Milo's Big Adventure/Rachel's Heart Attack

So last night Milo got lost.  Or, at least, I had no idea where he was.  I am very careful with my dogs.  They have collars & tags; they walk on leashes.  I supervise them pretty closely even when they are in the backyard.  Still, it's sort of a miracle that Milo hasn't gotten lost up until now.  At two he's still really puppyish.  He has lots of energy, wants to play all of the time, and has never met a person, kid, or dog he didn't want to win over.  He goes absolutely nuts with joy when we have company over.  "It's a visitor!  I didn't know it was Visitor's Day!  Fantastic!"  He's also incredibly curious and ADD. 

Anyway, last night.  I was canning my butt off (10 quarts of apple slices in apple pie filling), when J. came home about 11.  I'd already managed to burn myself and spill boiling hot water all over the kitchen floor necessitating pulling out the oven and swabbing underneath it.  It was that kind of night.  I knew I still had about 25 minutes of walking the dogs, and it was late, so I headed out when I got the chance.  Milo and Ruby were both fine.  They know the drill.  Mondays and Thursdays the last walk is a late one.  All was normal until we got about six blocks from home and started being followed by 2 loose dogs, one small and black, the other medium-sized, highly energetic, and blond.  They followed us for blocks, and it was very distracting for all of us, especially Milo.  I stopped a few times to let them meet and greet, hoping that would do it and they'd let us move on alone.  No dice.  The bigger blond dog was strutting about, prancing, weaving in and out of the dogs, peeing on every tree in sight, and falling into play stance whenever he wasn't marking stuff.  This was serious provocation to Milo who really needs very little provoking to get hyped up. 

Finally after dragging them for blocks, I got rather concerned about the situation.  Where were these dogs' owners?  And why weren't they searching for them?  I stopped, hoping to get a look at the dogs' tags, and when I knelt down, Milo took the opportunity to rip his leash from my hand and took off after the blond dog, both of them running pell mell around the corner.  I ran too, with Ruby, but I'm not nearly so fast, and by the time I turned that corner, they were both out of sight.  I had no idea where they had gone, but I had a pretty good idea that Milo and this dog would not be out of energy for some time.  I walked Ruby home in the direction we'd come, calling and calling for Milo, but I never saw him or the other dog.  The small black dog followed Ruby and me home but would not let me close to him so I couldn't round him up or take him into the house to get him warm.  I told J. what had happened, then went out in the car and trolled the neighborhood, driving slowly and calling for Milo. Nothing.  It's hard to see a black dog on a dark night.  Eventually I figured they could be anywhere, anywhere, what with how fast they moved and all the things in the night that dogs like to explore.  I went home.  J. went out in his truck and looked too but came home alone.  I posted a lost dog notice on Craigslist with photos, took a bath, and resolved to start looking/calling the shelters in the morning.  Then before I went to bed I thought I'd check the back door one more time, just in case.  And, lo and behold, when I opened it, there Milo was - cold, thirsty, happy to be home, not a bit repentant.  I guess all of those day-in-day-out walks familiarized him with the neighborhood pretty well.  He went right to his water bowl and started slurping.  "I'm home.  Anything happen while I was gone?"

Relief!  All of those dead dog-in-the-road, Milo-bleeding-from-fight-injuries, Milo-freezing-to-death-overnight images I could put to bed along with the rest of us.  Thank goodness.  I could have clobbered the little blighter if I wasn't so happy to have him home again.  But I was so happy to have him back uninjured and none the worse for wear.

tags: lost dogs  dogs