March Madness usually means basketball games and beer. But the night of the Final Four our house was going mad for another reason. I will give you a hint. He is blonde and walks on all fours. NO not Peter...Buddy, our yellow lab. We are having some work done on our backyard and in order to get it done we had to have our fence taken down. Our night time routine always was to let the "boys" out in the backyard on last time before bed. On the other side of our fence is a stream and then just beyond the stream is a pasture. The pasture seperates our backyard from our neighbor's yard. Once the fence was down Buddy was enjoying roaming through the pasture and then returning to the back door when he was done exploring.
On the night the Final Four there had been a horrible rainstorm. There was fast moving water everywhere. Luckily our stream was higher than normal but nothing dangerous. Around dusk Peter let Buddy and Poncho out to go to the bathroom. Buddy took off as usual. He had never been gone for than thirty minutes. Poncho of course did his thing and returned immediately to the back door to be let in. Nature is not his strong suite. Peter always says if Poncho could have a colstomy he would rather than go outside.
After a half hour Peter began whistling for Buddy to no avail. Then Peter walked around the cul-de-sac with still no sign of Buddy. This made me very nervous because you can always see him in the pasture from our second floor windows. Having no luck on foot Peter jumped in the car and cruised the neighborhood. He returned unsuccessfully. Now I was really starting to panic. All I could picture was Buddy stuck on a tree branch, or being swept away by fast moving water or that someone had taken him.
By now it was dark and still raining. I decided to take a turn driving around the neighborhood. When I reached the end of our cul-de-sac I saw my neighbor Mary Jo walking her dog Odie. Odie and Buddy like to play together so I was hoping Buddy and gone over to their house. Mary Jo said she hadn't seen Buddy but she would look too and she offered to drive around the neighborhood as well. Thank God for nice neighbors!!!
I drove around the block twice with no Buddy sightings. By this time I was crying and praying to St. Anthony. "St. Anthony please come down...we've lost Buddy and he can't be found..." I was now on my third trip around the block. As I drove by our backyard neighbors I noticed a bunch of people on their front porch...I had the car windows rolled down and was calling Buddy's name...That's when I heard a man whistle and yell "we have a yellow lab over here." I slammed on the brakes and yelled "I'm coming." I threw the car in reverse and turned around. I pulled into their driveway and there on their goregous wrap around porch was my dopey yello dog. He was wagging his tail and holding his head down in his "I'm really sorry" way. I ran up to him and threw my arms around his big old neck. The family told me he had been at their house for the last hour. They said they fed him and played ball with him. Buddy had a great time. Their 15 year old daughter was loving on him which stole his heart away. They had called Peter's old cell number on Buddy's collar and someone answered!!! They told the family there visiting from Binghamton, NY and would be over in half an hour. Needless to say they never showed up. So the family thought that Buddy's owners didn't care about him. Buddy of course played the sympathy card like a pro. Little stinker was less than 50 yards away the whole time. The best part was when I put his leash on him to put him in the car he wouldn't budge of their front porch!!! I guess he thought a 15 year old girl who felt bad for him was a better way to go than an 11 month old who pulls his tail and ears!!!
In the end, Buddy was home safe.
We ordered him a new collar with the right phone number (and despite Peter's protests we ordered one for Poncho too).
And we now know our backyard neighbors!!! We owe them a debt of gratitude for looking out for our lovable blonde on four legs. As the good Lord says..."love thy neighbor as thy self.."
