05/28/2026
Story Time!! 😱🏃🏻♀️🐾
I started writing this over two weeks ago. Finally, just getting around to finishing it up.
Willow gave me quite a scare! Dropped her off at the breeders for her first date night on 4/30. The next morning when she went out to go potty, timid, sweet Willow, decided to go completely off book 😡 She drug my friend down her outside stairs, making her fall, break her phone, breaking off the corner post light, before escaping. She ran across the street onto farmland and into the woods. She played cat and mouse, but wouldn’t come. I arrived 6 hours later after fighting tunnel closures and Friday traffic for 2 1/2 hours. 🤦🏻♀️ She hadn’t been seen since around 1:30, so Emma and I headed into the woods with Mama Iza while my friend circled the area on her 4wheeler. Ron joined the search after work until dark. My friend hooked me up with snacks, blankets and a couple chairs 🥰 so I could camp out at the edge of the woods where she was last seen. Iza and I walked and called for her throughout the night.
5:30am Saturday I left my camp and went back into the woods searching the area again. Various neighbors had spotted her racing through fields and woods. Thank goodness for hunters and trail cams! She still wouldn’t come Gabi and Ron joined the search with Oakley. At one point we saw her sitting on railroad tracks, Iza spotted her, so we let her go but she ran from us and into a heavy thicket. Iza went in after her, but said no way and came back out. We called until dark again. Between the dogs and our scent all around there, we knew, SHE knew, we were there. Iza went home for much needed recovery and Oakley and I parked in my friend’s driveway for the night. I knew she’d smell my car so I rigged her crate with a rope and put food, her favorite toys, and my dirty clothes in and near it. No sign all night.
Back at it alone Sunday with Oakley. Spotted her yet again, on the railroad tracks. I decided with her constantly spooking and running what I needed to do was just park for the day. So I drove over to the field near the railroad tracks where she had been spotted several times. I put food water and toys in the same spot. Even followed rescuer suggestions of peeing on the tracks, laying down and whispering her name in distress, having Oakley howl to her, and no sight of her for eight hours while I sat there watching. Hopelessness and panic were really sitting in. I drove back to my friend’s house to re-walk all the fields and woods near there. No sign of her. Came back to the house around 6:30pm, took a break to get some water and give Oakley rest while I sat on the steps chatting on the phone.
Out of the blue, Oakley perked up, and I looked up and there she was standing in their driveway next to my car. Knowing she had bolted every single time someone called her name or moved forward to her. I paused at how to approach. I knew she was tired and hungry. I couldn’t hold Oakley back and he wanted to go straight towards her. She ran back across the street. But Oakley cried to her. I slowly walked to her, talking to her quietly and fell to my knees, and she ran back to me and knocked me over with excited kisses. Pretty sure she was crying as hard as I was. 😭☺️
This was such a scary experience with her being in an area she had never been before. It’s amazing how smart these dogs are though. She knew exactly where my friend’s house was and would come back and keep an eye on it from a distance.
Moral of the story, never underestimate how your dog will choose to react in any given situation. 🤦🏻♀️
