Little Dog Lost

Crunch
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar

Crunch over the past few weeks has been slowly losing his mental capacity. He is still a sweet old dog, but he spends more and more of his days in a bit of a mental fog. He paces about the house, seemingly with purpose, but he never halts until I physically stop him. Little things that used to give him pleasure have lost meaning. Just the other day Larry gave Crunch an ear rub, normally this would cause Crunch to stop, lean in and give a low rumbly moan of joy. Not this time, instead he just walked on by.

At first I thought his decreased capacity had been exacerbated by the my recent trip with him and John. I figured after a few days he would settle down and all would be well, but he never did. So I planned I calling the vet and seeing what we could do for the old boy. Physically he is fine for a 15 year old dog except for a probable nasal tumor. (It's probable since the only true way to diagnose it is a CAT scan that takes big bucks and requires sedation and I refuse to sedate Crunch ever again since last time it took four days for him to recover and the vet agrees with me.)

Then Monday morning Crunch went on walk about. He was gone for a little over two hours. He had been puddling about in the backyard and I kept checking up on him. 10 minutes after the last time I saw him he was gone. I frantically scanned the woods and the road, he was well and truly gone.

After 45 minutes of searching I called my husband in tears. I wanted my dog back and I was a wreck. Larry immediately offered to come home, but we decided I should call around the neighborhood. I searched my subdivision in my car and stopped every walker I saw. My biggest fear was that Crunch had gone into the woods. We are four houses away from a state park and if he went there we would never find him again.

Then I got the best phone call ever. HI, I think I have your doggy. I drove over as fast as I could. It was indeed Crunch and I scooped him up into my arms. I sobbed while I thanked the kind soul that had found my dog. Crunch then rode home in my lap.

He seems none the worse for wear, but his days loose in the yard are over. The invisible fence no longer works on him so now I have to supervise him when he is out. But that's fine with me. I'm just happy to have the old boy back.