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Sam's Story |
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On Sunday afternoon we often take Katie our dog out for a walk at Alki. This particular Sunday was hot Jan was tired, but I knew she'd feel better if we had a walk with the dog. The place was busy with cars so we parked at the side of the road before Salty's and walked up to the boat launch. Whenever we sit down Katie always lies down under our seat. My Terrible Mistake I could see she was uncomfortable with her leash so I reached down and released it from her collar. She's a good dog and as we were in an enclosed area behind a wall. I was sure she would stay there in the shade. We turned to watch people coming and going at the boat launch. We were so interested in all the activity we probably watched for quite a while. These people seem to get their boats in and out on their boat trailers with such ease. My old boat was such a bear to maneuver it was always difficult to get it back on the trailer straight. Panic Seized Suddenly we realized Katie was not under the seat. "Oh my God where could she be?" Panic seized me. We both got up and started calling "Katie, Katie!" We went all over the immediate area and Jan said that a person had seen our dog going back past the boat launch area. We separated. Jan looked closer to the water on the path and I went closer to the road. We searched and search all the way back to the car without success. We walked up and down and drove up and down and failed to find our dog and felt quite helpless and hopeless. Eventually Jan said we should go home and make signs. She found a photo and then I wrote up a sign with our phone number. Then we went to Kinkos and made copies and then drove back down to Alki with the stapler and put our lost dog signs up. Katie was nowhere to be seen and I was feeling just awful. I thought we might get in trouble for posting signs but Jan said she didn't care and that this is what other people do. Katie our Dog Sometimes I complain about having to take the dog out every day for a walk, rain or shine, but what would my daily schedule be now without her? I always take her with me to the hardware stores. People always say things like "Look at the cute puppy." Of course she is not a puppy but she is rather a nice looking animal and I feel kind of proud of her. When little kids want to pet her, I make her sit so that they can pat her and she always obliges them. I just could not imagine not having Katie in our lives. Our kids are all grown and gone so she is like our child now. I take her for a walk every day, except Saturdays and I feed her, but one thing annoys me about Katie is that in spite of the attention I give her she seems to love Jan better than me. When Jan comes home she gets the big welcome and Katie stays in the living room next to the couch. I can be home all day and she will be content to lie in her bed after the walk. The only thing that gets her moving is some cat crossing our lawn. She must have super hearing suddenly she will bound from the bedroom at the other end of the house to the living room barking excitedly to look through the sliding door to warn off the interloper. How she even hears a cat I do not know but she seems to know the minute they dare to step on to our property. Anyway I feel very responsible for the dog and she is always so good off the leash I can't understand how we could lose her so easily. Sleepless Nights We could hardly sleep worrying about her. We called the animal shelter and we thought that as we had searched thoroughly without success somebody must have picked her up and taken her home. They might keep her and we might never see her again. We kept checking the hot line on the phone for lost animals but the shelter at Ballard is closed on Mondays. We thought if somebody had her they would not be able to drop her off until Tuesday and> we hoped a person would call after seeing our signs. A Glimmer of Hope Tuesday a man called and said her had seen a dog like Katie by the boat launch Monday but he had not been able to catch her. I called Jan at work and she dashed off down to Alki with a friend. I could not leave right then because an Electrician was coming. Jan and her friend searched up and down for a while and then came back so I decided to go. Jan's voice doesn't carry far. Katie probably would not hear her. Jan and I were planning to visit the shelter when they opened at noon so I decided to take off early and check Alki again before visiting the shelter. I called all up and down to no avail. Then I went to the shelter in Ballard and did not find our dog. They said I should keep checking their shelter and other places so I went to Eastgate shelter as well. They had a dog at Eastgate that looked a lot like Katie but she was younger and she wasn't Katie. I came home. Jan and I talked on the phone again. She didn't tell me but she decided to go back down to Alki again herself and look some more. Brighter Glimmer of Hope Several hours later a gal called Kathy telephoned. She left a message on our phone "I think I may have your dog." I called back and she said that she had picked up a dog on Monday and had gone back to Alki and posted signs saying "Found dog, Katie's description and her phone number." An Alki resident had seen her sign and then he saw our lost dog sign with our phone number so he called Kathy and gave her our number and then she called us. When Jan called in from Alki I told her the news and she couldn't talk because she was so choked up. "Drive carefully. I'll wait for you and we can go together." She drove home and we went to meet Kathy outside the Burien QFC. We called Kathy's number on the cell phone when we arrived at the store and she was there in about 5 minutes. We were holding on to ourselves because we wondered if the dog she had found was really Katie. The Reunion A truck rolled up and a smiling lady with short blond hair jumped out of the truck to meet us with another gal. This was Kathy the voice on the phone. Katie did not get out of the truck. Kathy went over and picked her up and put her in Jan's arms. We hardly ever pick Katie up. She is not a lap dog to us. Jan put her down and held on to her collar because Katie looked rather nervous. She obviously liked Kathy who had fed her and bathed her. We were so happy to have our Katie back we did not ask a lot of questions, but Kathy told us that Katie had almost been hit by a truck and that she was a FEDEX driver. I tried to give her some reward money for looking after our dog and bringing her back to us but she absolutely would not take it. She told us about the man, Van had called her when he saw our signs and she said she would give us his phone number so we could thank him. Jan hugged Kathy, so I did too. We were so grateful to have our dog back. We drove home and Katie seemed pretty normal after her awful ordeal. Before we even got back to the house Kathy had left another message on the recorder with Van's phone number so I called him. He sounded like a real nice guy and we told him how glad we were to have our dog back and thanked him very much for the part he played in getting us reunited. This was a learning experience for us and we are so thankful for the help of these strangers who rescued our dog. |
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