My Little Miracle Puppy...

I have this dog named Jax. Only this dog is not JUST a dog to me, but more like a child. He's the closest thing to a child that i have right now. He is the most precious thing to me (other than my husband and stuff.. you know) I hate to play favorites, but he's my favorite dog (sorry Abby!).

Anyway, on monday, I got off work around 4. I usually piddle around the house for a while and then let the dogs in to play with them/feed them dinner. I had just finished a conversation with Travis through the wonderful world of texting! (really, where would we be without texting?? :) ) I decided it was time to let my doggies in to play/eat! USUALLY when i open the door, they come running up with their tails wagging and that silly expression on their face that makes it look like they are laughing but really they are just hot and breathing hard... you know what im talking about??

So anyway, THIS time, there were no dogs at the door when it was opened.... in fact, when i looked around the backyard there were no dogs in sight anywhere! SO i ran around the backyard searching in every little corner just hoping they were just in a deep sleep or something... but i never found them! I instantly texted Travis and said, "ummmm....our dogs are gone!" (He couldn't hear the tone in my voice or see my reaction but i was freaking out!!)

I walked around the neighborhood hoping that they had jsut gotten out recently and were somewhere close to home...but they were nowhere in sight. Travis called me and said he would be taking off work early to come home and help look for them.

I got in my car and decided i would drive all around the neighborhood in order to find my "children", or at least thats what they are to me in my mind! lol I found Abby a few blocks over trying to hunt stuff. (If you don't know Abby, well, we call her our clearance puppy. We bought her for a pretty cheap price and found out later why she was so cheap! Abby is scared of everything.... and im not just saying that. When we go for walks, if the wind slightly moves through the trees of a bush, and that tree or bush moves... it scares her. If there is a flock of birds that fly over the house, she cowers down. Most of the time, she's in her own little world where she's the mighty hunter and everythign that moves is her prey... yes... sometimes even a leaf! She runs and runs and runs but not in a particular pattern or order, but rather a very spastic and disorderly manner. She's a little special... but we love her)

So anyway, i found her "hunting" something in a field a few blocks over, but there was no JAx :(. When i called her name, she didn't even hear me because she was so focused on getting whatever it was she was "hunting". So when i got closer and yelled, "ABBY!" She jumped back, looked up and started doing all her tricks at once! (once again, clearance puppy. and if you have ever seen her do all her tricks at once, you know what im talking about! If not, come over and watch!) Eventually i got her into the car and back into our house. I dropped her off there, texted Trav to let him know i found her and continued to look for Jax.

I searched high and low for Jax. I drove up and down every block on our side of the neighboorhood sometimes two or three times really slowly. I'm sure the people living on those blocks were a little concerned that i was planning something bad, but i didnt care. I drove around our neighboorhood looking for JAx for a little over an hour. I drove back home heartbroken and feeling defeated. Travis came home 15 min. later and off we went again looking for him. We looked for another hour or so and came back home to check on Abby. I decided JAx was either taken or further away than i thought.... or maybe something i didnt even want to think about. So i stayed home and cooked dinner, but Travis was not satisfied. He went BACK out searching for him for another hour!! We were hopeful, but we didn't find him.

The Armstrong household was heartbroken. I cried and sulked a lot, Abby was confused and lonely. She kept walking from the front door and back to us whining and whimpering. Travis was sad, but mainly i think he was more sad that Abby and I were so sad. The next day Travis went to all the veternarian places and had been to the shelter twice! we put up flyers asking people to call us if they found him. Travis even put an ad in the news paper. We were desperate, but hopeful.

Then Wednesday night came around, and we still hadn't heard anything about him and we still hadn't found him. Honestly, i think Travis and I were both sure we would never see JAx again. I only hoped that he was safe with a caring family somewhere. We had gone to bed, but i couldn't sleep so i eventually got up and layed on the couch to watch some late night with Jimmy Fallon! Around 12:30am, I heard a loud continuos barking. I thought it sounded like JAx, but it was so loud i was sure it was coming from inside the house and it had to be Abby. It wasn't but 15sec until Travis was standing in the living room with Abby, only Abby wasn't barking. When Travis opened the front door, there was Jax!

Jax was out of breath and tired, like he had struggled to get free from wherever he was. We were so happy to see him i think Travis even got teary eyed! We never thought we would see him again, yet here he was...back at home and he found us all on his own. (he has never run away before so i never thought he'd be able to find our home by himself). We stayed up really late that night loving on him and taking care of him. When we looked closer, we saw that Jax had ticks!! We have NEVER had a problem with ticks at our house, so of course i started feaking out, and Travis just did not get it! At first we only saw the 6 that were in his ears. BUT i was convinced there were more so when i looked between his toes, woe and behold.... there were at least 50 more! We stayed up for a long time getting them off of him.... (im still paranoid that we have ticks in our house now!)

Travis gave him a bath and we all went to bed. Travis took him to the vet the next morning, where she told us he was all ok and looked good. We got some flea and tick killer stuff and all is well!

We could not believe that he not only found his home all on his own, but that he knew to bark right under our window to say, "IM HOME! LET ME IN!" So this story ended up having a happy ending!

A day passed and we hadn't heard anything.