If you’ve been around a while you know we got a dog back in September.
She was a rescue from Texas (we live in Connecticut), and she was from a litter of eleven puppies called the Avenger litter.
She was named Storm, and we kept her name and Storm eventually morphed into Stormie.
Here’s the day I surprised the kids with her.
My youngest had been BEGGING for a dog for years, and I had promised her a dog by the time she turned ten.
I got Stormie three weeks before her 10th birthday.
Just under the wire.
She was so tiny and cute.
So this dog was technically for my daughter, but I was excited to have a dog to walk and go on hikes with, and we live on a lake, and I was really excited to take her swimming.
Also I’m not stupid. I knew I was gonna end up being the primary caretaker for this dog.
We live about a half mile from the entrance to a bunch of hiking trails.
The kids and I hike the trails often. There’s a river back there and it’s a cool place to explore. Number 7 and I started checking out the trails as soon as we moved here in the winter of 2021.
We were both excited to take the dog on the trails.
If you’ve ever had a puppy, you know that when they are really little they usually don’t stray to far from you, and even if they do, they can’t outrun you.
During this phase, we let Stormie check out the trails off the leash.
She never went far.
But inevitably she started getting a little more ballsy.
I knew I needed to start keeping her on the leash all the time soon.
Unfortunately I waited a little bit too long.
Last October, about six weeks after we got Stormie, I took her for a hike.
Just like we always did, when we got close to the river I let her off the leash.
On this particular day I had to pee really badly.
So while Stormie got a drink from the river I copped a squat behind a tree for a speed pee.
It was like twenty seconds max.
I came from behind the tree as I was pulling my leggings up.
And Stormie was gone.
I was sure she wasn’t too far away.
She’d come running to me, just like usual.
She didn’t come running to me.
She was gone.
It was about 5:30 pm, mid-October in Connecticut.
I had about an hour left of daylight and then it would be dark.
I was about 3/4 of a mile into the woods, and another half mile from my condo.
The kids were at their father’s house and they would be home by 8 pm.
I started panicking.
I was frantically running through the woods screaming STORMIE!!! at the top of my lungs for about 20 minutes.
It was getting dark.
I had to head out of the woods and go home.
My phone was dying and I didn’t have a flashlight and the kids were going to come home soon and how the fuck was I going to tell them that I’d lost our 16 week old dog in the woods because I stupidly let her out of my sight while I took a pee behind a tree.
In a last ditch, desperate attempt, I posted on Facebook.
Then I called my parents. There wasn’t really anything they could do, but I had to let them know.
My dad and Stormie have a special bond.
My dad is also like the Duke of Empaths.
He was going to be devastated.
My post on Facebook got some responses.
People are quick to give lots of suggestions when you lose a pet.
I didn’t know at first that a lot of the suggestions, although they meant well, were the absolute last thing you should do when you lose a dog.
The best piece of advice I received was to contact CT Dog Gone Recovery.
They’re an organization in Connecticut that helps people find lost dogs.
They were incredibly helpful.
Between 6:30 pm and 9:30 pm my parents came up to the house, the kids came home, and I had been in touch with some dog tracking experts.
The kids were going to wonder where the heck the dog was, so I talked to them first.
I was fucking panicking on the inside, but I was cool as a cucumber on the outside.
I told them that Stormie had taken off in the woods but she was microchipped and she’d end up at someone’s house and we’d get her in the morning when whoever found her called.
The kids were a little worried, but they also weren’t freaking out because I did a pretty good job of acting like I wasn’t totally losing my shit.
I was totally losing my shit.
I was advised by CT Dog Gone Recovery to go back to where I last had Stormie and leave some things with my/her/our scent on it in the area.
I was also instructed NOT to yell her name.
When dogs get lost, people screaming their name spooks them. Even if it’s their owner. And it often sends them running even deeper into the woods.
I had one tiny flashlight and no batteries.
And there are lots of bears around here and the Blair Witch Project was running on a loop in the back of my mind.
But I couldn’t not go back.
My Dad brought three of the world’s dimmest flashlights up to the house with him.
I filled a backpack with some of Stormie’s toys and some food and some bowls and I grabbed her blanket from her crate and the pillow cases off my pillows and a bunch of my dirty clothes and around 9 pm my dad and I, each armed with two super dull flashlights, headed into the woods.
It was fucking scary in the woods in the dark, but at least I wasn’t alone.
We left a trail of stuff to the place I’d last been with then we kind of wandered around, hoping maybe we’d see her.
My poor dad did not want to leave, but the flashlights were dying, and I didn’t want the kids to lose their dog, their mother, and their grandfather in the woods in the same night, so my dad and I reluctantly headed home.
We got home around 10:30 pm.
My parents went back to their house, and I went to bed.
I didn’t really sleep.
CT Dog Gone Recovery recommended I head back to where I had lost her before sunrise.
Dogs often go back to where they lost you for the night. They hunker down, and then when the sun comes up, they start moving again.
At 5 am, armed with the flashlight on my phone this time, I headed back into the woods.
It was SCARY.
There are some crazy noises in the woods in the pitch black.
But my doggie might be out there and I had to find her.
As I approached the spot where we had left her blanket and my pillow cases, I noticed that one of the pillow cases had been moved.
So had one of Stormie’s favorite toys.
(I had also been advised by the experts that after an experience like this, dogs can be pretty freaked out, and they might be too scared to come to even their owners. If I saw Stormie I should get down on the ground and sit still and let her come to me, even if I had to sit there and wait for ten minutes).
I went over to where the pillow case had been moved, and I heard a squirrel or mouse or something rustling in the bushes.
I shined my flashlight in that direction and the reflection of two little eyes shined back at me.
Great, a fucking raccoon was going to spring out and maul my face off.
The rustling was really starting to build now.
I moved a little closer.
It wasn’t a raccoon.
IT WAS STORMIE.
The rustling was her tail wagging.
She wasn’t spooked and she wasn’t freaked.
She came right to me, in the dark, in the middle of the woods.
I lost it.
I crumbled to the ground hugging the shit out of her, sobbing hysterically.
After a few minutes I collected myself and we headed back home.
I got back just as the kids were waking up.
It was a pretty good way for all of us to start the day.
It was also a little traumatic.
I learned that lesson the hard way, and I’ll never make that mistake again.
I made a nice fire in the fireplace after the kids went to school that day, and Stormie spent the day feeling cozy and safe.
All was good in the end, but that is an experience I never want to relive.
So, to recap, here are some things to know if you lose your dog:
- If you have one, turn OFF your electric fence alarm.
- Report your dog missing to local Animal Control Officers, Police, Veterinarians, Shelters, Rescues, and to the Microchip Company (if your dog has a microchip).
- A microchip is NOT a GPS chip. Having your dog microchipped doesn’t mean you’ll be able to pinpoint exactly where they are. It means they can be identified when you bring them to the vet, and the vet can find out who the owner is. If you want some added protection/reassurance, get a GPS tracker you can attach to your dog’s collar.
- Do NOT flood the area with people and send search parties out looking for your dog. Instead instruct anyone who sees the dog to contact you with the exact location.
- If you live in Connecticut, contact CT Dog Gone Recovery Volunteers for support. There are probably similar organizations in most other states.
- Check out the CT Dog Gone Recovery website for more info.
- If your dog doesn’t have a name tag with your phone number on it, make sure you get one asap!
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