The Gut-Wrenching Moment I Thought I Lost My Dog in Maine

I do believe that everybody has experienced this heart-dropping, panic explosion you feel in your stomach when you figure out your dog got out the front door and booked it down the street. This just happened to me yesterday while I was at work, and oh my god did I drop everything I was doing and entered tunnel vision.

I got a call from my landlord telling me that my neighbors had called him to let him know a big white dog must have mistakenly got out of the house while I was at work. I can't explain to you how fast I got into my jeep and booked it home, uncertain what was going to end up happening.

Of course, there's the worst-case scenario that I think all of our heads immediately go to when you hear your dog ran away. I don't even want to say it, but my brain was begging God not to run Maverick over with a car that didn't see him in the street.

However, I owe a huge thank-you to my neighbor whom I have yet to meet that called my landlord. I finally pulled into my driveway to walk next door, thinking I'll start here and try to trace his little paw prints in the snow from there. To my surprised, they had him locked into their fenced-in backyard until I could get there.

The sense of relief and gratitude that fell over me in that split second was something I'll never forget. Our pets are our children too, and you can feel a huge loss you're not ready for if something happens to them. Thanks to my kind neighbor, I didn't have to feel that feeling last night, so I just wanted to share this feel good story.

I guess my sidetone would be this: if you see a dog seemingly wondering the streets, especially in the cold, please try to get them to safety until their owners can be found. Some of us may not realize how HUGE of a gesture this is for us pet owners!