Catching Fire - The Day Lily Got Lost..

Monday afternoon I got a text from a friend saying - is your place okay? I saw on the news that a building in your complex is on fire and they have rescued a dog. I immediately felt the drop in my stomach - called the main office to ask which building to have it confirmed that it was mine and that I should come home NOW.


I of course called my parents who headed over right away. Upon arrival I was told my place was okay - it had started at the back of the building, there would be some water damage but the fire had not reached my unit. I then went to look for Lily. They said she had been taken out and everyone was pointing to an area with animals saying - she's over there, she's ok.


But I didn't see her. I just remember saying - she's not there... But, was still told - not sure by who, she is  - she's ok. Until finally it was set straight that the dog in the crate was my neighbors not mine, others who knew my dog started in on the story. They tried to keep hold of her, but no one had a leash.... and she loosened her way free.


See, Lily is my rescue dog. What happened to her before we got her I do not know. But, she is hesitant of people she does not know (to say the least) - and to have firemen and who knows how many other people coming at her at once was too much. I can only imagine her panic - her only escape was to run.


And then, I cried.... well, continued to cry. I had already been crying on my way to the house thinking about the possibility that everything was gone. Trying to be positive that maybe it wasn't and that even if it was it would be okay. Morgan's pictures hit me - that was the one thing I would mourn the most (that and her baby memory container).


I did not blame anyone for letting Lily out - they were helping her. But, she was gone. We spent that night looking - I looked, my family looked, Bob came by before picking up Morgan and helped look - but by nightfall nothing. I woke up a couple of times at night thinking I heard her - but it wasn't.  So, the next day we looked and looked again - people walked around trails and stayed up until 2 a.m. the night before looking for her (John - who appeared to be casing neighborhoods at that hour).


We asked neighbors / anyone in the neighborhood - some of whom had seen the news report (lily made the news) and they would respond - "the dog on the news!" - one lady said she had walked around that afternoon to see if she could find her. More people looking for Lily (the dog on the news).


All to no avail. Until, a neighbor came running up saying she saw Lily crossing a nearby street. She happened to be at the very busy intersection (luckily) and said she honked her horn at traffic so they would see Lily and not hit her. They tried to follow - but she bolted. While they did not have her, they had seen her, and they had a general area - and that was progress in my mind. I drove around calling her - still nothing.


Around that same time - school called saying Morgan did not feel well (of course - it rains, it pours right) - I would never mind picking her up, I just wanted to delay it to try and find Lily first and not have to tell her that she was missing. My mom picked her up and as soon as she was home I had to tell her. The story of the fire did not bother her (more than likely because our place is in tact) but the minute I said Lily got loose she bawled. She kept asking when she would be home, and how would we find her, and what if a driver did not see her.


In that moment I provided hope - at the time what I clinged onto would be true, but also knowing I may not be able to deliver. I told her that we were looking, that lots of people were looking, my mom mentioned Lily was on the news - and that made her smile. After a short while she looked at me and said, Mama when are you going to look for Lily? I said, in just a minute - to which she looked at me and said, Mama we NEED to go NOW!


She got on her shoes, grabbed some snacks (to make it known she was going too) and we headed out to the car. She was my right hand side lookout - I was her desperate left. We returned to the street Lily had last been seen at, but this time I drove around the back of the industrial buildings that are there. There was an area that faced the start of the neighborhood houses and had bushes and such. I called her name and did her recall noise*. We waited a minute and nothing. Just as I started to back up Morgan yelled - Mama - Lily!!!!!!  And there she was - just having jumped out of the bushes staring at us like - "is it you, is it really  you???" And, us staring back with the same expression.


I jumped out of the car and we opened the door to let her in. I think I exuded to much excitement at first - so she would not come over to us. But I stood up calmly and gave her the hand motion plus her "let's go" command and over she came. Before she jumped in she stopped for a mama + dog pet session (because I am not her owner I am her person mama - ha ha). When I looked up at Morgan she had tears coming down her face - she was so happy to have her back. 


Needless to say in that moment I forgot all of my past frustrations of Lily ownership. Is she perfect - no. Does she come with scars - literally and figuratively - yes. But, is she our imperfectly perfect dog / family member - yes!  And she is HOME!!!!


Home is just fine too. We have some water damage from when the fire upstairs was put out (it had begun to lurch over the roof toward our side of the building). So some ceiling will have to come down in a bathroom and maybe parts of the wall(s). But overall we are the most unaffected in our section of the building. Grateful / thankful / blessed / fortunate does not even begin to cover it...  




The standard Sara side notes: :-)


* The recall noise - this was probably our saving grace. When I took Lily to puppy training the instructor taught us the recall noise - any noise you like. I can't whistle so I came up with this high pitch trilling sound. It works every time, and luckily when we needed it to work the most it did. So - thank you thank you  thank you to Jana our instructor and to Lily for learning her recall command.


** The title of this post (a short side story)... When we were back in the house Monday night my dad looked over at the counter and saw my new book "Catching Fire" - I literally had just brought it home Sunday night to start reading it. He said something to the effect of the unfortunate coincidence of that - I now stare at that book and as much as I was wanting to read it - it's kind of hard to pick up the darn thing now.  


*** And, I will from here forward be establishing a different Morgan memory / photo storage plan + back up.... With all the storage options I really have no excuse - luckily I get a second chance.