It’s only day three but BOOYYYY Has it been something

There were only plans for two days of my seven off of work. So far, we managed to successfully stick to one of those days.

Some backstory

So, about April 2 or so, I’m not sure which day to be honest, we noticed that my annoying little inside/outside dog was missing.

Lucy (previously mentioned dog) is a wanderer. When we “rescued” her, she and her siblings were living around my dad’s house. He’s not a big fan of pets of any kind, but he’d never go so far as to hurt them, just won’t have anything to do with them. So the were to fend for themselves.

She was one of the last litter my mom’s dog had. And when mom died, her dog went to my brother (who was technically her owner in the first place. My family is weird about dogs). That left the last of the litter (three I think), running the hills.

Lucy was rescued as part of my poorly designed grieving process after mom died. Obviously I now realize that I needed therapy. But that’s beside the point.

So, Lucy the Wanderer has been known, in the almost five years since we got her, to roam a little far from home, but return in a few days. Honestly she’s always driven me a little bonkers and we’ve made jokes about how we are shocked she hasn’t been eaten by coyotes. I’m not sure if there are coyotes in Kentucky but that’s beside the point.

The first few days of her being missing was a “shrug it off she’ll be back soon” kinda thing.

But after a few days I began to get nervous, but mostly because I have never treated her as well as I should have. Like I said, she was a grief decision, and my heart wanted her to fill a hole my mom’s death left. And I felt terrible that because she didn’t do that, I took it out on her.

I never physically hurt the dog, but I did not give her the love she wanted. Also be she aggressively desired loves. Like, she would come nose to nose with you until you were either forced to give her pets, or force her away so you had some personal space.

Ironically I realized I hadn’t seen her in a few days when I was on my way home thinking she needed a bath.

I also began to worry that one angry neighbor or another had done something to her. You see, as she is a roamer, she has been known to go onto other people’s property. I’ve gotten angry messages from neighbors, but hadn’t gotten one in a long time.

I was first afraid that the newest neighbors got tired of her nonsense, even though I warned them of her shenanigans. First and foremost in my head was, “someone has hurt her.”

After a week of being gone, my sister kindly made a Facebook post. She shared pictures and a note about where she’s belongs. I don’t use my personal Facebook, so I hadn’t made a post yet. I was stuck between “shell come home soon” and “hopefully someone has given her a nice home” while trying to categorically deny the possibility she might not be alive.

On Saturday, we took The Kid to an Easter Egg hunt. Lucy was in the back of my mind the whole time, her and the fact that I decided to wear flip flops in 50 something degree weather.

After the hunt, a visit with my mother in law, and dinner, we went to the grocery store. Because the one other plan for my vacation, and the one I was most looking forward to, was Easter Dinner at my sisters. We needed to get our portion of ingredients for the Easter Fajitas.

While there I visited Starbucks for the first time in my life and ordered the pink drink.

While sipping my Pepto Bismol Antidote, I got a text from my sister. Someone’s friend had seen Lucy. Literally over a mountain. The mountain isn’t super far from my house, but it is in an area that we had never driven before. I wasn’t going to ask The Hubs to go looking for her, because we were all tired. But he noticed my distress on the way home and asked me if I wanted him to drive it.

I said yes. And boy.

Listen, I’ve lived in the hills of Eastern Kentucky my entire life. you will never catch me calling these hills mountains. But there are two locations in this area that I will allow myself to call “mountains”. One is the mountain my dad says he wants to make his final resting place, the same here his mom is. And the curvy ass rainbow road-est monstrosity that we ventured up and down on Saturday.

We drove the better part of four miles or more, the number of curves and loops and landmarks that could have been the thing we were told to look for, absolutely bonkers. We went up and down and back up and back down that mountain and say not a sign of this dog.

So we went back home, and I did the unthinkable.

I logged into my personal Facebook and made a post.

But first, I got the number of the person who said they’d seen Lucy and called them. He told me he’d seen her two days, and gave her a hamburger one of those days. He gave me directions to where he found her.

Now, let me tell you, do not underestimate the kindness of strangers and their determination to bring a dog back to its owners.

That night, in the dark, at least two people went out looking for Lucy. neither found her. I’m assuming she was hiding and trying to stay warm, as it was getting cold.

I while I waited to hear back from these people, I began prepping what I could for Easter dinner the next day. This included cutting bread for pineapple casserole, and making two Oreo cheesecakes.

I was frustrated at Lucy being gone, and made the first no bake cheesecake by hand sans mixed. I finished it, found the hand mixer and went into my room to let The Kid know I was going to use it. She doesn’t appreciate loud noises without warning.

I walked into my room to see her fast asleep. I sat down on the edge of my bed and whispered “you conned yourself into my bed again, huh?” And leaned in to kiss her cheek.

And it was on fire.

The Kid is normally a warm bodied kid anyway, but this was something else. I went hunting for a thermometer, waking my husband up to ask him if he’d seen one. I told him I thought she was fevered, and he got out of bed to help me look. I found one, and took her temp. 104.

Let’s just say, the other no bake cheesecake is still in its box. I stress at the Oreos, and I got very little sleep.

The next morning we couldn’t find an open after hours until 5pm, but we were willing to go to Easter dinner anyway. We were debating whether it would be a good idea to take the kid, given her possible illness. And I know it’s really selfish but I really wanted to go.

But at 11:20am, that perfect stranger, who had told me the night before that she would go out and look for Lucy after church, messaged me. She said Lucy was right where she’d seen her before, she just couldn’t get her to come to her.

I told he hubs, and his only words were, “I’ll be back in a little bit.”

I worried myself tiki death the entire time he was gone, there’s no signal on the mountain, and it’s a curvy dangerous road, even worse when you don’t know it. I was at home, holding down the fort with a sick kid and a nervous stomach when, an hour later, while I’m on the toilet, of course, I hear the familiar sound of a doggie door and tap tapping of toenails on laminate floor.

“IS THAT LUCY!?!” I called from my porcelain throne. I had no response, just more tapping of toenails. So I started calling her name. This dog ran right past and “Scooby doo’d” around to the open bathroom door (we have no shame in this house) and was whimpering and whining excitedly at me.

And wouldn’t you know, within five minutes of getting back home she decided to run right back out side?

I managed to put the cover on the doggy door, and block it just to keep her inside for a while. I picked eleven ticks off her, and she enjoyed every moment of the attention.

Unfortunately, The Hubs curvy drive with changing altitudes, and likely inappropriate speeds, aggravated his vertigo. He had skipped his meds the night before, worrying about the kid, and the deadly combination of all those factors left him with a temporarily debilitating migraine.

And The Kid decided she didn’t want to leave the house, which is extremely unlike her.

So, we stayed home.

We still had fajitas, we just had chicken and no steak or shrimp (much to The Hubs disappointment).

But we also had our annoying little dog home.

She ended up being even further out than we’d driven together the night before. I had initially let myself believe that she just got distracted and got lost and couldn’t find her way home. I’m now of the mind that someone most likely gained her trust, which isn’t hard with snacks and attention (same), and picked her up, only to drive her over the river and through the woods and to a strangers house she went.

So of course now I’m suspicious of everyone. But I know that it would be impossible to keep her in constantly, and I’m wholeheartedly against keeping a dog chained or caged for prolonged periods, I wouldn’t put it past the dognapper to do it again.

I mean, come on people, it’s not like she could hurt you, she’s harmless. Annoying but harmless.

Also, Monday, we took the kid to the doc and she has Strep. So, woo. Luckily she’s on antibiotics now, and on the mend.

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