It looks like we're having to say goodbye to our Molly this week.
Molly is a dog who likes, maybe even needs, to run off and explore the unknown. This is a problem for a family with no fenced yard. Or at least this is a problem when you are in a rental and John says no to building a dog pen at said rental and your dad says he'll do it but your dad really just doesn't feel good so when he's able to rest and have a day off you just don't want him to worry about it. And besides, between you and the ten year old there are plenty of walks with Molly on a leash going on so it should all be fine, because she's proven that she'll cry and yell and eventually wriggle her way out of her collar and be gone if you try to tie her to the tree in the back. Then temporary bed rest happens and so the walks are much much shorter and not as often as you try to balance taking care of the human you are growing and the needs of this pesky little dog that lives with you. (by you I may mean me).
And given all of this, Molly's personality is still such that EVERY chance she has off the leash she takes off, for hours, at least. We like to think she just has a strong sense of adventure (it keeps us from wanting to pull our hair out that our dog is so naughty).
So just the last month has seen Molly disappear a number of times. Once she was gone for one night and came rushing back shaken and happy to be home the next morning, sans collar. Our neighbor brought her collar to us about an hour later saying he thought it was our dog who rushed out of his shed when he opened the door.
Then a couple of weeks later she was gone for 3 days. This began when she was outside with 2 of the kids playing football, she seemed pretty happy to be running around with the kids and the other dog and getting all sorts of attention from them so she was off leash...then once she had sufficiently fooled them into thinking she'd stay with them, off she went. They chased her and called after her and she just kept on going, looking over her shoulder at them thinking "suckers!". So we spent days driving around, walking around, talking to neighbors and to the shelter and putting it in the paper and worrying and crying. Then day 3~the boy and I are on a walk with the other dog and we hear crying, we are a couple of houses down from ours on the same street and the crying is very sounding like Molly. So we investigate, Polix dog seems oh so excited about the barn and that sure seems logical because the crying sounds so much louder there. We couldn't see her, just hear her, until...up above us peeks out a little head from the loft window. There is no one home so I decide to forgo asking permission to go into the barn and just get on with getting the dog down. Problem. NO stairs. How'd she get up there? Sheesh, so the boy had to climb up to the rescue and climb back down.
This whole experience made us think "gee, she's been through a lot, maybe she'll decide to stay home from now on where life is easier". Oh, no. We obviously had underestimated her "adventurous spirit". The next week brought 2 separate days where she was gone for hours each time after escaping once while the boy carried in firewood and once when John took her out to the garage with him thinking she'd happily hang out there and keep him company while he worked. (again she was just thinking to herself "suckers!!") Both times after hours and hours she came home exhausted, shaking, soaking wet, stinky and in need of a bath, once covered in blood and while cleaning her up we realized much of that blood was hers from some scratches on her face and neck (a cat maybe?).
Really, why would she want to keep running off? Seriously? Grrr.
Then comes this past Tuesday morning. I wake up, get the boy up to get ready for school and Molly is crying and whimpering and in my sleepy stupor I think about how much I'd like to NOT be cleaning a puddle and I better let her out NOW. But my shoes were in the other room, that is where the story goes downhill. I made the error in judgement to think that I could let her out the front door, walk into the next room to slip on my shoes and grab the leash and meet her outside. Less than a minute, surely she'd still be taking care of business close by. Nope, she was long gone when I went out less than a minute later. We haven't seen her since. We've driven around looking, we've walked and called and questioned neighbors, she's in the paper again and we've checked the shelter and she's on their list of missing animals. Today flyers will go up. But its cold out there, oh so very cold and snowy and she's so tiny. And its been days.
My mood about the whole thing swings from sobbing and worrying and just wanting her home, to rage. Dummy head dog! Why can't she just stay home?! But mostly just crying and worrying.
If you see her, send her home. Her people are worried and miss her. Polix may have a nervous breakdown without her.
****UPDATE*** Obviously Molly reads this blog. Within an hour of posting it she came knocking at the door. Crazy dog, I'd beat her if I weren't so happy she's home!
