|
Janet's Story |
 |
|
Sunday afternoon we drove down to Alki for a walk with the dog. We love walking next to the water and watching the people and the boats. On this particular Sunday we parked near Salty's restaurant and walked past the fishing pier and fish and chip place to the boat launch. It was warm and sunny and we decided to sit down for a while to watch people coming and going with their boats. Katie our dog sat under the bench seat like she usually does. We were turned round to watch the boats. Four people were taking turns to ride a jet boat that could hold two people and we watched it come and go a couple of times. Other people were backing in their trucks and SUVs with boats on trailers, either launching or reloading their trailers. Beside us were some kids with their Dad and another man alone on the other side. Suddenly we realized that Katie was not under the bench. I had thought she was on her leash but Sam had unfastened it because she was tangled and he hadn't clipped her back on because she is always good about staying with us. She must have been bored and wandered off. We were seated behind a little concrete wall. Both of us felt panic and disbelief. Where could she be? We separated and started calling her name and asking everyone we saw if they had seen her. One person said they had seen a dog that looked lost about 10 minutes ago. We went up and down the area on foot and then walked back to the car and drove up to the boat launch area and looked some more. Nowhere could we see our Katie. My pulse was racing we were feeling anguished and hopeless. I had been content to sit because I was tired but now I was wide awake and full of energy. How could we have allowed this to happen? We drove up and down. I called Cynthia on the cell phone because she lives in West Seattle and I thought she might know the phone number of the animal shelter. Somebody might have taken her there. She wasn't home. I left a message. "We've lost our dog and I don't know what to do." After a fruitless search I said let's
go home and make signs. We hardly spoke on the drive home and when we got to the house I rummaged through a stack of pictures looking for a picture of Katie. Finally I found one in an album. Sam wrote the words "Lost Dog, etc." on the back of one of his golf statistics sheets because I could not find a sheet of plain write paper. He left a space for the photo. Then we drove down to Kinkos and made some color copies of our sign. We stapled up our signs around the area where we had lost Katie. Also I put one inside the fish and chip place by the fishing pier. Then we went home again and slept very poorly that night. Monday I went to work and we both kept checking the hot line for lost pets on the phone and at work on the web. The shelter is closed on Mondays. We decided to go when it opened on Tuesday, even though no dog listed matched Katie's description. It was hard to concentrate at work but I felt there was nothing else I could do and I rationalized that somebody had found our dog and taken her home and that they would take her to the shelter when it opened on Tuesday. At church on Sunday they were talking about transitioning. I was thinking Katie came from the pound, which means she had had at least one previous life with somebody else. She was with my daughter, and then with us and now perhaps she would find herself with another family who would do a better job of taking care of her. Perhaps we did not deserve to have her. She lost her tags in April when she slipped her collar chasing a squirrel. Why had I never called to get replacement tags? We may never see her again, but she is so sweet some one else would love her and take care of her. Tuesday a man called after seeing our sign and said he had seen a dog like Katie near the boat launch Monday but he could not catch her. This hit hard. My little idea that she was in somebody's garage or house for the night was blown away. Our poor inside dog had spent the night outside in a strange area lost and alone and we hadn't gone back down to find her. Cynthia took me to Alki right when Sam called. He had to wait for an Electrician who was coming to our house. Cynthia said all the right things like "Alki people love dogs and know what to do." "We will find her." I walked up and down calling "Katie, Katie" and Cynthia drove up and down. Alki is a different place on a weekday, much quieter. It was raining. My feet were wet in sandals walking on the grass. I did not care. "Katie, Katie" I called at all the bushes and to the air in general. Both of us asked every person we saw if they had seen a lost dog. No one had. We returned to work without success. I called Sam and he said the Electrician had gone and he would go down to Alki and then on to the shelter. At work Sue told me when her dog was lost one time it returned to where they had parked the car. Jan said if Katie was her dog she would just go down and camp out until the dog returned. I stayed at work waiting to see if Sam had any luck. He went to Alki and to two shelters but did not find Katie. After speaking to him I decided to go back to Alki at 3 p.m. I called Katie's name at all the bushes up and down the path and even on the other side of the road round some back alleys and in the trees. I noticed that all our signs were gone except for the one inside the fish and chip place. Katie did not come out from under a bush or behind a fence. I went back home found a different picture of Katie smiling and went back to Kinkos and made new signs. Then drove back to Alki with the masking tape and stapler and posted signs again. How could they clean off our previous signs so quickly? Could they not see that they were current? It was raining so I tried to find places where the signs would be a little protected from the rain when possible. The rain had seeped through my coat right down to my shirt and I was damp and cold. I bought fish and chips to eat for dinner because I knew I should eat. I sat in the car eating the fish with little appetite feeling very despondent as it was getting dark and raining. When I called Sam he did not answer. I waited a while and tried again and he said, "I think we've found her! She's in Burien. A woman called Kathy called." Sam was tired and hungry so he had something to eat while I drove home then we both went to meet Kathy at Burien QFC. We called Kathy on the cell phone when we arrived and we stood outside the store in the light not daring to believe that the found dog was our Katie. Kathy rolled up in a pickup with other family and got out to meet us. She called Katie but she didn't come out. Kathy carried out dog over and put her in my arms. It was Katie and she didn't look starved and bedraggled. She looked well fed and smelled clean and shampooed. We petted Katie and hugged Kathy and put Katie on her leash because she seemed anxious to be off somewhere. She really liked Kathy I could tell and Kathy said that she had slept by the bed last night. Kathy is a Federal Express driver and she said Katie was almost hit by a truck. She picked her up on Monday and brought her home to her house then they made fliers describing a "Found Dog" and posted them at Alki. I never saw these signs, but an Alki resident called Van saw Kathy's sign and then he saw our "Lost Dog" sign and called Kathy who called us. We are just so happy to have our Katie back and so grateful to Kathy for taking such good care of her and to Van for linking us up. We are also thankful to all the other people who helped us step through this traumatic experience. Katie is just behaving the same way she always did but I am wondering how she will feel about Alki after her scary experience. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! |
|