Emily's Great Adventure

Wednesday night at 11:30 a very upset Fred roused me from almost sleep to report that "Emily's gone". I was panicked for a moment until I realized that he meant gone from the yard, not the "big gone".

Emily is our dog...a Greyhound....a retired racer, 14 + years old and very lame with arthritis from all those years of running. Emily was a very good racer and had several litters of puppies for her racing owner before coming to live with us at age 7. She is a Tuxedo, jet black with a white patch on her neck and a few white toes. She has an aged white muzzle gracing her gentle face now, but it makes her easier to spot in the dark.

"How far could she have gone?" I asked. We don't walk her on a leash very far any more because her left hind foot starts to drag before we have strolled halfway around the block.

Fred had searched our yard and the neighbors and the woods close by before coming to get me. We set out looking for her.... Fred in the car, myself on foot each of us armed with a flashlight and a leash.

I walked the several streets near our home trying to discretely shine my flashlight under bushes and on neighbors porches gently calling her name. It was a lovely night, warm by upstate New York standards and the light of a full moon made it easier to see.

As I walked I heard someone running and looked to find a man and his black lab jogging (at 12:30 AM mind you). He stopped when he realized that I was looking for a dog. He had seen her....near the woods on the street near mine. I rushed to that area and began to search again. The man jogged home and returned with his car to help us search.

Two hours slipped by with no sight of Emily. I went back to the house to make lost dog posters to leave around the neighbor hood in case someone had given her shelter for the night. Fred decided to go back out to the bike path to look for her.

As I was typing he returned home with Emily. She was walking herself on the bike path and had stopped to be petted by a man who was out taking a walk (at 1:30 AM mind you). The good Samaritan jogger and Fred found her there.

I never knew that our neighborhood was so busy in the middle of the night. We will always remember the night time exercisers as Emily's angels. She was tired and trembling and had picked up one tick but is otherwise in good health.

We are very happy to have our adventurous girl back home.

She is happy to be back on the couch, a spot the retired racer has earned.

Now when the old girl looks longingly through the back gate we will take her for a little stroll......lest she decide to do it for herself again.