Narrative by Emily
Lost 9/21/2011, Alert Date 9/23/2011, Found 9/25/2011
The phone alerts went out Saturday morning as we had expected. We waited by our phones impatiently all day, but as the sun started to go down we were already losing hope.
We had put up flyers the day she disappeared, called the Animal Control Officer, called the pound and contacted several veterinarians in the area but we had no idea how far she could have traveled since she ran away. We felt lost and helpless, especially since she had acted in a way that we had never anticipated.
We believed that we had no one to blame but ourselves. So we went out to eat that night, knowing that we could do nothing more as long as it was dark. This was Zelda's fourth night on her own. We had convinced ourselves that we would never see her again, that either she starved to death or something else got to her before we did. We wanted to remain hopeful, but we also had to remember that this was a 4 lb. chihuahua wandering around alone in forests full of coyotes the size of german shepards.
While out eating dinner, mourning our lost companion, we unexpectedly received a call from neighbors down the street that had received the phone alert from that morning. She was remarkably close by, and had been eating from their compost pile for the past two days.
They had seen her that evening, tried to get close, but she ran off into the woods without giving them a chance to call her name.
Finally, a glimmer of hope. We were now able to focus our search but the question still remained: Would she come to us if we saw her or would she run away ?
The next morning we set out as early as we could to scour the woods around our neighbors' house, calling her name and hoping for a some kind of sign. We eventually became discouraged and left a bowl of her food near the compost pile she had been eating from, and decided to come back later in the evening when we might be able to see her.
We drove back home and rested for only a few minutes before getting our second wind, at which point we went back to the neighbors house to find her bowl empty.
It hadn't been that long. Could she have eaten it or was it another animal ? I had to find out. I put a little more food in the bowl and waited behind a shed to watch and see what happened.
After only a few minutes, I turned over my shoulder to see Zelda walking cautiously out of the woods towards her bowl.
She hadn't seen me yet, but I said her name, faintly; I couldn't believe my eyes. This was the moment of truth; would she come to me or run away ?
Those few seconds of time were so dreamlike. She turned to me, I called her name again, and she walked over me, picking up her pace, and ran right to my arms, tail wagging. I couldn't stop crying. I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming.
Our baby girl was finally back, and save for a few ticks and some muddy patches of fur, she was perfectly fine.
Thank you FindToto.com ! Our family is back together because of you.
Source: http://www.findtoto.com/?action=success_stories_detail&id=6462
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