So,......... where was the dog and did you find it?
Long story (I’m not very good at condensation):
1 weekend my parents and I went up to their house neighboring my uncle’s farm (this is 2 hrs away from real home). We brought our German Shepherd, Shana, of course.
The new house was built on an old farmhouse basement still intact, but the door to that basement didn’t close and lock in decades. It was hard to close, getting stuck on the floor, and many times people left it open when there.
Anyway, after arriving and leaving Shana theoretically in the main floor (supposedly basement entrance closed; I don’t remember), we went grocery shopping. Driving up by the house at night, I saw that door open and alarms went up (as if the door was ever closed). I went into the house, called for “Shana” maybe a few times. No response. I ran out of the house and shouted to my parents that Shana wasn’t in the house, and she probably ran out that door, etc. We called around a bit and got no response.
So the frenzy started. My dad took 1 car all the way out back to the Interstate and drove back and forth calling for her, some 15 miles around. Mom and I went driving the other car up and down the local valley calling for her. I had sounded the alarm at my uncle’s house and my younger cousins were riding their bikes back and forth down the valley and beating on neighbor’s doors asking for help and if they’d seen this German Shepherd.
I was hysterical. I remember crying so hard while riding with my mom about losing this dog. I was beside myself. Worry about her being lost in a place she hardly knew so far from home, about bear traps, and hunters in the area, other animals on the farms, etc. Oh, man, was I inconsolable!
Mom drove back to the house and we continued calling. I walked around the house. Though much of the house was dark, I thought I noticed something in 1 of the bedroom windows. Back in the house, I went to that room (I used it myself) and pushed open the door – and standing there was Shana, wagging her tail!
Now how stupid I felt! I hadn’t even checked the house before dashing out because she “hadn’t responded” and assuming she got out that basement! I was greatly relieved, but mortified at all the effort put out for the “lost” dog.
I don’t know why Shana didn’t make much effort to get to me when I called (she was a very good dog who would run back to you right away) – no whimper or whining or scraping at the door when she couldn’t get to me. Or maybe I left too fast to generate that desperation from her!
Anyway, the basic problem here was the bedroom door – that door is not aligned properly, and with no rug or anything to stop the door, gravity pulls it quickly back to the “closed” (but not engaged) position. Shana had been in “my” bedroom and must’ve stayed behind when I left that room; or maybe she poked in at some point and then found herself “trapped”.
Anyway, that’s the whole story of the un-lost dog! It still makes the cousins and us laugh to think how quick to jump to conclusions we were – and all the havoc it caused in a country valley at night!