"Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?"

Last night we got a phone call from our granddaughter, Genna. When my wife answered, Genna said, "Nana, did you hear what happened?"

"Yes, Genna," my wife replied, "your daddy told us that Georgia is not at home."

Georgia is the dachshund my grandchildren have as a pet. She stays in their fenced in backyard and sometime over the weekend, while Sean and his family were away, she tunneled under the fence and took off.

"Nana knows Walker," Genna hollered to her brother. Then she asked, "Do you think she's alright, Nana?"

"Of course I do," my wife answered. "She has just probably gone to visit some of her friends. She is probably having a great time."

"But she was gone all night," asserted Genna.

"It was probably a sleepover," my brilliant wife replied.

As of now Georgia still has not returned. My son and his wife have looked for her but to no avail. Like many other pets I have known, Georgia has just disappeared. Now I am not giving up. She could certainly reappear at any time. But if she doesn't, I just hope some nice people have found her.

That is one of the problems with having pets. You go into a panic when they go missing. At least that is what always happened to Terry and me when our cat Fluff would disappear. Fluff was an indoor cat. We had had her front paws declawed (I don't think they do that anymore) so she was defenseless in the outdoors.

Still she had that natural instinct to scoot out any outside open door and many were the times she got out and raced away. We would scour the neighborhood and call her name. Sometimes we would find her and sometimes she came back on her own and we would find her at the back door, shivering and waiting to get inside.

Whenever we found her she would look at us as if to ask, "Have you lost your minds? Don't you know I am an indoors cat? Are you completely crazy, insensitive or what?" Then she would stroll haughtily into the house and ignore us for the next few hours.

I just hope within the next few days Georgia shows up in the same way and lets Sean know she is upset with him. A dog has to do what a dog has to do, but all pets depend on their owners to keep them safe - even from their own instincts.

 

 

 

 

 

©2006 Jackie K. Cooper

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