Last night Buzz went to take his mother dinner while I was cleaning and doing laundry and Evan was bagging up cans that have accumulated for months (we told him he could have the money if he would take care of them - turned out to be $120!) and the raccoons have torn the original bags they were in, and I went to feed the dogs, and Grendel (our male four-year-old basset hound who was rescued from the side of a road headed for the interstate as a puppy having been dumped off, I'm sure) was gone! Nowhere! I looked all over the house and then realized that Evan had been going in and out the side door getting duct tape and such for the bagging. I put two and two together and realized that he may have left the door open, and Grendel escaped off to see the world of wild pigs and cars. So we frantically searched the road, calling and calling (I immediately - I mean IMMEDIATELY got larengitis - what's up with that?!), but no Grendel. I called Buzz to come home and help search. Evan and I got in my car and Buzz got into his and we drove and drove. I had a knot in my stomach every time we got out on the highway, expecting to see him lying by the road. We found out there is a huge trailer park on the land in back of us that we had no idea existed - maybe hurricane victims. One time we saw a dog that looked like him and got excited, but when we got closer we realized it was a beagle who was barking shyly all at once. Every now and then we'd go back home (which we had lit up like a football game with all our outside lights on) to check to see if he had come home. I even got our other basset, Ginger, to howl so maybe Grendel would hear her and come toward the sound. I had no idea if he could find his way home if he wandered off very far. Evan was beside himself, and I felt bad cause at first I scolded him for leaving the door open (like he and his friends do quite often), but then I realized that Grendel might very well meet a bad end or not come back, and he would feel terrible. It WAS an accident. I tried to soften the blow, telling him about all the times other dogs had gotten out and had finally shown up back home, and that once a friend of mine had left the door open at my dad's house years ago and let my dad's dog out (which never came back but I omitted that). He still was upset. We searched and searched for three hours into the night.

Then I came back to the house and left Evan there to call and watch for Grendel and went back out on the road. Buzz said he was going to continue searching all night if need be. I kept thinking that we found him by the road and now, a little over four years later, would lose him the same way. We both drove and drove, slowly looking and careful not to run over him if he ran out into the road. I found roads I did not know existed and even talked to a couple of people who thought I might be an intruder, but everyone was nice, but no Grendel. I went home to make a pit stop. Ginger was in the yard whining and whimpering. As I walked by our "attic" door from our bedroom I heard a whine. It sounded so close. I opened the door but nothing. The staircase is extremely steep. Grendel had followed me up there once and got so freaked out trying to come down that he sort of fell down the stairs. He would NEVER go up there again, although he would stand at the foot of the stairs if I went up there and bark at me, while looking sort of freaked out (like he does toward the vacuum clearner, that EVIL vacuum cleaner). No Grendel. I heard the whine again, but thought it was probably Ginger but it sounded so CLOSE. I opened the door again and there was Grendel peeping around the corner at the top of the stairs. A flood of relief swept over me. I called Evan who immediately went up the stairs and started loving on Grendel, freaking him out. "What is WRONG with these people?!" I'm sure he was thinking. I called Buzz on his cell phone. "He's upstairs." "(Expletive!)" But I knew he was happy. We all went up the stairs and hovered over Grendel, petting him, hugging him, exclaiming over him till he was totally freaked out. He was shaking and crying. I guess he had been hearing us shout his name for hours, but he couldn't come down the stairs. Buzz finally picked him up (even though Grendel growled at him and peed all over his pants) and carried him down the stairs.

Last night I woke up several times and felt for Grendel lying on the bed with us. He always sleeps with us. Driving around earlier I had thought what it was going to be like reaching to pet him in the dark and he wouldn't be there. But there he was... peaceful and sleeping, having had no adventure whatsoever except to be stuck up in the attic.

All over a dog!