R-U-N-N O-F-T

Using this quote from one of our favorite movies, "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou," to describe how yesterday our half-blind, nearly deaf, 15 year old dog, R-U-N-N  O-F-T. Perhaps in our case it should be "Oh Roxy, Where Art Thou!"

Now when we lived in San Diego, this wouldn't have been a problem as there are only so many places she could go in our tiny fenced-in yard, but with nearly 100 acres and 1/2 mile between neighbors the task of finding her becomes a bit daunting. To make this more challenging I was alone as Cheryl was still on her way back from visiting in San Diego and about two hours away.

Now Roxy doesn't move all that quickly so she couldn't have gone that far. So I began my search  by walking an ever-widening circle around the house, taking the truck and driving the street and the trail, calling and clapping all the time, to no avail, as she was no where to be found. Once Cheryl arrived (note: I was at this now for two hours by now) she went off to our neighbors to let them know that we had a missing dog and was told, "don't worry our cat was gone for a week and eventually came back." I don't know if that was encouragement or not but we felt Roxy wouldn't last long in mid-30 degree nighttime temperatures with rain in the forecast and carnivorous animals roaming the woodlands.

One of things I discovered as I had been walking the property was that there were a number of deer trails that is would be easy for a dog to follow including trails that went through the barbed wire fence on our southern property boundary. Here I am thinking Roxy wouldn't (couldn't) get through the barbed wire fence and with me I have Biko (our other dog) who is jumping through the fence like it wasn't there. That should have been my first clue.

Well I'll "cut to the chase," Cheryl and I returned to house and had continued our calling and clapping, when she got a phone call from our neighbor to the south that he had found our dog, or at least she was answering to the name Roxy. At that point, we were quite certain that they had her as I can't imagine that there would be too many dogs matching her description answering to Roxy in the Sierra Nevada foothills. And sure enough we had our Roxy back!

Lesson learned, when Roxy decides she wants to go "walkabout," makes sure she does so on a 50 foot tether!