This story ends with flashing cop lights and a pond.
It starts with my family and I enjoying a leisurely Saturday morning.
A bagel and muffin sounded good, so I offered to pick them up while everyone else stayed home in their pajamas. Before I left, I let our dogs, Lucy and Elsa, outside in the backyard to romp and play for a bit. I left and returned about a half hour later. As we sat down to enjoy our breakfast, I noticed I did not see either dog in the backyard.
You can already see where this story is going at this point.
I asked my husband if he brought the dogs back inside. He tells me no and from there, chaos erupts. We both go into the backyard and start shouting for the dogs. We yell at the kids and ask if they brought them inside, desperately hoping that perhaps one of the kids let them in and maybe they snuck upstairs. We start to scramble while looking for them. We go back into the backyard and see the place in the fence that was weakened from the previous day’s storm and where they got out.
At this point, I’m panicking. I don’t even know where to begin. My mind is racing with wondering how long they’ve been out, how far they could have gotten, did they stay together, and God forbid … what if something happened to them?
Neither of these dogs have any kind of street smarts. They are not savvy to put it mildly. They are couch potatoes that have never had to forage or survive. Their idea of hard knocks is being fed an hour later than normal. They are lazy and spoiled.
Once we realized they were both out, I called my sister. My husband and I split and went in opposite directions. We began on foot and then realized that given the timetable and not knowing how long they’d been out that a car would be more effective. In my hysterics, I can barely tell my sister what is happening and the thought of something happening to them was too much to bear.
I told the kids to stay put and my sister came and sat with them while my brother-in-law joined in the search. He happens to be a Noblesville Police Officer. The three of us were canvassing the neighborhood and surrounding areas, stopping anyone in sight to ask if they had seen two loose dogs. We were told by multiple people that they had been seen together. Each time I asked someone, I was told they had seen them within the last five to 10 minutes. I knew we were on their trail and kept praying that they were OK and not hit or injured. I also kept asking God to keep them together.
After stopping multiple people, I came across a man who said they had just run through his backyard minutes before and told me the direction they headed. I called my husband and brother-in-law. We all start circling the area like vultures.
A man I had stopped along the way to ask if he had seen our dogs saw my husband. He was driving a truck and stopped him and asked if he was looking for the dogs because he had just seen them at the pond. He asked my husband if he wanted to hop into his truck and offered to take him to the spot. My husband didn’t even think twice and hopped in.
My husband calls and all he shouts into the phone is that he has them and to get down to the retention pond, down the street from our neighborhood. I call my brother-in-law on the way and tell him where to head. Neither dog had a leash or collar on. I get to my husband within minutes and look across the pond to see him in his pajamas and trying to manage the two unleashed dogs on his own. My brother-in-law gets there in no time, and between the two of them, we get the soaking wet dogs loaded into the car. I called my sister to tell her that we found them and are headed home. My brother-in-law stopped traffic with his cop lights on as we got the dogs loaded in the car. My husband and I were soaking wet as the dogs enjoyed their rendezvous in the pond.
I was distraught. I was so upset and grateful that they were both safe and stayed together. I couldn’t bear the thought of only getting one of them back.
After having time to reflect on this situation, I was struck by the kindness of strangers and neighbors along the way. I remember the group of boys playing football who stopped to talk to me when I was crying and couldn’t find them. The sweetest boy took my number down and told me he would ride his bike around the neighborhood to help look for them. The complete stranger who got into his truck to start looking and then offered my husband a ride. There was another woman who began walking the neighborhood after I asked her if she had seen them. There was another neighbor who started a group text with photos of the dogs and a “be on the lookout:” There were posts to Next Door and Facebook.
What I realize is that nothing unites people quite like a love of animals. If you had told me that my husband would be in his pajamas in a stranger’s truck that morning, I would have said no way. That day was a great reminder to me that there are a lot of good people out there. With all of the divisions in the world, it was a good reminder that most people are inherently good. The media just likes to highlight the bad ones and divisions, but when you get out and talk to your own neighbors, you realize that it’s not the case.
It was also a reminder to check our fence after wind damage. As for Lucy and Elsa, they thought their great escape was their most exciting adventure yet and would do the same thing tomorrow if given the opportunity.
Megan Rathz is a wife, mother, and teacher. She says everything she has ever learned in life came from her Master Gardener mother.