# runaway puppy.



## maple (Jul 22, 2010)

The other day we had the most horrifying experience happen to us. The past month or so hasn't been the greatest - with Maple getting sick and spending a night in ICU. Our neighbour had been begging my boyfriend and I to take our pup with him and his two dogs to Rockliffe park in Ottawa. Maple has been going to an offleash park at Conroy Pit, and she has a blast there! This time we thought we would give in to our neighbours request and take her to Rockliffe. I didn't feel completely comfortable there in the first place, however I let her off her leash because she always came back when I called her at Conroy, and never left my sight. BUT! We've been having issues with her being terrified of bigger dogs barking (only at home though). Anyway, about 5 big dogs collided into eachother while they were all playing, and they started barking and one began yelping for about 2 minutes (I swear you could hear it from a mile away). I turn around, and Maple was gone. We all ran in different directions to find her (there were forests surrounding the park), and every dog owner at the park helped us. 2 hours later we still couldn't find her, and it was getting really dark. I didn't stop running the entire time, and I even went out to the parkway to see if she could have run out into traffic. My boyfriend ended up running into a woman who said she saw two men with her in their car. At this point, the humane society was no longer open so I couldn't even get a hold of anyone to notify. I spent the entire night (literally) making posters and putting them up all over Ottawa, while my boyfriend made posts on every ottawa blog he could find.

After leaving a million messages with the humane society, I finally got a hold of someone around 10am. Two men apparently took her home because she ran into traffic (which was really far away from the park - I can't even believe she ran that far!!) When they saw her, they opened their car door and she ran and leaped in! When he called me, he started laughing and said "You're dogs sleeping habits kill me!" Apparently she slept with them under the covers all night. They couldn't believe how human she seemed. Anyway, I've never been so thankful in my entire life. Any of you who have dealt with a runaway animal knows how horrible it is. SHe's like a child to us, and it felt like my world was falling apart for 15 hours straight. 

This little bugger is a tough one. After all the stress she's already put us through, it's all worth it. I do need to work on her not running away when bigger dogs bark though. Anyone have any tips on this? Apart from her sickness and runaway scare, Maple is maturing quickly and is such a ball of joy. She gets along so well with all the dogs at the dog park - although she's an instigator and always has about 3 dogs chasing her at a time. She loves the attention. .. Oh, and I forgot to mention when she ran away, it was the ONLY time she didn't have her dog tag on her because she was wearing her new harness. Such a sick coincidence. Anyway, everyone hug their pups tonight. You don't realize how much they change your life for the better until they're gone, or almost gone.

Ros


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## Dubyajay (Apr 9, 2010)

Glad to hear she is safe Ros.


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## Ro-Ro (Aug 30, 2009)

Glad everything turned out okay - so nice that someone helped keep her safe until they could return her to you. I bet that was a horrible night.


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## Big Rick (Apr 14, 2009)

If Maple doesn't already have a microchip it may be time to have one. Dexter has a Home Again chip and Scarlet has the AKC Companion Animal Recovery chip. A couple of weeks ago Scarlet got out of the house without my knowledge and I was made aware of her escape when I received a call from AKC CAR telling me that Scarlet had been found. She was only four houses down but the neighbor use the collar tag to call CAR, gave them her chip number and they called me.

We were certainly glad to know that it works and bless the neighbor for caring.


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## Pineapple Princess (Nov 20, 2009)

Wow, that is so scary but I'm so happy Maple is safe!!! Could have been disastrous.


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## Mercutio (Jan 18, 2010)

It can happen so fast can't it? I had a dog run off on me once because he got a fright but fortunately we were close to home and when I got home he was sitting on the doorstep and absolutely howled when he saw me.

So glad maple got home safely, that would have been an awful night without her.


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