It was that one walk that I wished we hadn’t brought him along. It was just Mom and me, walking and talking about the daily struggle called life, accompanied by our two male dogs -Strider and Boomer. As the names imply, one was dark and serious while the other energetic and accident-prone. It was some trail that they had caught the scent of. They madly dashed into the dense overgrown property behind ours known as 16th Section. We called and Strider, being the elder and wiser, came promptly back, while Boomer, being the distracted junior, used his selective hearing.
“He’ll be back, he always does this.” I told her. Mom wasn’t so sure, but with more weightier matters to discus he was soon at the back of our minds. It wasn’t until we were almost home that Mom noticed he wasn’t there. I was sure she was overreacting. She was sure that he was completely lost. And Strider was sure that he liked life better without that annoying adolescent. I called Hope, Boomer’s person, and we headed back to the place he was last spotted.It was roughly after 8:30pm.
He wasn’t there. We called and we called, but he didn’t show. That’s when we got up the big dog hunt. Being the country hicks we are, everyone showed up with NO flashlights, and the boys showed up with NO shoes. This really helps. I couldn’t get far into the Section with no light and due to my poor sense of direction it’s a good thing I didn’t. We called and walked and called some more. There wasn’t even a bark in response. Dad and Hope took to the road and drove around one part of the area, and Mom and John soon took the other half. But he was long gone. At best he could have been found by someone else, at worst he was a body somewhere on 16th Section.
It was close to 11:00pm when we gave up the search, we left all the outside lights on. Maybe he’d come back during the night. He didn’t.
It was one of the worst nights of my life. None of us got much sleep. Hope and Mom especially.
There’s nothing worse than being the one to cause your sister that kind of grief; so daughters, listen to your mothers.
We all prayed, together and individually. One thing I’ve learned is that you can’t barter with God, you can request. But you can’t manipulate Him into doing something for us, and even if the prayer is the most sincere prayer offered on the face of the earth, God can still answer no. But that doesn’t mean He’s not good.
When morning did come Mom and Hope were off again in the car, calling for him by the tracks and down the old road. John and Charles and their pal gave up their weekly morning Bible Study to drive down the other way. I went straight back to THE Section with Strider and his sister Arwen. Chances were, if he was still back there, he would have heard us and come back last night.
I tried to find the exact place he went threw the fence, but I couldn’t remember; so I climbed up a large tree which lay across the rusted barbwire and dropped to the ground on the other side. If I was some else, like Hope or Reed, it would have looked cool and impressive, maybe even inspired the two dogs with me that if anyone could find their MIA it would be me. Somehow that wasn’t the effect I created. Ever seen a green bean get plunked into a bucket…?
I’ve been told stories about how easy it is to get lost in there, and later I found out it was 640 acres (if I remember correctly). But thankfully the trees from our woods were taller than their young ones, so I could always look back and see the direction that I would be heading eventually. I went as straight as possible as I called for him, but I was always bad at drawing lines, much better at circles.
I’d be lying to say that I wasn’t concerned; and I’d be lying to say that I didn’t know what I would do if I didn’t find him; and I’d be lying to say that it didn’t occur to me that I couldn’t stay in there forever.
I heard a bark, Strider and Arwen heard it too. I knew there were houses somewhere off to the left but I felt sure this bark was too close for that.
I called. Pause. Bark. Call. Bark. Call. Pause. Bark.
Looks like we’re headed to the left. The dogs were excited, I was too, and I was praying really fast. I passed a grassy area, there were pockets of squashed grass where I would assume deer had bedded down. I past through some more trees and came to another tiny clearing of grass. This time there was no bark in response to my call, there were careening and crashing bushes. And then out came one very happy, dew-covered, dog.
He was so ecstatic he almost missed me, but I caught him and wouldn’t let go. I couldn’t make the phone call because some message popped up informing me that only emergency calls could be made. I said yes, this was an emergency, but nothing happened. So I found a better spot, I called the house where Carole, in turn, called the search party.
By the time Boomer and I made it to the edge of our first pasture Hope was there.
Now he’s carrying on as if nothing ever happened. He’s just glad to be with his girl.
I have a feeling there will be a new rule at our house: Do NOT take walks with Kattyrae….that is, if you want to come back.
