One Lucky Dog

redit: J.Denevan (me); this is my mom’s chihuahua, Mack. Oh he’s one lucky dog

That’s Mack. He’s my mom’s Chihuahua. He’s 15 years old and is fortunate to make it to his 15th birthday. The little rugrat ran away the other day.

I was at work, finishing up for the day when I got a call from my mom. She was sobbing and panicked. “Mack is gone,” she said. It’s not always easy for me to switch gears so I was a bit unprepared. I knew I felt bad because it crushed my mom. She’s been so attached to the little guy for so long. It’s hard to lose a long-time companion like that.

The crazy part is how eerily similar it felt to another dog we once had. Before Mack, Mei Kwan and Milo (the other two are pugs), we had Cassie and Patches. Both female and both mutts really. Cassie died quite a while before Patches but the two had very similar coloring as the present dogs – Cassie was a light brown color like the pugs and Patches had medium to long hair and was black and white, like Mack.

My mom was gone to Mexico for a class she was taking while earning her bachelor’s degree so she could be a teacher. My dad was home with my brother and myself. One night, he was working in the yard and happened to leave gate into the backyard open. Not sure what happened exactly other than she took off…never to be found again. My dad saw he take off and ran after her and tried to find her, but that was not to be. It was sad. Who knows what happened to her exactly because despite being an urban area  there are plenty of foxes, coyotes and owls who could have found her. It was upsetting. My mom came home to find out she was gone. It was odd because mom said she had a dream about Patches while in Mexico. Funny how things work out sometimes.

Well, Mack’s running away was very similar – not only because he’s about the same size as she was but also the same color. Now they also took off in similar fashion –  out the backyard gate. It spooked my mom to the core. She was totally heartbroken and I felt at a loss to help her. Life hasn’t been easy for mom and so to see her have another hardship thrown her way, it was hard to hear. Given I live here and she’s in Colorado, I couldn’t even give her a hug. That was tough.

But here comes the plot twist. Ready? I did make the suggestion to her that she should contact area shelters in case someone had picked him up and dropped him off somewhere. She had also posted a status about it on her Facebook page and my mom, having become such a strong animal lover has hundreds of friends via this pug/pet connection group, and they came to her rescue. One person suggested to her to look at a particular site for an animal shelter. Lo and behold, there was a picture of Mack…looking a bit freaked out to be honest. He was clearly stunned and not sure what the hell happened – well he is 15 now and not used to being anywhere without my mom. The really wild part about it is he was in a shelter that’s probably 20-30 minutes away from the house…by car. How in hell did he get so far? Apparently, he somehow managed to cross a major four-lane road/highway and that’s when someone found him. We couldn’t get over the fact he managed to get across THAT road without getting at least a scratch, particularly because he’s not spry anymore. It wasn’t exactly “The Incredible Journey” but it certainly is interesting how he go so far from home.

I received a call from her the night before last and she was excited to know she’d found him. She was so relieved. Her dogs are super spoiled and always get to sleep on the bed with her. Mack has been right next to her every night for 15 years. There was an empty feeling knowing he wasn’t there for a couple of nights, she said. I could tell in her voice she couldn’t be happier that he came home. It certainly was a relief in more ways than one. Welcome home Mack, you lucky dog! Now don’t ever do that again! 🙂

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