Dogs are great, but they can be a pain in the tail.
My son and daughter-in-law have two dogs, both of whom I have mentioned before. There’s Zorro — the Chihuahua-Pomeranian mix on Prozac — and Tilley, the sweet-natured, scared-of-her-shadow beagle.
They are lots of fun, and they play well together, but sometimes they make a break for it. My son thinks Tilley is the mastermind behind some escapes they’ve made. Zorro could go through a little hole in their fence for a while, and he would hang out in a neighbor’s yard until he was discovered.
When they added Tilley, it was a whole new level of escape. Beagles like to dig. She would dig under the fence, and off they’d go. My son reinforced the yard, but with all the recent rain, the ground was soft.
My husband and I took our daughter-in-law out to eat the other evening while our son was at work, and when we dropped her off, she discovered the dogs were missing from the backyard.
My daughter-in-law got in her car and searched, and we drove our car up and down streets for an hour, windows rolled down, our eyes scanning every yard and porch. I would occasionally call out “Tilley! Zorro!” Sometimes I’d accidentally call out “Torro,” “Tori” or “Zilly.”
It didn’t matter. The dogs don’t come when called on a good day, much less when they’re on the lam.
I said, “This is like searching for a needle in a haystack.”
My husband said, “No, it’s harder. You know where the haystack is.”
Every time I would see a dog, I’d get excited — no matter if the dog looked nothing like Tilley or Zorro.
One smaller and darker Chihuahua was roaming the streets, and I saw a woman who was walking a dog kneel down and talk to it.
We asked people who were walking and kids who were playing outside (with a parent present), if they’d seen any runaway dogs.
No luck.
I even called the police department. I’m well aware that the police department is not the agency that handles lost dogs, but I thought someone might have called since it was after hours for the animal shelter. Nobody had called.
We walked the street some, too, and my husband went into the nearby woods a little way.
Pretty soon, it was too dark to see. I took the high-powered flashlight my dad got me and shined it along the streets as we drove. I saw lots of glowing cats’ eyes, but no dogs.
My daughter-in-law decided to stay put, in case the dogs came home.
I woke up and worried about them in the middle of the night.
The next day, my daughter-in-law reported that after he got off work, our son had searched till midnight for them. About 1 a.m., the dogs came home, letting themselves back in the yard the way they’d gotten out.
Their tails were not beneath their legs; they show no remorse.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.