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| Yay! We are in Sunny Florida! |
Thursday: Vacation day. We are packed and ready to leave the house. Doing our final walk through we hear a weird noise in the bathroom. A pipe burst. Thankfully it had just happened and all we had to do was shut the water. The following drive to Florida was long and dark... foreboding what was yet to come. Abby was so happy to be in a warmer climate that she kissed a dolphin! Days one and two were spent with family eating pizza, drinking beer and making and eating frogmore stew! Uneventful; but the horror was soon to unfold.
Sunday: While driving with mother and father in law to a family event we receive a call from sister in law. Our Abby bolted and took off and would not return. We derailed the days plans and hurried back to find Abby. Suzie and Robbie tried to chase Abby and get her to come to them but she ran into The Forest of The Unicorn, Never to be seen Again! We got in the car to find her and began calling and whisteling, but she would not come... What I thought would be a simple call and return became a multi-day nightmare!
Abby was not anywhere to be found. I searched the neighborhood on foot and Megan searched with her parents in the car. We looked and called for Abby hours, unfortunately we did not see her. We went back to the house to figure out what to do next. We posted the most recent photograph of Abby on Facebook with a plea for help. We posted this plea everywhere we could think would be helpful. I called the sheriff and the police to check and they had no information. Since it was Sunday the animal shelter would not be open until Tuesday. At this point we began to realize the severity of the situation.
Then we got a phone call from someone who read the Facebook post (the first of many) and saw Abby in a culvert near the Home Depot; three miles south east from the house. We arrived at the sight and called the person who notified us she was there. After clarifying where she was spotted we searched the area for well over an hour to no avail. Then it was dark an the search became difficult, we were also getting tired; if we only knew that this was just the beginning. We went back to the house to eat the now cold chicken that Megan's Dad picked up a few hours earlier. To smell it in the car drove us crazy. We continued to post her photograph with our plea. Then we got a call from Tony who was at the Frisbee park; four miles north from the culvert at Home Depot. Some people said they saw Abby run through the park recently. We met Tony at the park and spent an hour calling and looking for Abby. Then we started to call and search for her in the surrounding neighborhoods and apartment complexes in the area; all with no sight of Abby, but some people did give us confirmation that they too saw her there at the park earlier.
We returned to the house to get some sleep. Checking facebook we saw the flyer that my friend Rebecca, photo above, created; we gave her some more specific information and went to sleep. At 12:30 am the phone rang and Megan flew across the bed to find it was my Aunt calling for updates. We fell back asleep and woke at daybreak to begin the search anew.
Monday: First I called the sheriff and police to make sure they had no word. Then after saving Rebecca's flyer we began to repost our plea for help and expanded the posting to all the radio stations, tv stations, public service, animal welfare and of course the vetinary offices. Then we made some coffee and headed to kinkos to print out some flyers. At kinkos, after having trouble getting phone reception, we used wifi to email them Rebecca's flyer and had 100 flyers printed out. We also bought tape and headed out to start hanging flyers around the areas we thought would be helpful in her return. Megan drove while I lept out of the vehicle to tape flyers to all four corners of each intersection. We hung some at the frisbee park and went to the businesses nearby. We talked with the security guard at wal-mart across from the frisbee park and gave him a flyer as well. We also stopped at the Florida State Trooper's office as well. On the way to the house from wal-mart we hung flyers at the end of the road and I wandered around a business park; there I gave the flyer to the mailman and one of the local radio stations. We hung some more and finally got back to the house. There we continued our facebook efforts and called the sheriff and police again. Also called my mom who was very encouraging and supportive throughout the entire ordeal.
While at the house we received a phone call from a woman in the Blues Creek Subdivision; 5 miles north of her last sighting at the frisbee park. Abby was sleeping on their front porch when the were getting ready to head out to work. Megan's stepsister drove with us to help us find the subdivision and we talked with the family who saw her. After showing her a better photo we were absolutely
positive that Abby was there just a couple hours prior. The mother and daughter went out on their front porch to offer Abby food and water, When they reached for her collar Abby growled at them and ran away, continued down the road and toward another subdivision. We spent a couple hours driving around the area calling and looking for Abby and talking to everyone we could find. Gave out and hung a few flyers; gave one to the garbage man, ups man, and some of the construction workers building new houses (Westchester is a new subdivision). At this point we were running low on flyers and hope, especially since these two subdivisions were close to the huge San Felasco State Park. We headed back to the house to drop Suzie off and get some food. While there we received a phone call from a lady who saw Abby in the Wescthester subdivision. We rushed over there and met the lady and after showing her another photo she confirmed that it was Abby and she headed into the woods. We spent a couple hours roaming the woods and calling Abby's name; all the while I peed every 50 yards or so to leave my scent trail. Before giving up I left my shirt near the trail head close to the Westchester subdivision. Devastated, worried and hungry we decided to start heading back to the house. We ate some more, updated our facebook posts with Abby's last sighting; something we did each and every time she was spotted somewhere. We then headed out to get some more flyers printed at the UPS office nearby. We then headed back out to hang flyers all over the San Felasco, Westchester and Blues Creek area; three hours worth of driving and hanging flyers. While driving around I walked into the TV station and gave them a flyer. The put the flyer at the top of their news feed and over 800 people shared from the TV station alone. From our accounts at this point close to 1500 people shared the flyer, not including the jump offs from where we could see... literally thousands of people were Praying, thinking and/or looking for Abby at this point.
We headed back home to get some supplies for camping out. We planned to sleep in the car to wait and see if Abby would return to this area. We ate some food. Charged our phones; something we were doing two or three times a day as well as having them plugged in the car charger. We gathered the necessary supplies and headed north. A brief stop at the gas station to buy the appropriate snacks for a stakeout. We arrived at the edge of San Felasco in Westchester around 9pm. We went into the woods and searched and called for Abby, left our scent and headed back to the car. I opened a beer, Megan a soda and we started to eat our supply of stake out food. Every now and then we would turn on the headlights and call and search for Abby. Around midnight we both tried to fall asleep. About 12:30 am we decided that we were miserable, uncomfortable an exhausted. We gave up and headed back to the house. We crashed immediately!
Tuesday: At 6 am we awoke and bolted out the door to search the Westchester and Blues Creek subdivisions for Abby. We spent a few hours driving around and calling for Abby and searching for her. At 9 am we stopped at the Starbucks for coffee and breakfast. We gave hung a flyer there. We were waiting for the shelter to open at 10 am. We wanted to give the shelter people a little time to process everything from their days off. At 10:15 am and began our official registration of Abby's disappearance. We had to fill out paperwork and wait for someone to walk us through the kennel area to look at the dogs. I had to choke back my emotions and hold back tears the entire time. We spent 10 minutes looking at dogs who were sad and confused, but did not see our beloved Abby! After looking at the dogs we needed to complete our paperwork to confirm that Abby was lost. Janet told us that she had a personal interest that each and every dog was found and belonged home with their loving families. This was very reassuring! At Janet's recommendation, on the way back to the house from the shelter we called the Madison County Shelter (in Asheville) where we rescued Abby to find out her microchip information. This would help her be returned to us once she was found. We also stopped at the Gainesville Times to place an ad to aid in Abby's return; for those who don't use the internet. They would publish a print and internet add for a small fee. Once we returned to the house we decided to act upon our decision to leave Gainesville and head to my dad's house 2.5 hours away; we realized that we were burning ourselves out and had accomplished everything we could possibly at this time. So around 2 pm we got in the car and headed to dad's in Spring Hill. Megan got the micro chip information squared away while we were on the road. Upon our arrival we were glad to be off the road, but could not even possibly forget that Abby was gone. Dad and I went to get dinner, but every spare moment was spent managing our search for Abby updating all of the feeds. Around 9 pm we got a text from a lady in Gainesville stating she spotted Abby. We spent an hour texting back and forth with this woman who described Abby perfectly; her collar, her colors, she was even chasing birds! Well, this sighting was Monday evening, the night we were staking out Westchester; 7 miles away from the stake out!! This would be the last place she was spotted. We watched a movie with dad and went to bed sad and missing Abby.
Wednesday: We spent the day with dad and went to visit Aunt Maryann and Uncle Paul. Had some fun talking with cousin Tommy as well. Spent a great deal of time talking about Abby and receive heartfelt reassurance that we would find her. We headed back to dad's, ate dinner and spent time updating the search and watching tv. Afterward we headed to Cousin Marie and Paul's. Had fun catching up with my cousin and learning about a great new toy; the flashlight!! Went home in good spirits, but went to bed missing Abby.
Thursday: At 5 am I got up to go to the bathroom. Before my head hit the pillow again I compulsively checked my phone for Abby. I MISSED A CALL FROM MEGAN'S STEPMOTHER!!! She called at 4:16 am. I woke Megan up and told her... I have never witness Megan moving faster as she flew across the bed to check her phone. While Megan checked the voicemail my heart lurched as I knew that Brenda FOUND Abby!! Megan called Brenda and was learned that she had, in fact, FOUND Abby!!! I got dressed and woke my dad up with the GREAT news!! Within 30 minutes we were dressed, had coffee in hand and were burning rubber on our way to Gainesville to pick up our baby!! Within 3 hours we were in Gainesville and Happily reunited with our beloved Abby! Our cute sweet girl was safe!!!
She was as overjoyed to see us as we were to see her. Wiggle butt and all!! Wednesday night when Brenda went to bed she prayed to God that her cousin would come down to Earth and help guide Abby home! Her, us and thousands of other people were praying for Abby's safe return!! At 4 am Brenda was awakend by strange noises. It was Abby trying desperately to get someone in the house's attention. She was whining and jumping on the gate to the back yard and the front door! When Brenda went to the door Abby was there more excited than she had ever been to see another human being!! She showered Brenda with her love and kisses for ten minutes!! Afterward she ate two days worth of food, drank a ton of water and fell asleep! Every now and then she would wake up and make sure that Brenda was there and wag her tail. If Brenda got up, Abby followed her! Sometimes she would just wake up and wag her tail; surely happy that she was finally home with people that she knew!
So at 8 am we finally arrived in Gainesville and we were all beside ourselves with the excitement around the joyous reunion. I was crying, Megan was crying, Abby was whining her head off, but most of all I thought her tail was going to fly off from the severity of its wagging. Despite my negative thoughts and bad feelings all of the prayers and positive thoughts out there combined with Abby's instincts brought her home to us. We found it hard to believe that she was actually there!! After our reunion and a brief walk we boarded dad's blazer and began to head south to his house in Spring Hill. Along the way we stopped at the Bushnell Cemetery to visit my Grandfather and Megan's cousin who were both veterans. Abby could not stand to be in the blazer so we let her run the cemetery with us. On the way back to dad's we began to realize how filthy Abby had become during her journey back to us. So along the way we once again used the power of our phones to find a place to bring her back to cleanliness, since my dad did not have a shower extension for bathing dogs and since Abby hated the hose I refused to subject her to it at this point!
So, on the way home we stopped at the Petsmart just a mile from dad's house to have Abby cleaned from the nastiness from which she was imprisoned. Abby was nasty! She pranced out of the groomers like it was her birthday! Seriously! She did not like being gritty and grimy! I never thought I would take my dog to the groomer... ever@ She ate a recovery doggie bar ( they have pre, during and post bars for dogs now!), more food and a big cookie and a chew bone. Now she is happily sleeping in her bed!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are soooooooooo glad to have Abby home that we continue to spoil her with love and yummies!!
Abby and we slept well that night... and we were all and still are very thankful for each and every person that helped in every small way to help us reunite!!
