This morning was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. Within a short 30-minute timeframe, I was shaking, crying and freaking out.
Thank God, everything turned out okay.
This little lady gave me and Ryan quite a fright.
At 5 a.m., right after our alarm went off, Ryan let Sadie outside to go to the bathroom.
As you may remember, our new house is located on three acres. The land is unfenced, but we didn’t think this would be a problem because Sadie is very much a true vizsla in that she is a “velcro dog.” She never lets me or Ryan out of her sight and typically stays within 200 yards of us.
Well, this morning, in the pitch black, Sadie went out to pee and when Ryan called her in, she didn’t come.
I heard him call her a few times as I was changing in our bedroom, and when I came out, he said he couldn’t see Sadie and she wasn’t coming when he called her.
I looked around and called her as well. It was pitch black and the lights of our house only lit up the land close by. Ryan ran inside to get his phone for some light since all of our powerful flashlights are still in storage.
My heart started to race.
I ran around our backyard, close to the nearby woods and headed out to the front of our house to check the streets.
Nothing.
I called and called for Sadie.
I then pulled Ryan’s car out of the garage to use his headlights to light up more of our backyard.
Panic took over when I saw nothing.
I drove the car out of our neighborhood with the worst feeling in the world in my stomach. I prayed and prayed.
I drove along the street behind the trees that back up to our backyard praying I wouldn’t see anything.
I didn’t.
I made a u-turn and headed back home, keeping my high beams on for any sign of our little girl.
Again, nothing.
It was then that I started to worry that an animal got her. There are bears and coyotes in Ocala (seriously!) and my mind was going a mile a minute.
I turned down our street to head back home to continue to search with Ryan. I saw him walking around towards our driveway. When he saw me he started waving the light on his phone dramatically.
I rolled down the window.
“DID YOU FIND HER!?”
“YES!”
Relief rushed through my body and I broke down. I started crying and crying. Ryan hugged me and we and hurried inside where I tackled Sadie with all the love in the world.
The 25 minutes Sadie was missing felt like an eternity. I felt frantic and helpless. My heart was filled with the most intense longing to see Sadie’s smiling puppy face and feel her warm kisses on my face.
Seeing her wiggly little body inside our house – safe – was the best feeling in the entire world.
I don’t think I’ll be leaving her side for the rest of the day. And she will now be on a leash whenever we let her out to do her business at night.
Regular blogging will resume momentarily, but right now this is all I can think about.
I know this post may seem extremely dramatic to some, but to those of you who have an animal (or person!!!) in your life that you love more than anything, hug them a little tighter this morning. I got a very tiny taste of what it would feel like to lose Sadie and I am so grateful everything turned out okay.
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