Lottie, our awesome pet sitter, had been fostering "Little Boy" (she already has 4 other dogs, so she didn't name him to ensure he wouldn't stay) for a little over three months. Suddenly, it hit her like a ton of bricks,... the Butlers! "Scott and Liz are huge suckers pet lovers. With two dogs, two cats and two kids, surely Liz wouldn't mind another dog,... " And the killer is I thought she really liked us,... Anyway, she brought "Little Boy" over one night and we all fell in love. Instantly! However, with us being strangers in his book, he wasn't sure about any of us at first. And trust me, that is an important bit of information, considering the story I'm about to share.
Since "Little Boy" was an unofficial "stray", a visit to the vet was priority numero uno. I mean, we wouldn't want to put our other dogs in harm's way. So I scheduled an appointment bright and early for that next day, and Sam and I took him to the vet's office. While I was unbuckling Sam from his car seat, "Little Boy" somehow managed to get out of his collar and run for his life. I quickly panicked and looked around. Needless to say, I was quite relieved that the parking lot was completely fenced in, so Sam and I walked in his general direction to see if could somehow get him back. A task I knew would be easier said than done, since he didn't even know us yet, but I had to give it a try. However, being that he is a Beagle, he managed to find the one tiny opening in the fence to fit himself through. What's behind the fence, you ask? WOODS! Nice lush, heavy woods. CRAP!
I ran into the vet's office and explained my dilemma. Other than give me a couple of treats, helping me was apparently not on their agenda for the day. Lovely! So, Sam and I go back outside and try, very unsuccessfully, to call him and lure him in our direction. Nothing. The dog would look at us and high tail it deeper into the woods. Did I mention that it was freezing outside? I had to put Sam back in the van with the heater on and a DVD so that I could continue trying to get this darn dog who (a) doesn't know me and (b) is scared half to death to come to me. Yeah, it wasn't gonna happen!
Finally, I decide I've had enough and I call Scott to let him know I had somehow managed to lose our brand new dog. He immediately leaves work and meets me in the woods behind the vet's office. On one side of the vet's office there's a day care center. On the other, there's a pest control business. An employee from the pest control business came out and kindly offered to help. So now you have two grown men, dressed in work clothes, with big black coats on, walking around the woods, in the middle of the day, calling "Little Boy!" "Come here, Little Boy", "You want a treat, Little Boy?",... Yeah, get the picture? I'm surprised the day care center didn't call the cops on us. LOL
After three hours, we called off the search. Not because we couldn't find him (he made sure to stay where we could see him at all times), but because he just didn't want to get caught. And besides, Scott had to go back to work for a meeting, it was time for me to go pick Isabella up from school, and Sam had had it being stuck in the van for so long. On my way to Isabella's school, I armed myself with as much courage as I could muster and I called Lottie. I left her a message to call me as soon as she could.
A while later I got her call. She thought I was calling to tell her it didn't work out with the dog, little did she know, huh? I tried to explain what happened earlier in the day, but I totally lost it and started crying before I could explain that the dog was still stuck in the woods. Actually, it seems so funny to me know as I type this. But trust me, it was anything but funny on that cold, stressful day.
Lottie decided that she and her husband would swing by and see what they could do to get him out. About an hour later, Lottie called and said they had "Little Boy". Initially, he wouldn't come to them and ran away from them every time they got too close, just as he had done with us. But then they went home and got one of their other dogs, who was his buddy while he lived with them, and Little Boy came right out.
Luckily, I got this call before picking Isabella up, so it was business as usual as far as she was concerned. I called Scott and gave him the news, to which he said: "We should do something really nice for Lottie", and I replied: "Yeah, we should totally give her a Beagle!". Anyway, needless to say, he's been with us for almost a month now.
The kids named him Rocky, cause apparently he's a rock star. I had quite a few other names in mind, but in the interest of keeping things PG in the ol' blog, I think I'll just keep those to myself.
Regardless, he has managed to make himself right at home and fit right in this little zoo family of ours.
2 comments:
Oh MY Goodness! I would've been sitting in the middle of the parking lot ground crying! Now that we know Rocky is fine and he's back at home it's funny to read but if I were in your shoes there would've been tears, no doubt about that!
Just visited your blog! Que bello!! Saludos!
Gloriviann
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