Some very hard days

Ironic timing.  I haven't had to post about some hard days since 4 years ago (minus a few stressful days during deployment).  We've had some good solid years of cheery posts, so I suppose it was time for life to hit.

We came home from church yesterday and the kids ran to the backyard to let Maya in, like they always do...it's always a "fight" who gets to let her in.  We all stood in the backyard, calling her name and she wasn't coming.  She was gone.  It just didn't make sense.  She's too big to get through the gate, too short to jump the cement wall and there were no signs of digging or attempt to get out.  Ben thoroughly checked the backyard to make sure she hadn't, well to put it bluntly, died under a bush.  I guess a mamma bear came out in me and I just took off walking the neighborhood, without saying a word to Ben or picking up my phone or even switching into different shoes.  When I finally realized that it would be more effective to drive the neighborhood, I headed home and Ben and Alison went out on bikes.  We searched for Maya all day.  Ben rode 16 miles on his bike.  We made phone calls, put up fliers, posted pictures online.  Our neighbor came over in the evening to invite us over to swim (which we have been dying for them to do!) but Ben said he wasn't sure we could because we were in the middle of searching for our puppy.  The neighbor informed us that he saw a yard company truck in front of our house that morning, but hadn't heard any barking.  Ben quickly emailed our rental company and was able to confirm that a company came to our house that morning (without us knowing) to fix a sprinkler, they let Maya out and essentially chased her away in efforts to "catch" her.  These men have previously been to our house and know we have a puppy and know that she is afraid of strangers...especially men.  The thing that was really hard to swallow is that they didn't contact us or animal control.   They just left and left us to worry and search aimlessly for our dog.

We did end up going for a quick swim and somehow we got some sleep last night, with only the assurance that she's microchipped and the animal control will bring her straight to our house when they find her.  I was up before 6 this morning and got a tip that someone saw her running a few miles from our house.  So I jumped in the car and drove around for an hour.  I came home to pick up the kids and breakfast and we essentially spent the morning in the car (Alison even did school while we drove).  It was completely disheartening to know she was out there and we couldn't find her.  Her color was against me because she blended in with everything; the houses and the landscape.

So note to self: if you live in the desert, buy a BLACK dog!

I was a mess.  Thankful it was not one of my children missing, but it still kinda felt like it.  Somehow Alison was calm through it and kept gently saying, "It's okay, momma.  We'll find her."  I didn't have the heart to tell her the hard core truth.  Time was ticking.  A puppy in the desert, without food or water or shelter, for much longer wouldn't make it. 

Alison had her first basketball practice tonight and Ben and I sat and talked about what to do.  The absolute worse case scenario was what we were in; not knowing what happened to her.  If she was gone, we didn't have closure and sure didn't know what to tell the kids.

P.S.  Alison is the tallest and only girl on her team.  I told her that makes her the team star.

After practice, Ben said we'd drive around a little more on the way home.  We were both feeling helpless by this point and this was our last ditch effort.

And I can only say that it was God.

Ben turned down a road I had been on a million times today and asked if I had tried this neighborhood and I said, "Yes, but that doesn't mean I didn't miss her" and as he turned into the neighborhood, my eye caught a glimpse of something in the sand.  I shouted for Ben to stop the car and jumped out.  Maya was laying on the side of the road, at the entrance of another neighborhood.  She could barely move and was just a puddle of dehydrated, bones showing, puppy.  We had a bowl in the car that Ben ran over and she drank 2 bottles of water in less than a minute.

We got her home and it took awhile for my emotions to calm down.  I am still worried about her and still angry at the lawn people.  Her feet are beaten up and she's limping, we're hoping is just from running for almost 2 days.  She's eaten, drank and peed and resting now, which we are taking as positives, but we have no idea what happened to her or what she went through while she was gone.  We are almost positive though, that if we had not found her tonight, she would not have made it to morning.

I am SO thankful to be posting pictures of this dog.  I was preparing to end this post with really sad news.  I have now rescued this dog twice from death...hoping to never have to do it again.

We all took turns sitting with her.  She didn't want to be alone, but was too weak to walk to us.

 

Colin William turns 4 in 2.5 hours and I will be celebrating extra hard this year.  Celebrating for the hard days and the awesome days.  For the days full of tears and the days full of laughter.

Praise the Lord for our family being back together!