A Hairy Day

Everyday for a week we have had people ask us if we found Hairy. They call us, they ring our doorbell . . .I even had a mother call today that has lessons tomorrow. I thought she was going to reschedule lessons, but she just wanted to know if we found Hairy, that's all, "OK, see you tomorrow". We did find Hairy. A man caught her going "due west" last Wed. morning, about 15 minutes after she disappeared. He didn't see the posters until that evening, so Hairy spent the day with him.
If Hairy only knew how we spent our day. . . It's one I don't want to forget.
One Grandma. Two darling grand daughters. Joyously babysitting for the morning while their moms (our good daughters) went shopping. Beautiful day. Haphazard decision to take Hairy with us for a walk. . . Emmie had Hairy by the leash. We enjoyed every little footstep since it takes time to get up and down when you're so close to every pine cone. We studied everything. As we got to the end of our street, we made a turn to go slowly back home. The girls were good, Hairy was not. As we turned around, Hairy pulled in the opposite direction. With Emmie's grip, she held on as tight as her 21 months could hold. It was enough to give Hairy leverage to slip backwards, right out of her collar. She ran frantically northbound like an escaped criminal. I grabbed both of the little girls hands, knowing they were a priority and I did NOT have a third hand for any dog that was on the run - besides, I knew we could catch up to her in the car. She never got very far, what with every tree and bush filled with gross stuff to eat. I picked up Kate and Emmie ran with me. I strapped Emmie into the car seat, since I knew she probably could make more of a mess than Kate (ha). We were off. Kate had free rein of the whole back of the van. We went at a snails pace. Hardly moving at all. Hairy had to be under someones bushes. I could just see her in my imagination, sniffing and trotting on and stopping to sniff again. No Hairy. We just covered our 2 streets, since I had never known Hairy to go out of our neighborhood, besides, her feet are so small, she gets "bushed" easily. I couldn't believe she wasn't somewhere close. I knew we'd find her. After circling the streets, I headed back to the house. Our next plan would be to strap the little girls into the double stroller (thankfully loaned to us be our good neighbors). I parked the car and turned to find Kate standing next to Emmie sharing her new found treasure, an opened package of juicy fruit gum. She had half a stick in her mouth and was quickly sharing the rest of the pieces with Emmie. I had to laugh out loud while I hurried to empty Kate and Emmie's mouths, knowing they knew they would be busted. I left Kate in the car, since her favorite game is for people to chase her, and I knew she would probably want to play it. I lifted Emmie out and sat her in the stroller. (Ah, one in!) Since my distraction of putting Emmie in, Kate had a new plan. She had now made her way to the driver's seat, where I had left the gum in the door handle. As I looked up to grab her, she was sitting there, madly unwrapping sticks of gum as fast as her little 16 month old hands could manage. The look on her face said it all! She knew she had hit the jackpot. (Glee!) So I rolled Emmie around the front of the car and left her outside the driver's door while I opened it and grabbed Kate. I was completely tickled at the site of her new found mischief. I grabbed her, taking out the half piece of gum in her mouth (some still in the wrapper) and some in her little hand. As I felt relief from the gum ordeal being over, and with both girls out of the car, I turned to put Kate in the stroller. . . No stroller. It was not at my feet where I had left it. I was panicked. But my peripheral vision led my eyes to see the back of it, rolling away from me, with the back of Emmie's little red haired head helplessly heading so slowly towards the street. With a quick 2 steps, holding Kate in one arm and grabbing Emmie's handle with the other, (my heart raced at the image I had just witnessed) I tucked Kate in and said a quick prayer of thanks. I didn't feel that we had narrowly escaped a disaster, I just felt a knowledge that we were being watched by Heavenly Father. My short prayer was for thankfulness of that knowledge. There is a reason I was not born with 3 arms. Hairy was not the priority that day, even though she was the reason for the experience. I am in love with 2 little grand daughters. And because of the worry, joy, and gratitude I felt that day, I know he loves us all.