Greta spent the night in one of the big Dane crates in my office. She was quiet as a mouse, didn't poop or pee in the crate, and she didn't destroy the bed. In the morning I took her back out to Daneland where she happily ate her breakfast. There was no German Shepherd hunger strike for this malnourished girl. After she was finished and after Thor had eaten his breakfast, I took Thor out to be with her.
Thor had been a bit of a dick when he first met her yesterday, but this morning when I looked out to check on them he was trying to get her to play, although she wasn't showing any interest in that. I took that as a good sign and let them be. A while later I went out to start some spring clean up of my container gardens. I first looked over to check on the two shepherds and saw him but not her. I assumed she was camped out in one of the sheds trying to stay away from him but I looked and couldn't find her. I looked again, and checked out all the houses, corners, and other possible hiding places. No Greta. I moved Thor out and brought Maya and Theo in, thinking they might flush her out of her hiding spot. I checked under all the sheds and looked for any sign of her digging or pushing her way out. There was a white plastic folding table next to the back of the shared six foot fence that went to the pasture. Thinking she might have jumped out using the table, I took some dogs to the pasture, hopped on a mower, and drove around looking. Nothing. I made two trips around the house calling her name and finally had to accept that she had left the property.
I alerted some locals and drove some distance up and down the roads around us. I still thought there was at least a fifty percent chance that she was hiding somewhere around the yard at home. I went back and started my planned activity of cleaning out flower pots with Della and Max keeping me company and helping me keep watch. It felt like an eternity but it probably wasn't much more than an hour when my phone rang and someone told me that they had found my dog down near the Palmyra post office, alive and well.
I got Max chased back out to the pasture and hopped in the van with Della to go pick her up. The man holding her on a leash when I arrived said that she had been standing in the middle of route 15, scared and not knowing where to go. He stopped traffic and got her out of the road. She seemed happy to see me and was even happier when I got her home and fed her another meal. Then I brought her back inside the house where she spent the rest of the afternoon in Thor's crate in the kitchen. She hasn't been outside the house except to go to the A/C yard, under supervision, since then and won't be for the foreseeable future.
I feel like shit for allowing this happen and I'm going to take some steps to try to prevent it from happening with her, or any other dog, in the future. But there's one thing that I did right and that was to tag that dog as soon as I got her home yesterday. I had some stainless steel tags made that I now use on all our dogs, including the fosters. They are engraved on both sides with the simple words "PLEASE HELP" followed by my cell phone number and then Clay's. That man saved her life today, but that tag got her back home within a matter of minutes. Microchipping is great, but that only helps if the dog lands in a shelter.
I resumed my gardening and then got a message from Erika that the folks who had met Kaya yesterday had called back and wanted to adopt her. I stopped gardening in time to get over there after 4:00 this afternoon and Kaya went home with a somewhat nervous but excited couple. I don't blame them for wanting to think it over for a day; adopting a dog is a big commitment and it's worth a well-considered decision.
We are back down to single digits, just nine dogs here tonight. My goal is to make Greta love me so much that she will never again consider leaving. It's bonding time.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment