Our Doggone Dog has Done Come Home!

 

by Pa Rock

Chaser of Dogs

Gypsy, our large pitbull/bulldog mix, has been in residence at our home since her arrival last December 17th,  She was on a walkabout from her previous home when she arrived here and decided to stay, and since that time she has gone on several short day trips to the local park and other areas of interest on her own and definitely without permission.  My son named her Gypsy before we understood her proclivity for travel, and it has proven to be an exceptionally good fit.

(My son was able to locate Gypsy's previous family, but problems developed after a brief reunion, and they asked if we would take her back - which we happily did.)

Our big dog was close to a year old when she arrived the The Roost, and she has recently begun to give up some of her annoying puppy habits such as getting in the trash or ripping her toys to shreds - and it has been several months since she last chewed-up a remote control. but she still likes to occasionally slip away on her own and take a goodwill tour of the community.   

Gypsy is easily led astray by a male mongrel dog who has captured her fancy, and when I see him lurking in the community, I keep her inside.  She also loves the high school track students who run by in small groups on our country lane, and will enthusiastically join in their runs.  Their runs usually end at the park, so I know where to begin looking for her when she does go missing - and she is becoming well known, so a couple of times people have brought her home when I had tried to find her and failed.

Gypsy is basically a day-tripper, and had never spent the night out on her own - until this past weekend.

She and I were outside Saturday morning, just barely after daylight, when a young lady who was going for a run passed in front of our house heading north to where our country lane intersects with another about two hundred yards further on.  Neither one of us noticed the runner until she had reached the corner and turned east, still running along our property line.  She was on the other side of our tall-grass field and moving at a good clip when  Gypsy spotted her and began running through the overgrown field in pursuit.  I watched helplessly from afar as she caught the young woman, introduced herself, and then lopped beside her on down the road.

I couldn't have caught them on foot, so I continued my morning walk for a few more minutes, then went in the house, gathered my keys and wallet, backed the car out of the drive, and went looking for the truant dog to give her a ride home.  I soon found the human runner and told her that I was looking for the dog who had been running with her.  She told me what a "sweet" dog she was, and pointed to another country lane and said that Gypsy had followed her down there but had not come back with her.  I drove the entire length of that road, three miles or so, but could find no trace of the runaway.

Throughout the day I kept calling Gypsy from the back porch and taking drives up and down the road where she had last been seen, but she was apparently enjoying herself and not wanting to be found.  When my son returned from work in mid-afternoon he took up the search but did not have any luck either.  Late Saturday evening a young man who had encountered my son on one of his searches, stopped by the house and told me that he had seen Gypsy just off of the road that we had been searching the entire day, but that she would not come to him.    I went and looked again, but still did not locate her.

Sunday was filled with several more fruitless searches, and by that evening I had given up hope and assumed that something had happened to her - a predator had gotten her, or someone had given her a ride out of the area.  I didn't expect to see our girl again, and I was surprised at just how sad that made me feel.  But then, just at dark when I was getting ready to fix supper, the back door opened and my son guided our extremely tired and happy-to-be-home dog into the house.  He and a friend had found her not far off of the road that we had been searching for two days.  

Gypsy took a long drink of water from her bowl and then crawled onto her bed and slept soundly for about twelve hours.

Our doggone dog had done come home!