So as some of you know our family went through a few scary days this past week. Our sweet sweet Sammy Sue was missing. On Thursday morning Zeke and I took Mutley and Sam to Cherry Creek state park "dog park" like we do almost every morning. As we were playing and running around with some of our "dog park friends", we were startled by a group of people on a horseback riding tour. Sam (who has never seen horses that close up) took off runnning like a bat out of hell. Long story short...she was gone and out of sight in less than a minute. Immediately we started looking for her and Josh came out with fliers which we passed out to anyone and everyone. We posted signs on anything that was nailed to the ground. We stayed out at the park until 9pm that night looking for her. Our friends Amy and Jeff and their dogs (aka the search and rescue team) Gabby and Rita came to help us find her. No luck! We called all the shelters, the microchip company and all of the animal controls in the area to report her as missing. I even called 9 news to see if they would put her on the nightly newscast. We sent faxes of her "missing" poster to at least 30 different animal hospitals, ER practices and rescues. No luck!
Friday, Zeke and I went back to Cherry Creek and passed out more fliers. We posted them in all the neighborhoods, shopping centers and in the actual state park just on the other side of the "dog park". We visited the animal shelters, stopped by the animal hospitals, and even dropped off fliers at my old tech school in hopes that someone might find her. We posted ads in the Denver post, on pet harbor, and on craigslist (or so we thought). We called Boxer Rescue. No luck!
Saturday, Josh, Zeke and I go back to Cherry Creek and pass out more fliers (at this point I think the number was upwards of 200). We are exhausted, haven't slept in 2 days and just hoping upon all hopes that someone will find her. We spend the rest of the day waiting anxiously for the phone to ring. The only 2 calls we do get are about our ad on craigslist. The first one is from a friend who calls to say that the ad we thought we had posted is not there. So I re-post an ad and hope that this time it works. The second call is from a woman says she saw our ad but that there are some problems with it. She and I proceed to spend the next hour on the phone trying to get the ad to work properly. By the time we hangup our ad is there but still not 100% correct. Our picture is not showing up and no one can respond to the email address given. No luck!
Sunday, HAPPY FATHERS DAY!! We are awakened by my phone ringing at 8am. I see that it's a Colorado number that I don't recognize and immediately my heart starts racing. I should mention that over the past few days we had had many calls asking if we had found Sam yet (most of my "regular" dog park folks and others who we had met over the past 3 days) so I didn't want to get my hopes up but still I found myself wishing. I say "Hello" very cautiously and with my fingers crossed and a very nice woman on the other end says "Hello, I saw your ad on Craigslist and I think I have your dog" I could not believe my ears "excuse me" I said "you really think you have my dog?" "yes" she says "I saw your ad this morning and she looks just like the picture" Oh no was my next thought because I didn't think our picture had shown up on the ad. "Sorry, I don't think it's our dog then because our ad did not have a picture on it" I am now crushed all over again because the glimmer of hope was gone. "No really, I have your dog, there is a picture of a little baby boy and this dog and it's gotta be her". So then I ask about her face (half brindle/half white) and her pink collar. "she definitely has the face but her collar is gone" I was still skeptical when all of a sudden in the background I hear the very distinct sound of Sammy Sue's "talking". Before I know it my eyes are filled with tears and I'm half laughing/half crying "I hear her, I hear her, oh Sammy Sue" I hear myself saying. Margaret (as her name turns out) says she'll bring her over immediately. I tell Josh I really think it's her and we wait anxiously in the living room for the car to pull up. It seems like forever (really it may have been 10-15 minutes) and we talk about all the "what if's" to pass the time. What if it's not her, what if she's beat up, what if she doesn't love us anymore for abandoning her. Then we try to contain our excitement as best we can just in case (I did do a little bit of dancing, not gonna lie).
Finally, an SUV comes slowly down the street and we realize "It's her!" We all (even Chachee) go running outside to see if this really is Sam. As the vehicle pulls in front of the house a little head pops up from the passengers seat and sure enough there is that silly half brindle/half white face that we were hoping to see! I open the door, grab her up, and start loving on her as she starts wriggling and wagging her tail and licking my face. Josh and I are both grinning from ear to ear. Mutley jumps up and starts whining and wagging his tail and licking all over her. Zeke's arms and legs start flapping and he starts making all his happy noises. I think Margaret probably thought we were crazy but oh well! Sammy Sue was home!
So here is Sam's story...Apparently she made it all the way to the other side of the state park (a gooooood couple miles) near the big reservoir where people go boating. Margaret's friends found her there. They were going out of town and asked Margaret if she could hang on to Sam and try to find her owners. They had 2 dogs of their own and could not keep her at their place. Margaret agreed and started calling all the shelters (even the ones we had reported her missing to) immediately. Apparently they told her they did not have any dogs matching that description in their registry. She had also been checking craigslist daily to see if any of the ads matched Sam. Meanwhile, she had made an appointment with her own vet (she has 2 cats) to have Sam scanned for a microchip on Monday. She said she didn't want to take her to a shelter unless it was absolutely neccessary because she was such a nice dog and knew someone had to be looking for her. She finally found our ad on craigslist Sunday morning and responded right away.
Yeah! Sam is home! She is definitely exhausted and has slept on and off for most of the day. We just keep looking at her and smiling. We feel like a whole family again and its wonderful. Tomorrow I will go and get her a new collar and tag and put up a sign at the dog park that she has been found. It will feel so good!
Thankyou to everyone who has kept us in their thoughts and called to check on how we were doing. It has been very much appreciated! We really needed it. I hope that anyone who has to go through this has just as much support as we have had. I also hope that if this does happen to anyone we know that they too have a happy ending like we did. And let me just say again...yeah Sammy Sue is home!!
