Ok, my black lab is ancient. Average life span for a lab is 12-13 years. He's 16. He is partially blind, about 1/2 deaf or more, is missing a couple of teeth, has a bad right rear wheel...name is Lucky. Just kidding on the name part...
So Sunday night I let him outside at 9:30 pm to do his business to reduce the risk of me having to do cleanup in the morning (he's old). He struggled to get up and squeezed too hard and ended up shatting himself...right in front of the couch my wife was sitting on. So I get the dog out and get the evidence cleaned up.
He's old, has a bad wheel, etc so I give him his usual 20 minutes. No dog. No big deal, how far can he go? and takes his time now since his nose still works. Anyway, it's now 10:20 pm and the opportunity to get lucky has passed since I'm still waiting for the dog. I go outside and walk around the house. No dog. WTF!?!? He couldn't stand up, where is he? So now I get my snow boots on since the grass is soaking wet and it's 45 degrees outside and grab a flashlight. I walk the entire property...no dog. I go over the berm splitting my yard from the 5 acres behind me. Nothing. I check the ditches. Nothing. No signs of a dog being hit in the roads.
Now it's 10:45 pm. I get in my car and run the neighborhood. Nothing. Dog is gone. I check a nearby woods that he has gone bumming into about 3 years go. Nothing. Around 11:15 pm I give up and am concerned my dog is out there with a bad leg dying somewhere. Basically, I finally get to sleep around 3 am as I keep thinking my buddy is dead and I wonder if I will be able to find his body for closure.
Once morning hits and it's light out, I'm out again looking for him. I'm checking under pine trees where finding a black dog at night would be near impossible. Nothing. An email I sent out at 1 am yielded a neighbor several doors down replying saying her dogs were barking like mad around 10:15 pm. There is a trail to nature areas behind their lot. So I head down that way after getting the wife and kids out.
Long hike down into wetlands, etc. Finally on one trail on my way back through common subdivision property, I see a canine paw print in the mud that was made since the last rain and is about his size. I'm head in the same direction. I eventually find myself looking around a pond and into the sun. I see a black object moving... It looks like a turkey moving it's head up and down to eat. I discount it and am ready to move on when the movement just isn't quite like a turkey. Then on the wind I can barely hear a howl of a dog. I head that way an it's him! He is in a wetland area that is very uneven ground. He's not laying in water, but his feet were. His bad leg had given out and he fell and couldn't get back up. He's shivering from being out all night in a damp 45 degrees (was foggy part of the night).
Long story... I end up carrying his 70 lb ass out of the wetlands. I finally make it to a neighbor's yard and set him down. He sort walks. But he keeps heading back. Not in his right mind. I get out to the cul-de-sack. But it's at the far end of the subdivision. H can't walk it. It's the proverbial 1/2" mile and uphill. I end up carrying him for about 70 yards and then have to stop. I finally call a neighbor with a pickup and he agrees to give me a ride back. SO I set him up on the tailgate and away we go.
After getting him water and some food, he passes out on the carpet and stops shivering by the time I'm out of the shower. So my dog is back. I don't know how much time he has left as his leg is bad. He's doing better this morning and it helps I built a ramp for the two steps in the garage last night. Course, I was wondering how much time he has left starting 2 years ago.
I would have posted this yesterday, but I was running on 2 hours of sleep. Not much thinking going on!
But my bud is back for now.
