Arrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Yesterday morning, Beep decided to sneak under our dog yard fence (so we suppose) and visit the neighbors. We figured this out in relatively short order. Jen got over there and saw him and called—and the f*!@*^in dog took off in the opposite direction, now about a 1/4 mile from our house. Jen, Max, Noah and I spent the entire morning combing the fields and woods around this area, and didn't see him at all. It was homecoming weekend for Grace, so we didn't call her figuring that we'd fine him quick enough.
Well, a little after noon I figured it was time to start making flyers and stuffing mailboxes on our 'block', which is basically 2 miles by 1.5 miles. We called Wyn who was very understanding, and she put a call out to Kylie, Becky, Joe, and Terri---Field Spaniel folks who live north of us. Around 3 or so they showed up and we had a full contingent searching. Around 5 or so Kylie spotted Beep (right where we had lost sight of him that morning—and he turned and fled, again. Joe picked him up a few minutes later, with the same result. As the light was going away, the decision was to leave a crate with dog food and ground beef mixed in, and hope that he was there by morning. If not, we'd need to locate a large live trap...
After dropping Grace off at the homecoming, I took a walk with my flashlight to that area. Shining the light around where I thought the crate should be---I saw two amber eyes staring back. I talked nice to those eyes and they didn't go anywhere, so I started to close in (I was about 50 feet away). When I got closer, I could see Beep in his crate. I got to about 10 feet of him and he bolted out of the thing running the other way! I hung out quietly in the darkness for another 10 minutes to see if he'd come back, but I didn't hear anything. I got up, called him telling him to come home, and walked back to the house.
An hour or so later, Jen is on the phone with Animal Control, asking if they have a larger live trap then what she bought at Gander Mountain. They ask her to check the size, and she goes into the garage and a Field Spaniel shoots by her into the house (all muddy—and settles down on our bed).
Twelve hours later, and he's back safe and sound. Wyn—come get your baby! He took a year off my life yesterday (luckily 10 miles of walking probably made up for it...)