Life Happens: Bear's Grand Adventure

As promised, here is the tale of a terrible weekend in February 2024.

There were a lot of moving parts that weekend. We had gone to a concert and my Mother-in-law rented a car so we could all ride together. We had kenneled Bear for the night to see how he would do and needed to pick him up the next morning. So the next morning we divide and conquer. I go with my sister-in-law and Anna to pick up Bear. After we got him, we would go to Tractor Supply and give him a bath. Finally, we would pick Chris up at the car rental place when we were done.

We picked him up and found out he had done eh. He didn't like all the noise and he wasn't very happy. We continued on with our plan, though cause he needed a bath. We arrive at Tractor Supply and I scope out everything before we take him in. I text Anna, that they can come up, and they start walking towards me. Just as they get to the front door, a HUGE beautiful Black Mastiff steps out the door. Bear stopped and quickly started trying to retreat. He managed to retreat right out of his collar and headed towards our car. A guy started chasing him and Bear took off. There was absolutely nothing we could do to convince him to come back. (For the record the Mastiff behaved perfectly and did not provoke Bear in any way.)

The place where we were was on one of the busiest roads in the area. We were terrified! We tried to follow him, but he is fast, and well, I am not! We lost him pretty quickly and it was as if no one had seen where he went. Anna called Chris to tell him what happened, and had an anxiety attack. Chris couldn't understand what she was trying to say and was terrified. I took the phone and told him what was going on. He ended up catching a taxi to us and we drove around, went into stores, talked to anyone available, went to animal control, and called anyone we could think of. We even called our prayer warriors, because God cares about all of the things in our lives. Chris was determined to find our Bear! He did most of the leg work, while we drove around trying to determine which direction he went. It all began before noon and by 6 we were no closer than we had been. We stopped for dinner and we made some flyers to be printed out. We went back around to businesses to see if they would allow us to hang them. I had given my number to some people we talked to and Chris had given his out as well. It was dark and we were going home empty-handed. That was the longest night of my life!

The next morning, before sunrise, Chris was on his way back to the area. You see, the hardest part was knowing if we did not find him before about 3 that afternoon, we would probably have to leave him there. We needed to get home as we had to work the next day. So Chris was out there trying to retrace steps and determine some course of action. I received a text from someone who said they thought they saw my dog. They were someone I had talked to the day before, and she had gone for her morning walk. She went in the direction I had told her we had been and she said she saw him. Not long after that I received a picture of him from someone else. They said they had seen our flyers and had been looking around. They were not able to get him to come to them, but they told us where they had seen him. He was going into the yard of an abandoned house. They sent me information on what to look for so I sent that to Chris. He was reluctant to go because he wasn't sure what he would find there, but he went. He didn't find Bear. He did start concentrating his search in that area though. He talked to some roofers that said they had seen him near some junk cars. Chris called me when he got to the junk cars. They were behind a fence and he was afraid Bear would get spooked. Bear typically comes to me and Anna better than he does to Chris, so he wanted Bear to hear our voice. He puts me on speaker phone and we don't hear anything for just a bit. I keep calling him and all of a sudden I hear him! I was sitting on my sister-in-laws couch yelling through the phone and tears pouring down my face. Chris had found Bear! Now he just had to get to him. He was trying to figure out how to get Bear over the fence. Bear disappears for a moment and reappears on Chris's side of the fence and jumps into his arms! I wish I could've been there to see it! It was almost exactly 24 hours from the time we lost him, until we found him.

That 24 hour time period I learned a lot! Here are a few of those things:

1. Chip your pets! IF they are taken into animal control, that is the only way you can guarantee that you will be able to find them. That was probably the worst part of our experience. We went there Saturday afternoon and I had been keeping it together because I was driving and because Anna needed my strength. I walk into their place and I start crying. The girl at reception laughs at me! Not cool!!! Then she says we can walk through. He was not there. She then told me they do a 3 day hold for any pet that comes in and then they start testing them to see if they are "safe" to be adopted out. If they show any food aggressions or any other aggressions, they are put down. I am not sure how Bear would react. He isn't aggressive at all, but if he is scared, how would he react? I just don't know and I don't want to find out. He has now been chipped!

2. There are still good people out there! Sometimes I watch the world around me and I do wonder what is happening with humanity. That weekend I knew God placed the people we needed in our path. Almost everyone we talked to was kind to us. People genuinely wanted to help us!

3. Anxiety is real! Remember the anxiety attack I mentioned earlier? It was the first one I had seen in person. I was trying not to have one myself! I was praying my way through it but the struggle was real! If you know someone that struggles with anxiety, just know it is not a crutch. It can really mess with a person. It doesn't mean that they are less than or messed up. They just need a few minutes to catch up and let their brain slow down a little. Give them time!

4. Use a harness! If we had used a harness we could've avoided all of this! It took us almost a full year to get him to stop shaking anytime he heard a lot of traffic! The trauma ran pretty deep for him.

5. We now have a tracker! We don't think he will run again, but just in case we can find him!

6. I am thankful for my people!

7. I am thankful that God protected my baby boy! Yes, I do firmly believe that God protected him. He crossed one of the busiest roads during one of the busiest times of the day. He did not have a scratch on him. Hungry and thirsty but not hurt at all. He was definitely traumatized by his adventure and it really did take us about a year to get past most of it.

Thank you for reading about Bear's adventure. I keep thinking I will write a children's book, like Baby's Day Out. All the different things he could've encountered because we only know a little of what he experienced. If you have a pet lost and found story, I would love to hear it.