Lost and found

We had a big scare today! This morning, I was at work, Chris and Cailan were playing with Legos in Cailan’s room, and Utah was lounging in the back yard. At least, that’s what Chris thought he was doing. At about 10:15, Chris and Cailan were going to go run some errands, so Chris went to let Utah inside – but he wasn’t in the yard! Chris and Cailan drove around the neighborhood looking for him for about half an hour, without any luck. Chris called the animal shelter and added Utah’s description to their “lost dog log”, then called me, almost in tears. I headed home for lunch at about 11:00 and stayed in the house with Cailan while Chris cruised the neighborhood on his bike.

I kept hearing a lot of barking from the dogs at the house behind us, and I kept hoping they were barking at Utah, but there was no sign of him hanging around there fence. At about 11:30, they started up with a flurry of barking, so I went in the back yard and whistled. Immediately I heard Utah’s distinctive bark. I called to him: “Utah! Utah!” and heard him bark some more. I went in the back yard and couldn’t see him anywhere, but I could definitely hear him. Then I heard a human voice say “Is this your dog?” It was the woman who lives two houses down from the neighbors behind us. I hollered to her that my dog was missing and that sounded like him. She said she would bring him over to our house.

I called Chris on the cell phone and told him Utah had been found. He was nearby on his bike, so he said he would go to meet the neighbor. Then the animal shelter called, saying that they had received a “found dog” message that matched the description of our lost dog. I let them know that we had just connected with the neighbor and it looked like our dog would be home soon. A few minutes later, Chris and Utah came through the door. Chris was looking stressed, tired, and relieved, but Utah looked happy-go-lucky and, by the way, is it time for lunch?
The neighbor had found Utah shortly after 9:00. He wasn’t wearing his collar - we often take it off when he’s inside because the jingling of the tags can be annoying – so they didn’t know who he belonged to. They took him to the vet and learned that he was microchipped, but the microchip registry didn’t have current information on us. So they picked up some dog food, brought him back to their house, and called the animal shelter. The whole time Chris was combing the neighborhood looking for Utah, he was there just a few houses away but tucked in the back yard so Chris never saw him.

Our next house project, obviously, is to get more secure latches for the gates on our fence. Utah will have to lounge around on his new puffy dog bed, safely inside, until then.