This morning was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. Within a short 30-minute timeframe, I was shaking, crying and freaking out.
Thank God, everything turned out okay.
This little lady gave me and Ryan quite a fright.
At 5 a.m., right after our alarm went off, Ryan let Sadie outside to go to the bathroom.
As you may remember, our new house is located on three acres. The land is unfenced, but we didn’t think this would be a problem because Sadie is very much a true vizsla in that she is a “velcro dog.” She never lets me or Ryan out of her sight and typically stays within 200 yards of us.
Well, this morning, in the pitch black, Sadie went out to pee and when Ryan called her in, she didn’t come.
I heard him call her a few times as I was changing in our bedroom, and when I came out, he said he couldn’t see Sadie and she wasn’t coming when he called her.
I looked around and called her as well. It was pitch black and the lights of our house only lit up the land close by. Ryan ran inside to get his phone for some light since all of our powerful flashlights are still in storage.
My heart started to race.
I ran around our backyard, close to the nearby woods and headed out to the front of our house to check the streets.
Nothing.
I called and called for Sadie.
I then pulled Ryan’s car out of the garage to use his headlights to light up more of our backyard.
Panic took over when I saw nothing.
I drove the car out of our neighborhood with the worst feeling in the world in my stomach. I prayed and prayed.
I drove along the street behind the trees that back up to our backyard praying I wouldn’t see anything.
I didn’t.
I made a u-turn and headed back home, keeping my high beams on for any sign of our little girl.
Again, nothing.
It was then that I started to worry that an animal got her. There are bears and coyotes in Ocala (seriously!) and my mind was going a mile a minute.
I turned down our street to head back home to continue to search with Ryan. I saw him walking around towards our driveway. When he saw me he started waving the light on his phone dramatically.
I rolled down the window.
“DID YOU FIND HER!?”
“YES!”
Relief rushed through my body and I broke down. I started crying and crying. Ryan hugged me and we and hurried inside where I tackled Sadie with all the love in the world.
The 25 minutes Sadie was missing felt like an eternity. I felt frantic and helpless. My heart was filled with the most intense longing to see Sadie’s smiling puppy face and feel her warm kisses on my face.
Seeing her wiggly little body inside our house – safe – was the best feeling in the entire world.
I don’t think I’ll be leaving her side for the rest of the day. And she will now be on a leash whenever we let her out to do her business at night.
Regular blogging will resume momentarily, but right now this is all I can think about.
I know this post may seem extremely dramatic to some, but to those of you who have an animal (or person!!!) in your life that you love more than anything, hug them a little tighter this morning. I got a very tiny taste of what it would feel like to lose Sadie and I am so grateful everything turned out okay.
![\"Quantcast\"/](\"//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-1e3-7hOJ_U8Bg.gif\")
This would be my worst nightmare.. I have 2 dogs, they are my life!!! I was shaking reading your post. Thank God you´ve found her.
Wow, I’m so sorry that you had such a scare, but I’m glad that I’m not the only one who would go crazy with worry if my dog went missing. So glad you found her!
Julie, I don’t think this is dramatic at all. I’m so glad that Sadie is okay!!!
A few years ago, my dog got out of the yard in the house where I was living at the time. He’s a Doberman, and he will just run like the wind to chase something. He was so far gone, and the last I saw of him he was darting through a field that led right to a highway. I could have died. I got in my car and had to drive pretty far to finally find him. He was prancing around like nothing happened, meanwhile I was screaming his name and crying like someone just tore off my arm. The thought of losing him kills me!!! I really feel what you went through, Julie. *hugs*
SO happy you found her! Where did Ryan end up finding her and how?? It’s crazy how attached we become to these animals. People who don’t have animals may mock us, but they really are a part of the family. They have personalities and often times treat us better than humans do. 🙂
I once lost my cat, Wendy. We were moving some furniture, and she darted out the front door without us knowing. She is a very vocal cat, so we started screaming her name. We searched frantically before I stopped to collect myself and think like her. I knew she’d be scared, so I started looking in all the small spaces. I eventually found her under a stairwell by my neighbor’s house! Just a very scary experience, and something I never want to happen again. Can’t even imagine how I would feel if my child disappeared!!
Oh no! The dog I had growing up, my beagle, used to run away all the time just to run around the neighborhood. She’d come back, but it never stopped me from chasing after her and freaking out. My 2 dogs now will both run away regularly, but they go to a lake nearby, jump in, roll around in the dirt, and come right back like they had the greatest day of their lives. Now that I know where they go I just kind of follow them and watch them come home so I know they don’t get hurt. I’m so glad you found Sadie!! Give her hugs for all of us!!
Ah I would die if my cat every went missing…he’s an indoor cat and I even panic if he is hiding in some corner and I haven’t seen him for a while. Once our dog Zoey ran away–we called the police after a while and they said they had received several complaints about a little white dog that wouldn’t stop barking and running in circles…that was ours 😀
I’m so glad that Sadie was ok! I had a persian kitten that was about 6 months old but was strictly inside, although he always tried to venture out. My brother never paid him any attention, and he slipped out by my brother. We never found him 🙁 To this day I wonder if he’s roaming the woods (we have 11.5 acres of woods!) and I pray someone found him and took him in. So I am SO GLAD Sadie is alright- PBF just wouldn’t be the same without her!
My dog was a runner, too. I would freak out every time she wiggled out of her leash and took off. I’m so glad Sadie is safe and home!
I’m a bit late on this, but I’m so thankful you found her!
I had a similar experience when I was doing the Peace Corps in Nicaragua. I was out on a run with my dog and all of a sudden she was gone. I figured she was out in a farm field chasing cows like she always did so I wasn’t worried. She would always catch up to me. But after 5 minutes she didn’t. I ran around like crazy screaming her name, asking the farmers that were riding their horses into town to sell their milk if they had seen her – they hadn’t. I think the crazy running gringa may have scared them off though…..I didn’t know what to do so I headed home. I was almost to my house when I asked my neighbors if they had seen her and there Eda comes barreling from my front porch and tackles me, showering me with kisses. Those 20 minutes were the scariest of my life. I was thinking how I didn’t know what I would do without her, there was no goodbye, she was just gone. But there she was. I’ve never felt such sweet relief.
So NO you are not crazy. Those emotions are totally normal.
On another note, I think our dogs (my current dog Rooney) should date. They’d make a stunning couple!!!
http://runninginthekitchen.com/2011/08/08/afternoon-snack/
Oh man! I’m so sorry you started your day like this! I’m glad everyone is safe and happy!
I’ve had many frantic, sobbing, hysterical runs around the neighborhood looking for my baby Ripley. The best was when he was totally in the backyard the whole time sleeping under a blanket and just didn’t feel like getting up when his Momma was calling him. I could’a throttled him but instead I picked him up and snuggled him fiercely. The panic just shows how much love you have to give!
My Oliver does that. I hate it. I’ve learned to open the front door and he’ll show his face.
Good idea! Next time I’ll shake my car keys and see if he comes running! That’ll teach him! 🙂
My dogs learned that if they push hard enough they can push open the garden gate into the street. One day I was upstairs and heard the gate crash closed, I ran downstairs to see the dogs were GONE. I ran down to the street barefoot, they were nowhere, I was screaming their names and running like a crazy person for 20 minutes. Luckily our street isn’t busy, but they are small dogs and i was worried they were going to be hit or eaten by a coyote. When i finally found them I wanted to scream at them, but i was so happy to see them i just cried and hugged them instead! We have since secured the gate, but i will never forgot it.
OMG. Sadie why scare your mother like that?!
Katy (my parents) had a hard time when they brought a new pup to the home. She spent a good year (I swear) trying to run away. My parents backyard is huge and they have 5 neighbors attached to them. Luckily Miss Katy only got as far as another person’s yard and was trapped there. The one time she got further a neighbor had their front fence open and she made it another block. Someone found her and immediatly called us. Oh and she had the nerve to try the whole body shaking ‘I’m starving please feed me’ trick. My dad told the neighbor look at that belly and tell me she is starving. She really is a drama queen. When I moved out and brought her to my new place on the weekends, first chance she got she took off. I was devastated. Once again she was found.
My favorite story happend during the year of her attempts to run away. It was late at night and my dad was at a neighbor’s house in the front yard. He heard a little jingle that sounded like dog tags. He called out ‘Katy?’. Headed for the house and heard it again just off to the side of the house. So he made a run for the front door. When he got inside the house Katy was sitting in the kitchen just a few feet from the doggie door with the look…you know the one that says ‘What? I’ve been here the whole time’.
Give Sadie a hug for me. I’m glad she was found safe.
Hello Julie, I know how scared you were. A similar thing happened to me a while ago with my cat. I felt just like you searching for her. These little fellows are just like family! My cat is my little baby!!!! By the way, I love your Sadie girl!!! She´s so cute. I want to hug her… 🙂
Glad Sadie is safe and sound. I have a cat who’s 17 and sometimes she sleeps so still-like that i reach out and touch her to make sure she’s ok. She always hates when i wake her like that but i’m just glad to see she’s safe.
My dog ran away one day too. I was running through my neighborhood in my pj’s crying because I could not find him. After 20 minutes, I walked back to my house and sat in my driveway crying. A few minutes later my dog comes running up beside me and laid down like he was tired. I was so happy to see him, I picked him up and gave him a big hug. While I was hugging him, I realized he smelled like cow poop (we had cows in our back yard). As excited as I was to have him home, I was so mad he scared me like that and then I had to give him a bath.
It makes me feel better I’m not the only one that reacted the same way!!
Hey Julie, I just recently started reading your blog and I really love it! For starters my little lady dog is very similar to Sadie in size, build and high energy level so I can relate very well to many of your Sadie stories. Just wanted to share something that we have found very helpful…when we take our girl out in the dark we put glow-stick collar on her so we can easily keep an eye on her. It’s actually an elastic running arm band for people that has a glow stick that turns on/off but it fits her neck b/c shes small enough. It gives us peace of mind. Thanks for all the great fitness and nutrition ideas!