I am not going to continue writing in this blog, with the intention of turning Savannah's story into a book. A real book, with Savannah's picture on the cover, something permanent to sit on a bookshelf. Or two. Or thousands. One can only hope.
Savannah has resumed her life with us since her 12-day adventure. We're still trying to guess where she was during her 'lost' days. There are times when we think she ran for miles and miles to escape the sounds and echoes of those fireworks, and then there are days when we are sure that she was hidden in the woods right here in the hills of our own little community. We'll never know, and Savannah still refuses to talk.
Our year-old-puppy has been thoroughly checked from her nose to her tail by a vet, given shots to protect her from anything she may have been exposed to during her 12-day absence, has had a really long and soaking bath to remove that woodsy odor that she acquired, and she is as healthy and as happy now as she was on the night when the firework explosion rocked Savannah's puppy world, as well as our own.
I will continue to keep up with my Sprinkles blog, and anything new with Savannah will be posted in there from now on. During these past ten days when I took a much-needed break from my blogs, the readers' statistics have continued to increase, and I again thank you all very much for the time you spend here.
Enjoy every day... please be kind to your pets. Cuddle your cats and hug your dogs, and please don't bring unwanted litters of kittens and puppies into the world.
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
A note from me...
To those of you wondering if Savannah's blog is about a real puppy... indeed it is. I could not have made this story up if I tried. If I had the technical ability to post a photo of Savannah and our cats here on this Blog page, I would do so, but my forte is writing, not picture-taking, and certainly not computers. Savannah's picture, however, is posted on my Pinterest page-- it's the cover photo on my board titled "Get Real... Get a Dog!" -- my Pinterest page is listed under my first name. Savannah also has a Facebook page--- Savannah Grace, with pictures from her 'Lost Dog' posters.
I started this Blog on the day we brought Savannah home on September 12th, 2015. Besides the fact that I tend to write everything down (and have for decades) I just had the feeling that this puppy would have a story to tell. I didn't know at the time how much of that story would be interesting enough to write about, but when I start something, I tend to see it through.
What originally began as a blog about raising a puppy turned into a stream of emotion-filled essays on how Savannah came into our life, disrupted and changed our life, and ultimately became the core of our life, most especially during the 12 days when she was lost. We don't know where she was during those days and we will probably never find out.
I know one thing... I will always remember the look on Savannah's face that Mother's Day morning when we found her sitting by our back door waiting for us to come home. Our puppy was as overwhelmed and as exhausted as we were after those awful days, and all she wanted was to be back with her family. Savannah seems to be fine and healthy after her adventure, although she has no interest in walking along our road now. When she goes down the porch steps, she heads straight for the backyard and does her 'business' quickly and then wants to come back into the house. I'm sure she will get her confidence back as the weeks go by.
To both dog-lovers and cat-people.... your pets depend on you for everything: for their shelter, their food, their safety, their health. They give us so much during the years that we have them, and yes, they can be both frustrating and rewarding, and along with the love they give, responsibility and effort and just plain work come along with those little (and big) furry packages. In our search for Savannah during the days she was lost, we saw so many unwanted and neglected dogs and cats. Please spay/neuter your house-pets, and please please please go to your local animal shelters if you're willing to accept the love and responsibility of a four-legged furry child. No matter how many years your cat or dog may live, they will never mature beyond the psychological capability of a two- or three-year-old child, and understanding that is so important in the way you care for them.
To anyone who has cats who come running to you when their names are called, and to everyone who is loved unconditionally by a dog, I dare you to find a stronger bond with another living breathing creature on this planet.
After the last excruciating twelve days, I am all word-ed out, written-out, and just flat-out emotionally exhausted. I do understand that many more news-worthy and earth-shattering events have been happening around the world during our 'lost dog' fiasco. Savannah being lost was just a minuscule blip on the radar screen of the universe, but Savannah is our blip and that's why we put the rest of the world on hold these past couple of weeks.
My blog statistics indicate that the number of readers on both Savannah's blog and my Sprinkles blog has increased dramatically in the last six months, and I truly thank all of you for reading. I'll be back here typing after a little while, but for right now, this writer just needs a blessed break.
I started this Blog on the day we brought Savannah home on September 12th, 2015. Besides the fact that I tend to write everything down (and have for decades) I just had the feeling that this puppy would have a story to tell. I didn't know at the time how much of that story would be interesting enough to write about, but when I start something, I tend to see it through.
What originally began as a blog about raising a puppy turned into a stream of emotion-filled essays on how Savannah came into our life, disrupted and changed our life, and ultimately became the core of our life, most especially during the 12 days when she was lost. We don't know where she was during those days and we will probably never find out.
I know one thing... I will always remember the look on Savannah's face that Mother's Day morning when we found her sitting by our back door waiting for us to come home. Our puppy was as overwhelmed and as exhausted as we were after those awful days, and all she wanted was to be back with her family. Savannah seems to be fine and healthy after her adventure, although she has no interest in walking along our road now. When she goes down the porch steps, she heads straight for the backyard and does her 'business' quickly and then wants to come back into the house. I'm sure she will get her confidence back as the weeks go by.
To both dog-lovers and cat-people.... your pets depend on you for everything: for their shelter, their food, their safety, their health. They give us so much during the years that we have them, and yes, they can be both frustrating and rewarding, and along with the love they give, responsibility and effort and just plain work come along with those little (and big) furry packages. In our search for Savannah during the days she was lost, we saw so many unwanted and neglected dogs and cats. Please spay/neuter your house-pets, and please please please go to your local animal shelters if you're willing to accept the love and responsibility of a four-legged furry child. No matter how many years your cat or dog may live, they will never mature beyond the psychological capability of a two- or three-year-old child, and understanding that is so important in the way you care for them.
To anyone who has cats who come running to you when their names are called, and to everyone who is loved unconditionally by a dog, I dare you to find a stronger bond with another living breathing creature on this planet.
After the last excruciating twelve days, I am all word-ed out, written-out, and just flat-out emotionally exhausted. I do understand that many more news-worthy and earth-shattering events have been happening around the world during our 'lost dog' fiasco. Savannah being lost was just a minuscule blip on the radar screen of the universe, but Savannah is our blip and that's why we put the rest of the world on hold these past couple of weeks.
My blog statistics indicate that the number of readers on both Savannah's blog and my Sprinkles blog has increased dramatically in the last six months, and I truly thank all of you for reading. I'll be back here typing after a little while, but for right now, this writer just needs a blessed break.
Monday, May 9, 2016
Savannah's Puppy Diary
Momma keeps asking me Where Were You Savannah Where WERE You?! and I look at Momma and try to make her Understand that if I knew Where I Was then I would have just Come Back Home after those Big Noises stopped and I wouldn't have been Gone at all.
I knew I was Lost as soon as I Stopped Running that Night after the Big Boom happened and I thought the Sky Was Falling because of all the Colors dripping down from The Clouds. And then Momma fell to the Ground and I don't think She Got Up Too Quick because I was Running Running Running and Momma wasn't saying Come Here Savannah Come Here so I just Kept On Going till I couldn't Go anymore and that's how I really Learned what Lost means.
There were Other Dogs out there in the Woods and they weren't Nice Dogs because a few of them Growled At Me as soon as they Heard me and didn't even Give Me A Chance to Explain why I was in Their Woods in the first place. Momma would have called them Hoodlum Dogs because they Don't Know How To Play Nice. I tried to Explain to those Dogs what my Home was like and I told them that The Best Day Of My Life was when my Daddy told my Momma that I Was A Good Puppy And Needed A Good Home. But those Dogs didn't care and They Just Laughed at me and said I was Dragging a Rope and I told him that it was My Blue Leash and they said Girl Call It Whatever Fancy Word You Want But It's Just A Rope.
Then another Dog saw my Little Pink Heart with my Name and Momma's Number on it and that Dog said that I'd Be Losing That Tag Soon and then I'd Be Just Like Them-- On My Own and Doing Whatever I Wanted To Do. Well I tried to Explain that What I Really Wanted To Do was Go Back Home because Momma needed Company for Walking and Daddy needed me for The Dog Park and Sweet Pea liked to Sleep In My Bed and if I didn't Get Back Home then that Cat would just be Taking Over My Bed and Mickey was probably Waiting to Slap My Nose just because he's So Little and Thinks he always has to Prove That He's a Real Cat and besides that the Cats Were There First and a Cat is a Cat That's Always Been That.
Those Hoodlum Dogs didn't Have a Clue what I was Talking About so I left them when they Went To Sleep because they Didn't Care About Me anyway and they Didn't Even Know what Lost meant so I just Kept On Going. My hair was picking up those little Sticky-Burrs that Momma was always Pulling Off when I was Home and then she would Put Her Hands On Her Hips and tell me Savannah You Are One High-Maintenance Puppy With All That Long Hair of Yours and I knew that if Momma saw me now with the Dirt and Sticky-Burrs All Over Me she would be Putting Her Hands On Her Hips for the Rest Of Her Life. And another thing I Learned while I was Gone was that if Momma ever saw all the Animals and Bugs and Crawling Things in the Woods she would Never Come Out Of The House Again.
I don't know How Many Days I Was Lost because One Day is the Same As The Next One especially out here in Momma's Country Bubble but I was getting Tired and Hungry and Lonely and once You've Had a Family and a House and Bowls of Food and Water this Lost-In-The-Woods thing just Doesn't Cut It no matter What the Hoodlum Dogs say. And then the Woods had Rain and Thunder and Lightning and I had to Find A Place to Hide that Wasn't Too Dirty but that was the Trouble-- Everything Was Too Dirty and it was Getting Hard to look like a Lady Dog and Momma wouldn't have Been Too Happy with how I Smelled.
I ate a Lot of Grass and Bluebonnets but right after eating them I threw them All Up and the Pile of Mashed Bluebonnets didn't look So Pretty and then I started eating Whatever I Found that was Crunchy but that was Hard To Do after all that Rain we had. I just kept Walking and Hiding and Walking and Hiding and pretty soon the Woods started to Smell Like Home so I Walked Faster and Didn't Hide So Much Unless I Heard The Coyotes and before too long I saw our House at the top of the Hill. Our House! Those big old Columns that Momma says the birds love to build nests on, and the big old Porch that Momma says attracts every bit of Dust like a Magnet so I kept Running and Running and Running and then I flew up the back steps of our house and Planted Myself Up Against The Back Door and wouldn't you know it-- my Blue Leash got caught in the Steps of the Porch and even if I did want to Go Anywhere there was No Way for me to Get Loose.
And then after a Minute I saw Daddy's car coming up the Road and then Up our Driveway and then Momma and Daddy got out and Daddy was Crying and Yelling She's Home! She Came Home! and Momma was crying too and saying Savannah Baby Girl You Found Your Way Home! I just sat there trying to Look Cute instead of Looking Dirty and Momma said Oh Just Look At All The Sticky-Burrs On You and next thing I knew Momma had my Brush in her Hand and she was getting all those Burrs off of me and she didn't even Stop to Put Her Hands On Her Hips.
Then Momma's friends came to the House and I Wagged My Tail and Sat Down and Momma was Brushing Me and Everybody said Well Where Have You Been Savannah and that's the First Time I tried to say Well If I Knew Where I Was Then I Would Have Been Able To Get Home A Lot Faster but I don't think they Understood me because Most of Them were Crying. Miss Judy was there with Bella and that Little Dog was Looking All Cute and Clean and she Sniffed me and told me that I Smelled Like The Woods. Well where did Bella think I had been for twelve days? At a Spa? And Miss Cindy was there but she didn't Bring Jack with her but that's Probably because Jack would have tried to Bury me because I smelled so Bad.
When I finally got into the House I drank some Water and then Momma quick got the Mop and cleaned up my Splashy Mess and then Momma said that her Kitchen Floor had been Clean for the Last Twelve Days but she could Kiss That Goodbye and then she Gave me a Big Hug and started to Cry. Then Daddy was giving me BBQ brisket and Macaroni And Cheese and Chicken and Bagels With Lox and telling me It's Good To Have You Home Savannah We Missed You So Much and I just Sat There trying to Look Pitiful so Daddy would Keep On Feeding Me.
Everybody went to Sleep early that Night because I was Exhausted from all that Running and all those Nights Without My Bed and Daddy said that he must have driven One Thousand Miles looking All Over for me and Momma said she now has More Gray Hairs Than She Needs and they both said I was One Lucky Puppy because not only did I Find My Way Back Home but I have More Friends Than A Lot of Other Lost Puppies.
I had to ask Sweet Pea to Get Out of My Bed when I Got Home but I asked him Nicely and tried not to be like one of those Hoodlum Dogs who Don't Know How To Share. I sat in my Bed and looked up at My Momma and she was Crying Again and telling me that she Didn't Know What she would have done if I hadn't Come Back. I tried to Explain to Momma that she Should Have Known I'd Come Home because I am Savannah Savannah Savannah and I Know Who Loves Me and I Know Where I Belong. It just took Longer Than I thought it would To Get Back Here and I hope those New Neighbors Across The Road have Learned a Good Lesson about Fireworks.
Every time Momma walks by me now she Holds My Face between her Two Hands and she tells me Savannah Grace This House Sure Wasn't The Same Without You In It. I just look at Momma and I try not to let her see that I'm thinking Well I Hope You Remember That When I Get Water On The Floor Or Go Splashing In Rain Puddles and then I Remember how Lonely it was In The Woods without my Momma Taking Me For Walks and my Daddy Taking Me To The Dog Park and Sweet Pea Sleeping In My Bed. I even missed Mickey Kitty slapping me on my Nose and I hope Someone has taught that Outside Cat some Manners while I was Gone.
I knew I was Lost as soon as I Stopped Running that Night after the Big Boom happened and I thought the Sky Was Falling because of all the Colors dripping down from The Clouds. And then Momma fell to the Ground and I don't think She Got Up Too Quick because I was Running Running Running and Momma wasn't saying Come Here Savannah Come Here so I just Kept On Going till I couldn't Go anymore and that's how I really Learned what Lost means.
There were Other Dogs out there in the Woods and they weren't Nice Dogs because a few of them Growled At Me as soon as they Heard me and didn't even Give Me A Chance to Explain why I was in Their Woods in the first place. Momma would have called them Hoodlum Dogs because they Don't Know How To Play Nice. I tried to Explain to those Dogs what my Home was like and I told them that The Best Day Of My Life was when my Daddy told my Momma that I Was A Good Puppy And Needed A Good Home. But those Dogs didn't care and They Just Laughed at me and said I was Dragging a Rope and I told him that it was My Blue Leash and they said Girl Call It Whatever Fancy Word You Want But It's Just A Rope.
Then another Dog saw my Little Pink Heart with my Name and Momma's Number on it and that Dog said that I'd Be Losing That Tag Soon and then I'd Be Just Like Them-- On My Own and Doing Whatever I Wanted To Do. Well I tried to Explain that What I Really Wanted To Do was Go Back Home because Momma needed Company for Walking and Daddy needed me for The Dog Park and Sweet Pea liked to Sleep In My Bed and if I didn't Get Back Home then that Cat would just be Taking Over My Bed and Mickey was probably Waiting to Slap My Nose just because he's So Little and Thinks he always has to Prove That He's a Real Cat and besides that the Cats Were There First and a Cat is a Cat That's Always Been That.
Those Hoodlum Dogs didn't Have a Clue what I was Talking About so I left them when they Went To Sleep because they Didn't Care About Me anyway and they Didn't Even Know what Lost meant so I just Kept On Going. My hair was picking up those little Sticky-Burrs that Momma was always Pulling Off when I was Home and then she would Put Her Hands On Her Hips and tell me Savannah You Are One High-Maintenance Puppy With All That Long Hair of Yours and I knew that if Momma saw me now with the Dirt and Sticky-Burrs All Over Me she would be Putting Her Hands On Her Hips for the Rest Of Her Life. And another thing I Learned while I was Gone was that if Momma ever saw all the Animals and Bugs and Crawling Things in the Woods she would Never Come Out Of The House Again.
I don't know How Many Days I Was Lost because One Day is the Same As The Next One especially out here in Momma's Country Bubble but I was getting Tired and Hungry and Lonely and once You've Had a Family and a House and Bowls of Food and Water this Lost-In-The-Woods thing just Doesn't Cut It no matter What the Hoodlum Dogs say. And then the Woods had Rain and Thunder and Lightning and I had to Find A Place to Hide that Wasn't Too Dirty but that was the Trouble-- Everything Was Too Dirty and it was Getting Hard to look like a Lady Dog and Momma wouldn't have Been Too Happy with how I Smelled.
I ate a Lot of Grass and Bluebonnets but right after eating them I threw them All Up and the Pile of Mashed Bluebonnets didn't look So Pretty and then I started eating Whatever I Found that was Crunchy but that was Hard To Do after all that Rain we had. I just kept Walking and Hiding and Walking and Hiding and pretty soon the Woods started to Smell Like Home so I Walked Faster and Didn't Hide So Much Unless I Heard The Coyotes and before too long I saw our House at the top of the Hill. Our House! Those big old Columns that Momma says the birds love to build nests on, and the big old Porch that Momma says attracts every bit of Dust like a Magnet so I kept Running and Running and Running and then I flew up the back steps of our house and Planted Myself Up Against The Back Door and wouldn't you know it-- my Blue Leash got caught in the Steps of the Porch and even if I did want to Go Anywhere there was No Way for me to Get Loose.
And then after a Minute I saw Daddy's car coming up the Road and then Up our Driveway and then Momma and Daddy got out and Daddy was Crying and Yelling She's Home! She Came Home! and Momma was crying too and saying Savannah Baby Girl You Found Your Way Home! I just sat there trying to Look Cute instead of Looking Dirty and Momma said Oh Just Look At All The Sticky-Burrs On You and next thing I knew Momma had my Brush in her Hand and she was getting all those Burrs off of me and she didn't even Stop to Put Her Hands On Her Hips.
Then Momma's friends came to the House and I Wagged My Tail and Sat Down and Momma was Brushing Me and Everybody said Well Where Have You Been Savannah and that's the First Time I tried to say Well If I Knew Where I Was Then I Would Have Been Able To Get Home A Lot Faster but I don't think they Understood me because Most of Them were Crying. Miss Judy was there with Bella and that Little Dog was Looking All Cute and Clean and she Sniffed me and told me that I Smelled Like The Woods. Well where did Bella think I had been for twelve days? At a Spa? And Miss Cindy was there but she didn't Bring Jack with her but that's Probably because Jack would have tried to Bury me because I smelled so Bad.
When I finally got into the House I drank some Water and then Momma quick got the Mop and cleaned up my Splashy Mess and then Momma said that her Kitchen Floor had been Clean for the Last Twelve Days but she could Kiss That Goodbye and then she Gave me a Big Hug and started to Cry. Then Daddy was giving me BBQ brisket and Macaroni And Cheese and Chicken and Bagels With Lox and telling me It's Good To Have You Home Savannah We Missed You So Much and I just Sat There trying to Look Pitiful so Daddy would Keep On Feeding Me.
Everybody went to Sleep early that Night because I was Exhausted from all that Running and all those Nights Without My Bed and Daddy said that he must have driven One Thousand Miles looking All Over for me and Momma said she now has More Gray Hairs Than She Needs and they both said I was One Lucky Puppy because not only did I Find My Way Back Home but I have More Friends Than A Lot of Other Lost Puppies.
I had to ask Sweet Pea to Get Out of My Bed when I Got Home but I asked him Nicely and tried not to be like one of those Hoodlum Dogs who Don't Know How To Share. I sat in my Bed and looked up at My Momma and she was Crying Again and telling me that she Didn't Know What she would have done if I hadn't Come Back. I tried to Explain to Momma that she Should Have Known I'd Come Home because I am Savannah Savannah Savannah and I Know Who Loves Me and I Know Where I Belong. It just took Longer Than I thought it would To Get Back Here and I hope those New Neighbors Across The Road have Learned a Good Lesson about Fireworks.
Every time Momma walks by me now she Holds My Face between her Two Hands and she tells me Savannah Grace This House Sure Wasn't The Same Without You In It. I just look at Momma and I try not to let her see that I'm thinking Well I Hope You Remember That When I Get Water On The Floor Or Go Splashing In Rain Puddles and then I Remember how Lonely it was In The Woods without my Momma Taking Me For Walks and my Daddy Taking Me To The Dog Park and Sweet Pea Sleeping In My Bed. I even missed Mickey Kitty slapping me on my Nose and I hope Someone has taught that Outside Cat some Manners while I was Gone.
Day Twelve... 'Miracle Day'
Gary and I left the house on Mother's Day morning at 10:30, planning to take down black/white posters of Savannah and put up ones in color. The black/white pictures had been put up hurriedly when we ran out of the better posters. We also drove to a somewhat-local BBQ restaurant called "Truth" and my husband bought homemade cakes for our friends here who so relentlessly searched for Savannah. I think my husband and I both believed that Savannah was gone, just gone, and we wouldn't see her again, but we really needed to do something to thank our friends for their efforts and concern.
On the way back from the restaurant I began calling our friends to tell them we were on our way to their homes with a little thank-you gift for them. As my husband drove, we talked about Savannah and I said that wherever she was, I hoped she was happy and being cared for in a proper way... and maybe she was staying there because there was another puppy to play with. Gary asked me if that meant that I wanted to get another puppy and my immediate answer was "No. I'm not even over this one yet."
We got to K's house with the cake and she told us that during her morning walk with friend M, they had spotted dog poop along the walking path on J and L's pasture... they walk there every morning and hadn't ever seen such evidence before that a dog had been on that part of L's property. We told K that we would speak to J and L and ask them if we could walk along the path and search again for Savannah, even though every acre of that property had been searched over and over again during the last eleven days.
We got back into my husband's car and my cell phone was ringing. When I picked it up, I heard a voice saying "your dog" but that's all I heard until my husband turned off the car engine and I got better reception on my phone. I said "Who is this?" into the phone and the voice I heard was that of our across-the-road neighbor, the one whose son had set off the mega-fireworks that had sent Savannah fleeing into the night on April 27th. She asked me if I had found our dog yet and I tersely answered 'No.' I didn't want to speak to her and had planned never to do so again.
But our neighbor persisted.... she said that her husband had seen a blonde and white dog speeding up our road and towards our house dragging a long blue leash behind her. "That's Savannah!" I shouted into the phone. I told her we were five minutes away from home and would she please go over there and make sure Savannah didn't keep running or at least have a look and see which direction she ran if she didn't stop at our house.
As my husband drove towards home, we kept saying This is impossible, this is impossible.... could she have been close to home all this time while we were looking five, ten, and fifteen miles away? We reminded ourselves that our friends had continuously checked their properties, the woods behind their pastures, the creeks, and even the catch-basins along the road-sides... no one saw any animal remotely resembling our Savannah so she couldn't have possibly been anywhere close by for all of these days.
When we pulled into our driveway, we saw the across-the-road neighbors in our yard... the wife by the gazebo in the side yard and the husband in the front yard. Savannah was not with them and as we got our of our car the neighbors were telling us that they lost sight of her because she was running so fast. Gary went to the left of the garage, I went around to the right, both of us calling out Savannah! and thinking that if she were headed towards our back pastures, one of us would see her.
My husband, however, went up on the porch first, and there was our Savannah, sitting by the back door and leaning up against it, her long blue leash trailing behind her and stuck in the wood decking of the porch. As I was running along the side of the garage and heading towards the backyard, I heard my husband cry out "She's home! She's here! Right here!" And there they were, both of them on the back porch near the door and all I remember saying at that point was "Savannah baby girl you found your way back home!" and then I was just crying and hugging her and my husband was crying and I was yelling out "Thank you! Thank you!" to the neighbors across the road... the same neighbors that I had vowed never to speak to again. The neighbors yelled back that they were glad the three of us had a happy ending.
I started calling our friends... told them that Savannah was home, she was home, and she seemed to be fine except for a little bit of dirt and hundreds of sticky-burrs all over her. And one by one, and then two by two, they all came to our back door to say hello to Savannah and ask her where she had been and we gave them the cakes we had picked up at "Truth" and there wasn't a dry eye on our porch. We were all just crying and shaking our heads in disbelief as Savannah sat there looking at us as if she'd been gone for 10 minutes rather than 12 days.
While I was talking to the neighbors and pulling the burrs from Savannah's hair, my husband was feeding our prodigal dog bits and pieces of the smoked brisket he had just brought home from "Truth" and we all watched as Savannah gobbled everything up quickly. My friend Cindy kept telling her "Chew it, Savannah, chew it!" but Savannah was very hungry and kept eating that meat which had been nicely cut into precise chunks by my husband.
Gary and I are still more or less in shock. It is Monday morning as I'm typing now and I barely sat down all yesterday afternoon, except for typing a bit and making a couple of phone calls to my cousins in New York. Savannah's fur has been brushed, all the sticky-burrs have been removed, and except for a one-inch-long scrape on her left front paw, she seems to be fine. We will have her checked out by our vet, but we're giving her a day or so to settle in and settle down.
When Savannah first got home to our porch, she was panting and shaking and very anxious. She immediately recognized myself and my husband, as well as our friends who came here to welcome her home. I had been so worried that a 'different' dog would come back after all of those days in the woods but Savannah immediately resumed her inside-puppy manners the minute she walked into the back door. Her first stop was the water bowl, into which she promptly submerged half of her face and then dribbled most of the water onto the kitchen floor. Savannah's second stop was her bed in the corner of the breakfast room, which she happily curled up in but then got out of to follow us into the TV room. Savannah sat in front of us as we turned on the news and half-listened to it... she looked from me to my husband, then back to me again, then to Sweet Pea, and then Savannah slowly crawled up onto the sofa, right smack between us as she had always done, and tried to curl herself into a tight puppy comma. My husband looked at me and said "We really need to get a bigger sofa for Savannah."
I truly believe that the magic of love and the power of prayer helped bring Savannah back home. For all of Savannah's eight months with us, we had only walked her all the way up to the main highway three times. She didn't like most of the cars along our long and winding country road, and she barked at practically all of them during those long walks. As a result of that behavior, I decided to just walk her up and down our own road, which greatly lessened Savannah's chances of being familiar with all of the twists and turns of our hills here.
We have no way of knowing where Savannah was for the past twelve days. The pet psychics (both of them) told us that Savannah was far away, "much farther than you think." Sonya Fitzpatrick said that Savannah's leash, collar, and tags were still intact and dragging; the Michigan psychic said that her leash and ID tags were gone. Sonya told us that the day we rescued Savannah was the best day of her puppy life... that remark made us cry at the time, and it still makes us cry to think about it now.
I know Savannah well enough to understand that she was overwhelmed by her experience. She is happy to be home, but was too exhausted to really enjoy her home-coming--- except for the brisket, which she gobbled up and looked for more. My husband says that the next time he goes to "Truth" he will get two pounds of meat instead of just one.
It is ten o'clock on Monday morning as I type this. I have mopped up Savannah's dribbles from her water bowl twice since I got up, and I've had to sweep up dog hair on the kitchen floor six times since yesterday afternoon. I have just three words to say: Life is good.
On the way back from the restaurant I began calling our friends to tell them we were on our way to their homes with a little thank-you gift for them. As my husband drove, we talked about Savannah and I said that wherever she was, I hoped she was happy and being cared for in a proper way... and maybe she was staying there because there was another puppy to play with. Gary asked me if that meant that I wanted to get another puppy and my immediate answer was "No. I'm not even over this one yet."
We got to K's house with the cake and she told us that during her morning walk with friend M, they had spotted dog poop along the walking path on J and L's pasture... they walk there every morning and hadn't ever seen such evidence before that a dog had been on that part of L's property. We told K that we would speak to J and L and ask them if we could walk along the path and search again for Savannah, even though every acre of that property had been searched over and over again during the last eleven days.
We got back into my husband's car and my cell phone was ringing. When I picked it up, I heard a voice saying "your dog" but that's all I heard until my husband turned off the car engine and I got better reception on my phone. I said "Who is this?" into the phone and the voice I heard was that of our across-the-road neighbor, the one whose son had set off the mega-fireworks that had sent Savannah fleeing into the night on April 27th. She asked me if I had found our dog yet and I tersely answered 'No.' I didn't want to speak to her and had planned never to do so again.
But our neighbor persisted.... she said that her husband had seen a blonde and white dog speeding up our road and towards our house dragging a long blue leash behind her. "That's Savannah!" I shouted into the phone. I told her we were five minutes away from home and would she please go over there and make sure Savannah didn't keep running or at least have a look and see which direction she ran if she didn't stop at our house.
As my husband drove towards home, we kept saying This is impossible, this is impossible.... could she have been close to home all this time while we were looking five, ten, and fifteen miles away? We reminded ourselves that our friends had continuously checked their properties, the woods behind their pastures, the creeks, and even the catch-basins along the road-sides... no one saw any animal remotely resembling our Savannah so she couldn't have possibly been anywhere close by for all of these days.
When we pulled into our driveway, we saw the across-the-road neighbors in our yard... the wife by the gazebo in the side yard and the husband in the front yard. Savannah was not with them and as we got our of our car the neighbors were telling us that they lost sight of her because she was running so fast. Gary went to the left of the garage, I went around to the right, both of us calling out Savannah! and thinking that if she were headed towards our back pastures, one of us would see her.
My husband, however, went up on the porch first, and there was our Savannah, sitting by the back door and leaning up against it, her long blue leash trailing behind her and stuck in the wood decking of the porch. As I was running along the side of the garage and heading towards the backyard, I heard my husband cry out "She's home! She's here! Right here!" And there they were, both of them on the back porch near the door and all I remember saying at that point was "Savannah baby girl you found your way back home!" and then I was just crying and hugging her and my husband was crying and I was yelling out "Thank you! Thank you!" to the neighbors across the road... the same neighbors that I had vowed never to speak to again. The neighbors yelled back that they were glad the three of us had a happy ending.
I started calling our friends... told them that Savannah was home, she was home, and she seemed to be fine except for a little bit of dirt and hundreds of sticky-burrs all over her. And one by one, and then two by two, they all came to our back door to say hello to Savannah and ask her where she had been and we gave them the cakes we had picked up at "Truth" and there wasn't a dry eye on our porch. We were all just crying and shaking our heads in disbelief as Savannah sat there looking at us as if she'd been gone for 10 minutes rather than 12 days.
While I was talking to the neighbors and pulling the burrs from Savannah's hair, my husband was feeding our prodigal dog bits and pieces of the smoked brisket he had just brought home from "Truth" and we all watched as Savannah gobbled everything up quickly. My friend Cindy kept telling her "Chew it, Savannah, chew it!" but Savannah was very hungry and kept eating that meat which had been nicely cut into precise chunks by my husband.
Gary and I are still more or less in shock. It is Monday morning as I'm typing now and I barely sat down all yesterday afternoon, except for typing a bit and making a couple of phone calls to my cousins in New York. Savannah's fur has been brushed, all the sticky-burrs have been removed, and except for a one-inch-long scrape on her left front paw, she seems to be fine. We will have her checked out by our vet, but we're giving her a day or so to settle in and settle down.
When Savannah first got home to our porch, she was panting and shaking and very anxious. She immediately recognized myself and my husband, as well as our friends who came here to welcome her home. I had been so worried that a 'different' dog would come back after all of those days in the woods but Savannah immediately resumed her inside-puppy manners the minute she walked into the back door. Her first stop was the water bowl, into which she promptly submerged half of her face and then dribbled most of the water onto the kitchen floor. Savannah's second stop was her bed in the corner of the breakfast room, which she happily curled up in but then got out of to follow us into the TV room. Savannah sat in front of us as we turned on the news and half-listened to it... she looked from me to my husband, then back to me again, then to Sweet Pea, and then Savannah slowly crawled up onto the sofa, right smack between us as she had always done, and tried to curl herself into a tight puppy comma. My husband looked at me and said "We really need to get a bigger sofa for Savannah."
I truly believe that the magic of love and the power of prayer helped bring Savannah back home. For all of Savannah's eight months with us, we had only walked her all the way up to the main highway three times. She didn't like most of the cars along our long and winding country road, and she barked at practically all of them during those long walks. As a result of that behavior, I decided to just walk her up and down our own road, which greatly lessened Savannah's chances of being familiar with all of the twists and turns of our hills here.
We have no way of knowing where Savannah was for the past twelve days. The pet psychics (both of them) told us that Savannah was far away, "much farther than you think." Sonya Fitzpatrick said that Savannah's leash, collar, and tags were still intact and dragging; the Michigan psychic said that her leash and ID tags were gone. Sonya told us that the day we rescued Savannah was the best day of her puppy life... that remark made us cry at the time, and it still makes us cry to think about it now.
I know Savannah well enough to understand that she was overwhelmed by her experience. She is happy to be home, but was too exhausted to really enjoy her home-coming--- except for the brisket, which she gobbled up and looked for more. My husband says that the next time he goes to "Truth" he will get two pounds of meat instead of just one.
It is ten o'clock on Monday morning as I type this. I have mopped up Savannah's dribbles from her water bowl twice since I got up, and I've had to sweep up dog hair on the kitchen floor six times since yesterday afternoon. I have just three words to say: Life is good.
Sunday, May 8, 2016
A note from Sweet Pea...
I was just beginning to get used to having a puppy in this house and now I can't find her anywhere even though I keep calling Savannah! Savannah! Savannah! all day long and my momma thinks I'm just meowing like I always do but it's so much more than that and momma has been sad for days and days now and that's making me sad too but there's not much I can do about it but sit on momma's lap and look cute and keep trying to make momma understand that Savannah is going to come back I just know it.
Momma doesn't know this but I was at the window when that big explosion happened last week while she and our puppy were out walking along the road but I can't tell momma that because I was up on the kitchen counter waiting for them to come walking back down the driveway even though I'm not technically allowed up on those counters but sometimes a cat just has to do what a cat has to do because we're cats and that's that and every time momma and the puppy went outside I was always watching by that window and waiting for them to come back.
When I heard that big cannon going off that night I saw a big gold and white blur just disappearing down our road and it didn't even stop at our driveway it just kept on going and before I realized that the blur was really our puppy it was gone into the dark and into the night and then the next explosion came just seconds later and the kitchen window rattled just as bad as it did with the first big boom and I knew something was very wrong but I was the only one in the house at the time so there was no one to tell and my people aren't always good at speaking cat because they don't think I have too much to say besides meow meow meow.
I kept looking out that window and then I saw my momma walking down our driveway and she was holding her arm and trying to hold her leg and there was red stuff on her face and her hands and dripping red on her white clothes and I knew right then that something awful had happened because momma would never go outside with anything dripping and then I heard momma calling Savannah! Savannah! Savannah! over and over again and she walked around the gazebo and around the cottage and all around the house and all the while there was more red stuff and more dripping and by the time momma got to the porch again she couldn't hardly get up the steps because she was crying from some places and dripping red from other places.
When momma opened up the back door I was still on the counter by the window and I started to get myself off of there real quick but momma didn't even notice where I was and she got the little phone and started punching in numbers and then she saw the red stuff on the phone and she just wiped it off on the towel that was right next to me on the counter and I thought she was going to tell me Get Down From That Counter Sweet Pea but she didn't say that at all and she took that little phone thing and went back out the door and I went back to the window and I heard momma talking to people and then calling Savannah! Savannah! again and again and again.
Next thing I knew there were people in cars and trucks all over our road and up and down our driveway and everyone was calling the puppy's name and then I really absolutely knew that the blur I had seen on the road right after the explosion was our Savannah but no one was inside the house and even if they were I don't think any of momma's friends speak cat anyway so I wouldn't have been much help especially since they all stop listening to me after I say the first meow.
It was hours and hours before everyone went home and momma came back into the house and then she looked in the mirror and saw the red stuff on her face and her hands and her arms and she said Oh My No Wonder Everyone Wanted Me To Come Inside And Wash Up and then momma got some towels and water and rubbed some of the red stuff off of her face and her hands and then she looked at me and told me that Savannah was missing missing missing because of the fireworks and where on earth could she be hiding and why were stupid people shooting off fireworks in April anyway.
Momma didn't go to sleep that night she just stayed awake with me on her lap and she kept rubbing her eyes with little white things and saying that it was all her fault all her fault all her fault and I tried to say how could it be her fault that the sky was falling and Savannah turned into a blur but sometimes momma doesn't speak cat very well and that was one of those times when her mind was more on Savannah than on me but I understood that because Savannah was lost lost lost and I was here here here.
I kept looking at the puppy's bed for a few days after all of that happened but I didn't sleep in it because momma said that Savannah was coming back and I believed that too so I stayed out of that big bed and slept in my own little bed but then after a few days that big bed just looked so sad in the corner there without our puppy in it so I decided the best thing to do was to keep it warm for Savannah and when she walked in the back door again I could point to the bed and say Taaa-daaah! There's your bed all ready for you! but that hasn't happened yet and it's been a lot of days now but I just know Savannah will be back home because there's just no other place better than our home.
My people keep going out with a big stack of pictures of Savannah and when they come back there's only a few left and you would think that someone out there somewhere must have seen our puppy because surely she must have slowed down by now and isn't just a gold and white blur running down a country road and who would want to keep our puppy anyway and even if they do they may change their minds when she barks in the middle of the night when everyone is trying to sleep and maybe momma should have put that on the paper with Savannah's picture so everyone would know that they won't be getting a lot of sleep if that puppy hears something out in their yard at two o'clock in the morning.
I've been sleeping in Savannah's bed every day now and momma doesn't tell me anymore that when Savannah comes back she's going to want her own bed all to herself and I want to tell momma that I really think Savannah won't be coming back until she knows for sure that all of those cannons won't still be going off across the road and she probably has found herself a really quiet spot now and doesn't want to leave and maybe there was even another puppy in the new place and Savannah may want to have another puppy to play with instead of just me inside and Mickey outside and who can blame her if she doesn't want Mickey because that cat kept slapping our puppy on the nose but I hope Savannah remembers that I have much better manners and even though I'm sleeping in her bed now I will get out of it real quick when Savannah comes back.
My people are missing our puppy and I am missing our puppy and I never thought I'd even want a puppy in my house but Savannah is a really good one and even though she was nervous around everybody when she first got here she wasn't that nervous with me because she knew she could trust me after I taught her how to speak cat and then she taught me how to speak puppy and then my people taught her how to love so I will keep trying to tell momma that Savannah will be back and I just know it's going to happen because I am the cat and that's that.
Momma doesn't know this but I was at the window when that big explosion happened last week while she and our puppy were out walking along the road but I can't tell momma that because I was up on the kitchen counter waiting for them to come walking back down the driveway even though I'm not technically allowed up on those counters but sometimes a cat just has to do what a cat has to do because we're cats and that's that and every time momma and the puppy went outside I was always watching by that window and waiting for them to come back.
When I heard that big cannon going off that night I saw a big gold and white blur just disappearing down our road and it didn't even stop at our driveway it just kept on going and before I realized that the blur was really our puppy it was gone into the dark and into the night and then the next explosion came just seconds later and the kitchen window rattled just as bad as it did with the first big boom and I knew something was very wrong but I was the only one in the house at the time so there was no one to tell and my people aren't always good at speaking cat because they don't think I have too much to say besides meow meow meow.
I kept looking out that window and then I saw my momma walking down our driveway and she was holding her arm and trying to hold her leg and there was red stuff on her face and her hands and dripping red on her white clothes and I knew right then that something awful had happened because momma would never go outside with anything dripping and then I heard momma calling Savannah! Savannah! Savannah! over and over again and she walked around the gazebo and around the cottage and all around the house and all the while there was more red stuff and more dripping and by the time momma got to the porch again she couldn't hardly get up the steps because she was crying from some places and dripping red from other places.
When momma opened up the back door I was still on the counter by the window and I started to get myself off of there real quick but momma didn't even notice where I was and she got the little phone and started punching in numbers and then she saw the red stuff on the phone and she just wiped it off on the towel that was right next to me on the counter and I thought she was going to tell me Get Down From That Counter Sweet Pea but she didn't say that at all and she took that little phone thing and went back out the door and I went back to the window and I heard momma talking to people and then calling Savannah! Savannah! again and again and again.
Next thing I knew there were people in cars and trucks all over our road and up and down our driveway and everyone was calling the puppy's name and then I really absolutely knew that the blur I had seen on the road right after the explosion was our Savannah but no one was inside the house and even if they were I don't think any of momma's friends speak cat anyway so I wouldn't have been much help especially since they all stop listening to me after I say the first meow.
It was hours and hours before everyone went home and momma came back into the house and then she looked in the mirror and saw the red stuff on her face and her hands and her arms and she said Oh My No Wonder Everyone Wanted Me To Come Inside And Wash Up and then momma got some towels and water and rubbed some of the red stuff off of her face and her hands and then she looked at me and told me that Savannah was missing missing missing because of the fireworks and where on earth could she be hiding and why were stupid people shooting off fireworks in April anyway.
Momma didn't go to sleep that night she just stayed awake with me on her lap and she kept rubbing her eyes with little white things and saying that it was all her fault all her fault all her fault and I tried to say how could it be her fault that the sky was falling and Savannah turned into a blur but sometimes momma doesn't speak cat very well and that was one of those times when her mind was more on Savannah than on me but I understood that because Savannah was lost lost lost and I was here here here.
I kept looking at the puppy's bed for a few days after all of that happened but I didn't sleep in it because momma said that Savannah was coming back and I believed that too so I stayed out of that big bed and slept in my own little bed but then after a few days that big bed just looked so sad in the corner there without our puppy in it so I decided the best thing to do was to keep it warm for Savannah and when she walked in the back door again I could point to the bed and say Taaa-daaah! There's your bed all ready for you! but that hasn't happened yet and it's been a lot of days now but I just know Savannah will be back home because there's just no other place better than our home.
My people keep going out with a big stack of pictures of Savannah and when they come back there's only a few left and you would think that someone out there somewhere must have seen our puppy because surely she must have slowed down by now and isn't just a gold and white blur running down a country road and who would want to keep our puppy anyway and even if they do they may change their minds when she barks in the middle of the night when everyone is trying to sleep and maybe momma should have put that on the paper with Savannah's picture so everyone would know that they won't be getting a lot of sleep if that puppy hears something out in their yard at two o'clock in the morning.
I've been sleeping in Savannah's bed every day now and momma doesn't tell me anymore that when Savannah comes back she's going to want her own bed all to herself and I want to tell momma that I really think Savannah won't be coming back until she knows for sure that all of those cannons won't still be going off across the road and she probably has found herself a really quiet spot now and doesn't want to leave and maybe there was even another puppy in the new place and Savannah may want to have another puppy to play with instead of just me inside and Mickey outside and who can blame her if she doesn't want Mickey because that cat kept slapping our puppy on the nose but I hope Savannah remembers that I have much better manners and even though I'm sleeping in her bed now I will get out of it real quick when Savannah comes back.
My people are missing our puppy and I am missing our puppy and I never thought I'd even want a puppy in my house but Savannah is a really good one and even though she was nervous around everybody when she first got here she wasn't that nervous with me because she knew she could trust me after I taught her how to speak cat and then she taught me how to speak puppy and then my people taught her how to love so I will keep trying to tell momma that Savannah will be back and I just know it's going to happen because I am the cat and that's that.
Saturday, May 7, 2016
Day Eleven.
I woke up this morning and the bed was empty. I thought my husband was at his computer in his office but as soon as I got out of bed and started walking, I knew the house was empty. If you really concentrate, you can tell when the only energy in a house is your own.
When I got downstairs to the kitchen, the stack of 'lost dog' fliers wasn't as high as the night before. I looked at the rack of keys and didn't see my husband's key-ring. It didn't take Sherlock Homes to figure this one out.... Gary had gotten up early, taken the fliers, and went looking for Savannah. My guess was that he was gone by first light.
I'm getting used to the house again without Savannah in it. Very quiet. No long golden dog hairs swirled on the dark green kitchen tiles. No crumbs of dog biscuits that need to be either swept up or shown to Savannah, telling her "Hey girl, you missed some pieces here." Then I would tap the floor with the toe of my shoe and she would walk over and gobble up the crumbs.
I wake up in the morning now and my first thought isn't "Get up and walk Savannah before the people up the road start leaving for work." (She didn't like the vehicles of one particular family up the hill and she would bark at them as they drove by.) Waking up is leisurely now because I know the cats will wait for their breakfast, for as long as it takes me to get it to them. Savannah wasn't a 'morning dog' because she needed time to yawn and stretch and play with Sweet Pea a little bit before I put her leash on and took her out into the day.
I've been telling my husband that if we get Savannah back, I will no longer walk her along the road. She will use the backyard grass and that's it. And I want a fence put up, so she will have part of the yard as her own, to run around in and play in, without being able to get near the driveway or near the road. We have twenty-three acres here... surely there's half an acre we can fence in just for Savannah.
I've also come to the conclusion that if we don't find Savannah, we will probably, eventually, get another dog. I will not, not, not, NOT get a puppy that will eventually grow to more than 25 pounds. Had Savannah been smaller, I would have been able to hold onto her leash when those 'bombs' exploded on the across-the-road-neighbor's property. Any dog would have been terribly frightened of those M-80 fireworks, but with a smaller dog, all I would have had to do was pick it up in my arms and carry it back to the house. Savannah's nearly 70-pounds'-worth of fear pulled me face-first to the road and knocked me out, and when I woke up Savannah was gone and my world had exploded with that first blast of the fireworks.
My husband walked in the door just before ten o'clock this morning. He told me he couldn't sleep and after working on his computer for a while, he left the house at 6:30 and he tacked up Savannah's fliers on telephone poles as he found new back roads. He said it was a beautiful and very still morning, the silence broken only when he called out "SAVANNAH!!" from the car window.
Savannah. I was so happy to give her that name. It seemed to fit our puppy somehow when we first got her. I named her for one of my favorite cities... Savannah, Georgia. We've been to Savannah twice over the years and I would move there in a heart-beat. It's a small and very pretty city with an aura of mystery that is hard to define but easy to sense. The city of Savannah has a slight wildness that hovers just below the southern propriety of the old-soul-ness that defines that historical city... a quality that is more felt than seen. I used to tell our Savannah that she was like an old soul, especially when she sat quietly in her bed as I typed. She watched me as I kept up with this Blog and I have to wonder if she knew what I was doing... telling her story every day because for some reason, I thought this puppy of ours had a good story to tell, and I sensed that from the very first day.
I have never been a writer of fiction. I cannot make things up. I have always written of real feelings, real thoughts, real events. And every word, every sentence comes effortlessly to me. I just write until I run out of words, then I go back and re-read everything twice, checking for misspellings and grammatical errors. Never in a million years would I have been able to sit down and type out a novel about a puppy with unlimited anxiety who comes into a home and takes weeks and weeks to learn how to trust the people who want to love her and then disappears just when it seems she has come into her own dog-hood. Savannah was finally able to trust us implicitly and love us as if she'd been ours since her first day on the planet, and now she's gone. Gone without a trace. As if she had never been here at all.
When I got downstairs to the kitchen, the stack of 'lost dog' fliers wasn't as high as the night before. I looked at the rack of keys and didn't see my husband's key-ring. It didn't take Sherlock Homes to figure this one out.... Gary had gotten up early, taken the fliers, and went looking for Savannah. My guess was that he was gone by first light.
I'm getting used to the house again without Savannah in it. Very quiet. No long golden dog hairs swirled on the dark green kitchen tiles. No crumbs of dog biscuits that need to be either swept up or shown to Savannah, telling her "Hey girl, you missed some pieces here." Then I would tap the floor with the toe of my shoe and she would walk over and gobble up the crumbs.
I wake up in the morning now and my first thought isn't "Get up and walk Savannah before the people up the road start leaving for work." (She didn't like the vehicles of one particular family up the hill and she would bark at them as they drove by.) Waking up is leisurely now because I know the cats will wait for their breakfast, for as long as it takes me to get it to them. Savannah wasn't a 'morning dog' because she needed time to yawn and stretch and play with Sweet Pea a little bit before I put her leash on and took her out into the day.
I've been telling my husband that if we get Savannah back, I will no longer walk her along the road. She will use the backyard grass and that's it. And I want a fence put up, so she will have part of the yard as her own, to run around in and play in, without being able to get near the driveway or near the road. We have twenty-three acres here... surely there's half an acre we can fence in just for Savannah.
I've also come to the conclusion that if we don't find Savannah, we will probably, eventually, get another dog. I will not, not, not, NOT get a puppy that will eventually grow to more than 25 pounds. Had Savannah been smaller, I would have been able to hold onto her leash when those 'bombs' exploded on the across-the-road-neighbor's property. Any dog would have been terribly frightened of those M-80 fireworks, but with a smaller dog, all I would have had to do was pick it up in my arms and carry it back to the house. Savannah's nearly 70-pounds'-worth of fear pulled me face-first to the road and knocked me out, and when I woke up Savannah was gone and my world had exploded with that first blast of the fireworks.
My husband walked in the door just before ten o'clock this morning. He told me he couldn't sleep and after working on his computer for a while, he left the house at 6:30 and he tacked up Savannah's fliers on telephone poles as he found new back roads. He said it was a beautiful and very still morning, the silence broken only when he called out "SAVANNAH!!" from the car window.
Savannah. I was so happy to give her that name. It seemed to fit our puppy somehow when we first got her. I named her for one of my favorite cities... Savannah, Georgia. We've been to Savannah twice over the years and I would move there in a heart-beat. It's a small and very pretty city with an aura of mystery that is hard to define but easy to sense. The city of Savannah has a slight wildness that hovers just below the southern propriety of the old-soul-ness that defines that historical city... a quality that is more felt than seen. I used to tell our Savannah that she was like an old soul, especially when she sat quietly in her bed as I typed. She watched me as I kept up with this Blog and I have to wonder if she knew what I was doing... telling her story every day because for some reason, I thought this puppy of ours had a good story to tell, and I sensed that from the very first day.
I have never been a writer of fiction. I cannot make things up. I have always written of real feelings, real thoughts, real events. And every word, every sentence comes effortlessly to me. I just write until I run out of words, then I go back and re-read everything twice, checking for misspellings and grammatical errors. Never in a million years would I have been able to sit down and type out a novel about a puppy with unlimited anxiety who comes into a home and takes weeks and weeks to learn how to trust the people who want to love her and then disappears just when it seems she has come into her own dog-hood. Savannah was finally able to trust us implicitly and love us as if she'd been ours since her first day on the planet, and now she's gone. Gone without a trace. As if she had never been here at all.
Friday, May 6, 2016
Day Ten.
As I type, it is five o'clock in the afternoon... we have been out driving around since mid-morning. Fliers were left on post office walls, in windows of convenience stores, and in private mail boxes of houses that looked somewhat similar to ours. What if Savannah sees a big porch like the one we have.... wouldn't she go up to it? The porch wouldn't have the same familiar odors, but it may prompt her to have a look-see and maybe someone will see her.
My husband arranged another telephone interview with a different pet psychic this morning... the woman lives in Michigan and she spent at least ten minutes looking at a map while we were on the phone with her. Shouldn't she have studied a map of our area before the clock started ticking on her fee? I had faith in Sonya Fitzpatrick.... I didn't exactly have warm-fuzzies from this Michigan person. She gave us suggestions to look in another area for Savannah... in the exact opposite direction that Sonya Fitzpatrick told us to search. We had nothing to lose, except the fee she charged, so that's where we went. We left home with such high hopes, posted fliers, talked to people, ate Cracker Jack for lunch, saw a litter of puppies near a home that clearly didn't need more puppies, and came home disenchanted and emotionally drained.
As my husband pulled into our driveway, I looked across the road at the neighbor's house... the one who set off the bombs (fireworks) on Wednesday night of last week. The more I think of that family over there, the more I dislike them. Correction: the more I hate them. I barely know them, and I honestly hate them. It's all I can do to not go over there and tell them exactly what their careless actions have done... the chain of events following that first explosion have irrevocably changed our world over here on our side of the road. Is that woman over there even aware of that? Does her firework-shooting son know what happened to both me and Savannah that night after the first blast? Does the husband even care what we're going through?
I can really answer all three questions: The woman told me 'Well, keep looking dear' when I saw her on the road and she asked me if I had found "the puppy." (The puppy instead of your puppy--- an unfortunate choice of words.) The son has not come over here to either apologize or ask if he could help with the search. And the husband... when I was out on the road looking for Savannah, he didn't stop his car when I tried to give him a flier... he just drove around me and continued on down the road. What sort of people are they over there? Ignorant and heartless, in my opinion. The longer this goes on, the madder I get. I couldn't even fake being polite to them anymore if I tried, and believe me, I wouldn't even try at this point.
My husband was so sure, so very sure that today would be the day when we brought Savannah home. We found nothing except pictures of our Savannah in places we had already been, unwanted puppies in a dog-filled yard, and a "Clothing Optional" community off in the woods in a nearby town. My husband said that Savannah would fit right in there and go unnoticed because she wasn't wearing clothes when she ran away. One light-hearted moment in an otherwise heart-wrenching day.
My husband arranged another telephone interview with a different pet psychic this morning... the woman lives in Michigan and she spent at least ten minutes looking at a map while we were on the phone with her. Shouldn't she have studied a map of our area before the clock started ticking on her fee? I had faith in Sonya Fitzpatrick.... I didn't exactly have warm-fuzzies from this Michigan person. She gave us suggestions to look in another area for Savannah... in the exact opposite direction that Sonya Fitzpatrick told us to search. We had nothing to lose, except the fee she charged, so that's where we went. We left home with such high hopes, posted fliers, talked to people, ate Cracker Jack for lunch, saw a litter of puppies near a home that clearly didn't need more puppies, and came home disenchanted and emotionally drained.
As my husband pulled into our driveway, I looked across the road at the neighbor's house... the one who set off the bombs (fireworks) on Wednesday night of last week. The more I think of that family over there, the more I dislike them. Correction: the more I hate them. I barely know them, and I honestly hate them. It's all I can do to not go over there and tell them exactly what their careless actions have done... the chain of events following that first explosion have irrevocably changed our world over here on our side of the road. Is that woman over there even aware of that? Does her firework-shooting son know what happened to both me and Savannah that night after the first blast? Does the husband even care what we're going through?
I can really answer all three questions: The woman told me 'Well, keep looking dear' when I saw her on the road and she asked me if I had found "the puppy." (The puppy instead of your puppy--- an unfortunate choice of words.) The son has not come over here to either apologize or ask if he could help with the search. And the husband... when I was out on the road looking for Savannah, he didn't stop his car when I tried to give him a flier... he just drove around me and continued on down the road. What sort of people are they over there? Ignorant and heartless, in my opinion. The longer this goes on, the madder I get. I couldn't even fake being polite to them anymore if I tried, and believe me, I wouldn't even try at this point.
My husband was so sure, so very sure that today would be the day when we brought Savannah home. We found nothing except pictures of our Savannah in places we had already been, unwanted puppies in a dog-filled yard, and a "Clothing Optional" community off in the woods in a nearby town. My husband said that Savannah would fit right in there and go unnoticed because she wasn't wearing clothes when she ran away. One light-hearted moment in an otherwise heart-wrenching day.
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