The Embarrassed Dog

I did not get home until after 7:30 tonight and it was very dark.  It took a couple of minutes before I realized a dog was missing - the most irritating one.  Jake was gone.  There had been a lot of activity at the building site today - a lot of dirt work and more big equipment parked around in the dark.  I called and called for Jake but there was no sign of him. 

I drove up the road in both directions, calling for him.  The horses came running to the gate because if I come to the gate at night it normally means pears or apples or peppermints.  I was empty handed.  I told them they should blame Jake.

I could hear my neighbor's dog barking and wondered if Jake had left home due to all of the commotion and strange people here today.  I wondered if I had run over him in the dark and he had dragged himself away to die.  (I am such an optimist!)  I was beginning to feel very bad about the situation.  I was happy that my last encounter with him had been a kind one, when I actually petted his head and told him he was a good boy even though it was not true.  Despite the fact that every day I am irritated with that dog, I knew if he were truly gone, I was going to be a very sad old lady.

After a half hour of calling, I drove the car up to the barn so I could use the car lights to see if he was hiding in the hay.  He was not there and the horses behaved as if there were no animals at all in their vicinity.  I came in the house to check the phone for messages, thinking if Jake had been run over by some of the big machinery today, Dan the builder would probably have at least left a message about it.  No messages.  Then, out of the blue, I got the idea to check if the nitwit had fallen into the crawl space of the new house and could not get out.  Sure enough, when I called to him from the edge of the new foundation, I heard the tiny, faint whine of an embarrassed dog.  I had to get the car to have enough light to not break my neck walking over the uneven ground to the "window" in the foundation wall.  Jake was waiting for me.  I had to haul him out by his collar because there was just no other way but it did not seem to bother him.  He was ecstatic and I was greatly relieved.  Duke was not too happy about it but what could he do?  It was a round of milk bones for the canines and a big piece of chocolate for me. 

I hope Jake just fell in and did not follow some wild critter into the hole.  If there is a wild animal trapped in the crawl space, the construction guys will have to deal with it.  Hopefully Jake learned his lesson.


Even though it is a bad photo, you can see why I was sad Jake was missing tonight.