"The Day My Heart Stopped Beating"

It was this past Wednesday morning around 7:45. My husband had arrived overnight with our two new house guests. Razz a mighty miniature pincher and Roxanne a beautiful sweet-loving miniature Schnauzer.

They belong to my sister-in-law who is recovering from surgery in New York, so I agreed to look after her beloved pets while she recuperates.

Rodney got up early Wednesday to let the dogs out including my Velvet, a miniature poodle. A few minutes later he returns with a look of horror on his face saying the "dogs" are gone! What do you mean they're gone, we have a fence I said. Please tell me their collars were on when you let them out? Yes, he replied but they have no name tags with phone numbers.

I scramble out of bed, hair not done, no makeup, not stopping to brush my teeth, grabbing a miss-matched sweatsuit and headed straight for the car. Rodney searches our neighborhood, knocking on doors, while I decide to patrol a development behind ours.

We search frantically, calling their names to no avail. I literally stopped breathing with thoughts of how to tell a woman who's in the hospital that I've lost her most beloved possessions, "her children!" I notice people are beginning to stare as I continue casing the neighborhood, I wonder if they'll call police saying a strange woman is lurking in their backyards and yelling out loud to herself. If I had stopped to think about it for a moment, I must have looked quite ridiculous, but there was no time to care about that.

As I headed home with my head held low, I couldn't believe my eyes, two dogs darted out in front of my car, Its "Razz and Roxanne!" I spring from the car and yell for them, Roxanne immediately runs towards me and jumps in the front seat, but Razz takes off in the opposite direction heading into the near-by metro-park.

He's so tiny, I lose sight of him as I drive around screaming his name, calling Rodney on my cell to come help search near the park. He tells me to head home and get Roxanne's leash, thinking she'll be able to lure him out of the park.

I arrive home, pull into the drive and I see the most beautiful sight I think I've ever seen...Razz is at the front gate trying to figure out how to get back in to the gate!

How could this be? How could a dog who just arrived at a new house hours earlier find his way home? I didn't care about the answers, my nightmare was over, I could finally "breathe" again.