single person saw a dog running the neighborhood.

I continued to drive around town and ask everybody, I was starting to lose hope.  Thinking that we would never see our Rocky again, then my phone rang it was a Coal City number and one that I did not recognize  on the other end was a woman who saw my "lost" report on the facebook page.  She said "I just saw your dog running west on Gordon Street, headed toward the Coal City high school".  I thanked her a thousand times and headed that way.  I drove up and down Gordon St. and in that area for what seemed like an eternity, with no sign of Rocky.  I stayed in that area, thinking he should be close, I turned down a dead end street where the bike trail starts and there he was, a HUGE sigh of relief came over me.  I called for him and started running towards him, he started running to me, I was thinking this it, I found him we can go home, then he turns and darts in the opposite direction.  I sped off of the dead end, around the corner and down a mile or so and I find him again.  I threw the car into park and ran to him, I have never in my life been so excited to see our dog, our old man.  I was crying hysterically with excitement that he was safe, not injured and coming home.

Rocky's "home at last" post from the Lost Dogs Illinois page.