found

This post is a story about what happened to me today. I will ramble. You might want to grab a cup of coffee before you settle in to read.

Today is Saturday. A Saturday following 2 snow days and having the kids at home without being able to go outside to run off extra energy because it is too cold. Negative degree windchill cold. D-A-N-G-E-R-O-U-S-L-Y cold, as one of my girlfriends like to tell her children. So, even though it is quite chilly out, I needed to leave the house to shake off my cabin fever. Alone. As in, no children. Weeeee!

I am driving along, enjoying the lack of sound in my miniature, when I notice 2 little doggies running in the road about 50 yards ahead of me. This particular road is 4 lanes with a median, and very heavily trafficked. It took me a moment to believe what I was seeing and then I quickly looked around to see if any cars were stopped or any people running along the sidewalk after them. No one appeared to notice the doggies other than me, so I turned on my hazards and stopped the van in the right lane. Cars immediately began honking at me and several swerved around me in a pissy haste to get to their destination. I flashed them a smile and proceeded to walk along the lane to get the attention of the pups.

NOT the puppies in the road, but a close likeness

At this point I could see the doggies more clearly and they appeared to be Shelties, with one dog bigger than the other. I whistled and clapped and used my best high-pitched-happy voice to try and lure them to me. While I am doing this, cars are whizzing past and scaring the pups. I was terrified they were going to get spooked and bolt into the other lane when a black car slowed down and pulled in front of me, blocking the doggies in between us. A women got out of her car and started walking towards me. This cause the pups to bolt towards me and I quickly grabbed up the bigger of the two. The woman walked up slowly and gently picked up the smaller doggie and walked with me to put them inside my van.

The poor puppies were so cold they has ice balls frozen to their muzzles and eyelashes! It wasn't more than 5 degrees at the time, and come to find out later these two were a mile away from home.

I thanked the woman who helped me and told her I would look at their tags and try to contact their owners. Once back at the wheel, I pulled over into a shopping center parking lot so I could get a better look at the pair of escapees. "Willis" had a tag with his phone number and address, along with an up to date rabies tag, so I knew they were loved and well cared for. I called the number on the tag and a shaky female voice answered:

Owner: "He-llo"

Me: "Hi, are you missing two ....."

Owner: interrupting "Yes! yes! Oh yes! (tears in her voice) Do see see them? Where are they?"

Me: "I have them in my car and they are just fine. I have your address; can I just swing by?"

Owner describes location about a mile away and I drive over. While I am driving, the bigger of the 2 Shelties jumps up into my lap and starts licking my face. At this point I have tears in my eyes from thinking about what could have happened to the sweet pups. I pull up into he driveway and a woman who appears to be in her late 50's comes running out the front door:

Owner: "Oh my gosh. I can't believe .....(she puts her face in her hands).... I should have known when ...... here. Let me take Willis (snaps on a leash) and I'll carry the other one in my arms. I'm going to run them inside and I'll be right back."

Me: "No problem, I'll wait." I am feeling so bad for this woman right now. Tears were icing up on her face yet she was smiling a mile wide at her 'babies' coming home.

Owner: Comes back out of the house with a polka dot gift bag and shoves it at me through the window. "Thank you for finding them and bringing them home! Where were they? I let them out back earlier and I stepped away from the window for just a minute. I have to watch them because they got out of the yard yesterday. The snow drifts are high enough for them to jump the fence! My husband was getting ready to go out and shovel the drifts down, but it was too late! Oh, my gosh. Thank You."

I explained to the owner where I had seen them. They had to have run through the neighborhood, crossed a busy road and turned the corner to the main street. Once there, they just ran together along the road to stay out of the snow drifts on the sidewalk. The owner was clearly shaken, so I just told her I was happy I was there and could bring them home to her.

I pulled out of the driveway and as I was turning to drive away, a rather big black Bronco pulled up with a man waving vigorously at me. I could see his molars he was smiling so huge. I assumed he was the other owner and I gave him a quick wave and drove away.

Then I cried.

Then I called my husband and told him the whole story.

Then I cursed myself for not getting a picture of the two cuties. Maybe I should have gone back to the house to ask them for a photo, but I thought they had been through enough drama for one day. Don't need to add a crazy camera-wielding woman to the mix. It's okay, though ......... at least I could come home and blog about it.

Oh, and I did take a picture of the gift bag and yummy smelling candle inside. I posted it on the sidebar with my other Project Life photos.

Which makes me think; the owner had to be a pretty nice person if she keeps cute bags and candles around for 'on the fly' gifting. Either that or her little mischievous darlings bust out of the fence pretty often. HeHe