Its not actually that harrowing, there was a lot of worrying and a lot of walking.
First off I have to say thank you to everyone who has helped us with Ollie this last week. Since he went missing I’ve been pretty much a mess and the fact that he went missing while we were out of town made it a lot harder for us.
That being said many have asked where/how he was found. Well the answer is pretty amazing.
We live in the “Fordson Heights” area of hamilton, we drove home in one straight shot yesterday, which was earlier than we were planning on coming home but we wanted to find out Ollie. After getting home at right around 3:20 (and winning a contest on Americas trucking network for some motorkote) we went to bed. My wife got up around 8, I got up around 9 and we began the search in earnest. Because one of us had to be with the baby all the time I went out and searched the shelters while my wife made up a new flyer and did some online searches and updates craigslist postings including posting to Indianapolis and ky and Columbus because you never know.
After the shelters I wandered our neighborhood and some areas that I would not generally call our neighborhood but thought he could have made it to. Outside of the areas I hit today I was kind of out of ideas. I drove around and put up flyers in a few places and finally after having walked enough to have completed a 15k we decided to check my parents subdivision. Its not far from me and he knows it as well as he knows ours so you know maybe?
They had just arrived home from vacation and I said I wanted to check craigslist found to see if anyone had posted. As I was wrapping up I got a phone call from someone who identified herself as “Becky” Becky said she lived in New Miami and was looking at my dog.
Now in order for him to make it to new Miami he had to go from the east side of hamilton to the west side, and then wandered through at least 2-3 more heavy traffic streets.
So I was skeptical.
I was wrong to be skeptical. She described him to a tee and before she could finish we were out the door. by the time she described his collar we were already on the road. It took us just under 5 miles to get there. 5 miles. my parents live around a mile from us so lets call it 4 miles for him. THE DOG WALKED 4 MILES. He’s tiny, itty bitty, 6 lbs at his fattest, that’s a long walk.
When we got there she had lost sight of him. So my dad and I were walking at this point in disappearing sunlight looking. My dad spotted him and shined his flashlight on him in the dark and he got spooked and ran. I should clarify on this Ollie has bad night vision, he always has. I can’t tell you the number of times he’s jumped and missed the bed because he couldn’t see it well enough.
My dog loves my dad, but couldn’t tell it was him. My dad called me over and told me point blank “Its him, I saw him its him” This was the first and only lead we’d actually had on him in the week he’s been missing. It was pitch black out now basically and we tried and tried to find him to no avail. He must have been scared to death because he could hear us and wouldn’t come out.
My wife arrived and we sent my mom and dad around to look other places my wife and I took back to the woods we’d last seen him and started calling out again.
Much to my shock about 5 minutes in I heard my wife calling him and spotted a little white fluff ball in the woods. He was coming out to my wifes voice! my dad and I started calling to him as well and my wife shined a light on me and he ran over to me and laid down and started whining. (think tears of joy, he does that sometimes when he is super happy)
I grabbed him up and found that he was covered in mud, and well a whole bunch of stuff, dirt, burrs, other assorted substances. He was so happy he would nuzzle up against one of us, yipe and then lick, yipe then lick.
Heres where it could have gotten heart breaking. My daughter woke up in her own bed today and when she did immediately started calling out “Ollieollieollie” which usually brings him running. She was on long parts of the search mission including my wife and I walking the neighborhood calling out “Ollieollieollie” It was heartbreaking to hear because she really loves this dog.
To the point where my mom was sitting in the car with her while we were looking and started calling out the window to him and she broke down crying. Now she’s 14 months old so she could have just soiled her self but it honestly seemed like it was out of sheer sadness that she was crying.
When we got the dog inside the look of happiness and joy on her face and the amount of laughing and giggling that she did while staring straight at him made an already amazing night all the better.
He’s exhausted. I’m not sure how much he slept while he was missing, I don’t think he ate much either which is to be expected I guess.
We’re taking him to the vet tomorrow and a groomer to be looked at.
Once again thank you to all for your help.
Head First Slide Productions 