Howards big day out

Yesterday was a long day for us all, even the dogs. I woke up feeling very weak and sick. My mono seems to have better days and bad days. Yesterday was a bad day. Oldest son, with mono and tonsil issues, had been sick most the week-end. Ended up call the home health care nurse, and he has doc appointment today. So we are all laying around, DH had to work and the other kids were . . . well, just being kids. Not only did I feel weak and tired, but my sinuses were acting up - thank you Bradford Pear trees. Every time I tried to lay down my head would plug up :( Point is, I ended up laying downstairs in the recliner. As soon as I moved downstairs all the kids ran into the house (of course) leaving my mini dachshund, Howard, outside. Howard has back issues and while he is doing better and has some use of his legs, he can't do stairs. So I heard him bark and asked dd to go get him. Not even ten minutes later I hear him again and ask dd again to go get him. This time she goes immediately, and he's gone!

We looked high and low for that little dog for over an hour. We even entertained he might have had and "accident", but we found no trace. So that left theft. That made me angry. Not much left to steal here after the Oct. incident, so lets take their crippled dog too? Grrrrrrr. To make a long story short (I know, to late), DS decided to look one more time after dinner. Two houses down from us there is a deranged plumber and his crazy common law wife, and they called DS over. They wanted to know if he knew who owned the skinny dog they found - yea, us! It gets even weirder. I guess Howard found his way out of the fence and was out in front of the house when the neighbors ( I use the term loosely) picked him up. They thought he was a stray and that he was starving . Ok, his hind legs are a bit withered from his lack of muscle tone, but he has a pretty broad chest. Anyway, they put him in their truck and took his collar and tags off - yea, I know - and went to the vet's. Guess what, the vet was closed at 5 p.m. on a Sunday. They told my son they didn't even know we had a dog - huh? We have lived here for 7 years, they have come to our garage sales. Guess they have missed our blue tick heeler too. Well later that night Howard blows up like a balloon! His circumference was three times his normal size. When my DH came home from work he took one look at the dog and went over to the deranged plumbers house and asked them what they fed our dog. She claimed her kids gave him bologna because he looked so skinny. Whatever, all I know is the do was miserable all night. He barfed in DD bedroom and seemed to feel well enough to sleep after that. By nine this morning he was back to himself. Thank goodness, thought I might have to take him to the doc after I took DS!

I am going to let this go , like my dog tags that they now can't seem to find, and just be glad he is back! Everyone was so upset. No one could eat dinner. It was like another crushing blow, first our house is robbed, then our son is extremely ill and now the dog is gone. Soooooooo relieved that there was a happy ending! They children were utterly laughing and crying when DS brought him home. Howard? He was like, "what?" LOL Such a big adventure for such a small dog.

Blessings, Beth Ann