D-Day: A Day to Forget

One would think that after experiencing the worst earthquake to hit the state in over 20 years things couldn't get worse, right? .... wrong! ..... Remember Murphy and his $*&$@! laws and corollaries ? Well they are just as reliable as taxes and death.

Last night we experienced what we now know was a most unusual mother of all storms. I didn't think it was physically possible for so much water to come out of the sky. Even in the lightning strike it outdid Tucson's best lightning storm by a long stretch. How bad was it? in Tucson we used to get 12 inches of rain in one year, last night we were getting 4 inches of rain per hour! And the lightning strikes were up there in that same ballpark. Well the girls had a horrible time dealing with the lightning and thunder (I think C and I did too, but we're too proud to admit it). Rain started at around 6:30 PM and went on non-stop until about 3AM. I've heard that we got somewhere around 27 inches of rain in that one night! Even the locals say that they had never seen anything like it!

Well, that was not the worst part. This morning as C and Hana were getting ready to go to school and work (Hana to school, C to work) we noticed that Dee was nowhere to be found..... C took off and I told her I would find her (Syd has been home since Thursday with a returning slight fever, as if all the other stuff wasn't enough).

Called the next door neighbor's to see if she had decide to go and have a sleep over and the neighbor told me the following: "it's not good, Blane (another neighbor) saw a black dog with a purple collar (Dee's description) laying by the side of the road this morning as he took his dog on a walk". I felt my heart drop to my knees. Told Syd to wait for a moment in the house, I got in the truck and went out to find the dog.

Found nothing. Went over to the neighbor's house to ask again and said that yes this morning Blane had told him about the dog. I asked him if it had been hit by a car and he said that no, it looked like it just had died by the side of the road. I asked him " was the dog dead?" and he said sadly "yes". So my worst fears were confirmed. Drove back home to find Syd already imagining the worst (these kids have super powers or something to sense things). I told her Dee had died last night. Then I called C to tell her and she was at Hana's school dropping her off, so Hana got a load of the news as well.

At that point it was a nightmare. I was trying to explain my 9 year old daughter that her dog, that had been in the family for over 10 years was now in a happier place, where she would never be hungry or sick or tired or cold or hot.... you know, dog's heaven! she would always have big bones with mucho meat on them and she would always be looking after her. But, the tears in her eyes, the pain in her face and the sorrow in her voice we more than I was prepared to take, so I broke down and for the first time in many years, I sat there and cried with her. Not only for the loss of our beloved dog, but also from seeing the suffering in her and not being able to do anything about it. Kids should not go through stuff like this!

After that the neighbor came over and offer to go and look for Dee. I had driven the stretch several times with no luck. Perhaps the other neighbor's dog had sniffed her and she was not "by the side of the road" after all but in the bushes. I caught up with him and no luck. He said perhaps Blane took her to the humane society to see if anyone would claim her, that's the kind of thing he would do.

The storm had knocked the phone down at the Humane Society so I went there to file a missing dog report. Drove back to keep looking for Dee and found the neighbor with Blane's wife who had some new information. Turns out Blane had seen the dog laying by the side of the road when he headed out and "thought" it was dead, and when he headed back the dog was gone.....At this point I had a mixed feeling of relief, hope, and total rage......

As I write this entry down. We've driven all around HPP, gone to the Humane Society three times, posted flyers all over the place, and there is no sign of Dee. We are physically and emotionally exhausted. There is still some hope that we will find good ol' Dee, scared, hungry and tired.

Sorry not to have any better news today to post. But if you happen to come across an old Black Lab Mix sweet lady dog, with a purple collar around her neck, approach her, call her Dee, if she responds (call her loud, because she's a bit deaf) take care of her and call us, we'd love to have her back home.

Thank you all.....