Lucky, the foster dog

Amazing story of lost dog finding her way home today in Santa Fe
Posted by Julie L on June 6, 2009 at 9:09pm

For those who have lost dogs in the past you may appreciate this story.

I've been fostering a dog for about 3 months now and today took her to a potential adopter's home in Tierra Contenta (Airport Road & Country Club), which is about a 6 mile drive from my home near Yucca & Rodeo. They are a great young couple with another dog and a cat, and I felt a GREAT home for this dog. We spent about 30 minutes there and I felt they needed a feel for how she'd do without me there, so offered to leave her there for one hour while I ran an errand. That was the first time I've done that with a foster dog but at the time I felt the couple needed a better feel of the dog's personality without me there.

30 minutes later, at noon, they called; the dog had gotten spooked and scaled a wall. She'd never jumped a fence since I've had her. She was wearing a collar and bright pink and yellow scarfs so I was hopeful she'd be easily spotted.

After searching for an hour I went home to print fliers, filed a lost dog report with the Shelter then spent the rest of the afternoon until 7pm posting fliers around Airport - Jaguar - Paseo del Sol - Meadows.

For 7 hours today I was trying to think like this dog. Where would she go? Would she follow Arroyos? Would she avoid neighborhoods and stay in the open spaces? She's very shy, so I guessed she'd avoid people and playgrounds. She wasn't starving so she probably wouldn't be coaxed into a car with a stranger.
 At 2:30 she was spotted by two helpful teenagers at Airport & Paseo del Sol, but by the time I got there, no sign.

At 7:30 tonight I pulled into my driveway and THERE SHE WAS! This dog who has lived with me for only 3 months, who has never been west of Richards, must have headed east down Airport Road, crossed Cerrillos, continued down Rodeo to Yucca, then south and back to my house all in one afternoon.

So, I wanted to share a happy story. Shame on me for that momentary lapse in judgement. Lucky's still available for adoption (the couple are still thinking about it) and will be at the big multi-shelter adoption event at San Ysidro Plaza on June 14.

By the way, the people in the Tierra Contenta neighborhood were all very kind and helpful. Tomorrow I'll be back out there removing fliers.

Source: http://santafescoop.ning.com/profiles/blogs/amazing-story-of-lost-dog