Search and Rescue Mission
So this morning, I hear the panicked cry of my daughter (whose hamster Diana just passed away a month ago), “Daddy, Gracie’s not in her cage.”
Gracie joined the family a week after Diana passed away and as she’s so new to the home, we’ve been super careful with her. Or so I thought.
“She’s probably in the lower level (of her cute little triplex apartment.)
“No, she’s not.”
My daughter is pretty accurate at things like this, so I rushed over and found that Gracie was indeed gone. Lo and behold, the habitat was empty. No Gracie.
I checked the lock on the little “petting zone” at the top of the cage. It was not locked. The little critter had just pushed the door and walked out.
Oh no, I thought. We can’t lose another hamster. The door had been shut, so there was no way she’d gotten out of the room, but I searched around nonetheless.
“All right,” I said to my daughter, “You’re going to be late for school and I still have to pack your lunch. Get yourself ready, and I’ll be back to search. Nobody open this door!”
Off we went to our duties. I did the quickest lunch packing ever, then rushed up to the room with my flashlight.
My wife, who was going to drive my daughter to school even came into the room to help.
Tempting Gracie with the sound of food in her bowl, she finally came out of hiding–behind a huge bookshelf that I could not move without risking killing her. After a few failed attempts, I grabbed Gracie in my hand, and this time she didn’t squirm and run off. She recognized my grip and relaxed, allowing me to carry her back to her cage.
Mission accomplished.
I was even able to tell my daughter that we got Gracie back before she left for school.
This was the second recent scare with losing a pet. Last year we thought we lost our beloved Kangadog. Thank God they were both found before too long. When I was a child, my cat had been lost and never seen again. I remember how heartbroken I’d felt as a kid in elementary school, so I have a soft spot for kids and their pets.
Have you ever lost a pet, and had them returned? What were those hours/days before they were found like for you? Please share in the comments section below.
Joshua Graham is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, winner of the International Book Award and Forward National Literature Award. His thrillers include DARKROOM, LATENT IMAGE and BEYOND JUSTICE, and TERMINUS. Graham's works have been characterized as thought-provoking page-turners.
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I have had several pets lost. I lost a hamster once, only to be found a few days later. The cat was playing with it. Bye Bye hamster.
The worst one was when we lost our daughter’s dog. He had slipped out of the back yard and we were supposed to fly out of town later that day. We tried every trick we knew to find him but none worked. I called the local police to let them know we had a missing dog. Then we sat. Luckily, two hours later, the police called to tell us a neighbor had rounded our dog up. Those two hours were terrible though. I kept thinking what would we do if the dog wasn’t back before we had to leave for our flight? I was so glad he was found and I didn’t have to make that decision, let me tell you!
Melinda
I know how you feel. For us, at least we were home, when our dog went missing. But when I heard the coyotes yipping outside, I feared the worst.
I am so bad at using my phone to send messages…. ;( I thought I already did… Let me know if I am so social media illiterate that it is here and I can not see it or I did not figure out how to make it post… 😀
You’re doing just fine, Cathy. Your comment showed up fine. Have you ever had a pet go missing, though?
I have very lovable although not too bright, pure bred Siamese cat, who likes to, on occasion, bolt for the door when it opens, and one particularly trying day, that turned into FIVE DAYS, he dashed out. We searched and searched, put flyers in mailboxes, tried everything to find him. Neighbours, around about the third day, said he was around the house during the day when we were at work, but he never came home when we were in. On the fifth evening, when we were starting to think he would never come back, I happened to hear a meowing outside, in the shrubs under our front window, and after A LOT of treats, and slow movements, we managed to grab him. He is a small cat, but he had lost 2 pounds of his 8 pound weight, he was skinny, dirty, hungry and terrified, but we were so glad to have him back!
That must have been awful. Great that he returned. Did he vintage building for the door after that experience? Gracie had become emboldened new to leap from my hands, which makes her less than predictable now. 🙂 Oh well.