22 Days

Remember this sweet girl? It's been a while since I've posted about her, and there's a reason for that.

She ran away.

On December 16, David let her out to potty at 8:00 a.m. I went to let her back in at 9:00, and she was gone. I found a hole she had dug on the north side of our fence, the only section of fence that doesn't have concrete under it. Panicking, I called David. He immediately left his office and came back home to help look for her.

We drove and drove and DROVE around our neighborhood and the surrounding areas. There's a very large field in front of our house and trees with a creek bed beyond it, so we even drove around that trying to find Layla. After about an hour and a half, David said he had to return to work; but the peeps and I pressed on. We kept looking, even to the point that we didn't eat breakfast or lunch that day.

Our neighborhood has lots of dog walkers and joggers, so every time I saw someone I stopped and asked them if they had seen our dog. Thankfully I had pictures of her on my phone, so I was able to show them what she looked like. No one had seen her. I even stopped a garbage truck and asked the men riding on the back of it if they had seen any loose dogs that morning.

Nothing.

Then I made a very difficult phone call to Hank. I knew I had to tell him that Layla had run away from us, and I hoped he might know where I could look. He didn't. He was just as upset as I was, and told me he would be praying for the "puppy angels" to look out for her while she was lost.

Then I called the local paper and placed an ad in the classifieds. I called Animal Control, the Humane Society, and the SPCA, giving them all descriptions of her along with my phone number should she show up. I should also mention that we gave Layla a bath the night before and had forgotten to put her collar back on. She had nothing to identify her as a dog whose family would be looking for her.

That afternoon, I went to each house on our block, showing her picture and asking if anyone had seen her roaming around. Everyone was very sympathetic and sad for us, but no one had seen her.

That evening, we went by the Humane Society to see if she had been picked up that day. Nothing still. We filled out a Lost card and e-mailed her picture to them. This was Friday, December 16th. Every two or three days I would call them to see if she had been picked up. Every time David or I were driving in our neighborhood, our eyes were scanning for her.

On Monday, the 19th, I called all the vet clinics and pet groomers in town, gave them her description and my number, and begged them to call me if she showed up. You cannot imagine how upset our family was about this. Layla was our family's Christmas present. We didn't plan on anything else. There were no other presents under the tree.

And we celebrated Christmas this year without her. It was so hard, much harder than I ever imagined it would be to lose a pet we had only had for a couple of weeks. I cried just about every day, and Ryan and Addie were inconsolable just a couple of days before Christmas.

We prayed. Oh, we prayed so many times for our Layla to come home. We asked God to keep her safe, and if she wasn't meant to be with us, for Him to lead her to a family who would love her as we did.

David and I did everything we could to find her. To this day I am confident in that. We looked for her almost like we were searching for a lost child. We were just sure we would find her.

Then, last Tuesday, we caught a glimmer of hope. The SPCA called me, saying that a dog matching Layla's description from our ad in the paper had been brought in. They said they've never had a bearded collie brought in before, so they really believed it was our dog. I asked them to describe her to me. They said this dog was happy, playful, acted like a puppy. I knew immediately it couldn't be Layla. Layla was shy, timid, and nervous. We had never seen her act like a puppy; we had never even heard her make a sound. When the SPCA guy told me this dog had a microchip, I knew it wasn't her. Layla had been adopted with all her vaccines and paperwork, but no chip.

I hung up the phone, disappointed and with less hope than ever. Through all of this, I had stayed in close contact with Hank and Joyce. I felt so guilty about Layla. Hank and Joyce had taken care of her and rescued her when she was in a desperate situation, and I felt like we had failed them and violated their trust.

I called David about the dog at the SPCA. Several people had told us that, sometimes the best way to deal with a pet loss is to bring another one into our family to love. If this dog at the SPCA was a bearded collie and no one came to rescue her, we decided we would take her in. I called SPCA back. They told me this dog would be available for adoption by the end of the week if no one claimed her.

On Saturday, David and I were just finishing up a child-less lunch date, and we decided to go by the SPCA to take a look at this dog. We called them to see if she was still there, and she was. She would not be available for adoption until this coming Tuesday, but we were welcome to take a look at her. The man said several others were also interested in her and that she was a very popular dog.

What happened next is nothing short of a miracle. We walked into the room where all the dogs were in individual kennels. The noise from all the barking was deafening, and of course, it didn't smell very nice either. There in the third kennel was the dog; it was her! Our Layla! She was dirty, but she jumped up on the fence and wagged her tail just like a puppy when she saw us! David and I were going crazy. I started bawling and thanking God for keeping Layla safe and leading us back to her.

We proved she was ours by showing them those same pictures on our phones. There was no doubt about it. This bearded collie was our Layla! None of us knew, not even Hank and Joyce, that she was micro-chipped. Her chip was unregistered, so we registered it immediately.

When we got her home, we gave her a much-needed bath and brushing. She had some stickers and burrs in her hair that we had to cut out. Then we spent two hours brushing mats out of her hair.

She's been home with us a little over 24 hours now. In that time she has eaten three full bowls of food, watched a movie in our bed with us, gone out for ice cream with us, and slept a lot. She's back to her nervous, shy self, but we're ok with that. She seems to be warming up to us again. We aren't letting her out of our sight for a while.

I got to make a joyful phone call to Hank and Joyce yesterday, letting them know that the "puppy angels" did, in fact, keep an eye on Layla.

Layla was gone for 22 days. We have no idea what happened to her from the time she left our backyard until last Tuesday when an anonymous person took her to the SPCA. Whatever her adventures, we are so thankful that she's back with us and we hope she never tries running away from us again.

Chuck Pierce spoke at our church last week. He prophesied that the things that were lost in 2011 were going to be restored in 2012.

Layla was lost in 2011, and 22 days later, she was restored to us in 2012! It may be small to some people, but to us it's a miracle to have her back after so long! Thank You, Jesus!

Welcome home, Layla Lou!