MISSING!!!

As I sit here on this rainy Saturday morning, eating cold pizza for breakfast, our Elly dog has been missing for more than 29 hours. My hubby let the dogs out to potty yesterday morning and Elly did not return with Barkley. Hubby later found a hole in the fence.

Elly will leave the yard, but she is a homebody and has always returned very quickly. She doesn't like to be outside for long stretches of time if it's hot or raining. She likes to lay down after her drink of water and cool off. I guess it's all of that thick, black hair.

She has a slight limp in her right back leg at the moment. It started when I was in CA and was much worse then. I think it started on the weekend (when our vet is closed) and by Monday had started to improve, so hubby decided not to take her in to have it checked out. I keep thinking that she and Barkley ran around enough to aggravate that leg and she was limping more. Then she was probably either hit by a car on the highway or someone stopped and picked her up because she looked injured. We have driven up and down the highway, about 7 miles in each direction and don't see her. The problem is that there is a lot of tall grass this time of year because of the wildflowers growing. Most of it won't be mowed until the flowers have gone to seed.

Elly being hit by a car is the worse case scenario, but if we could find her body, we'd at least know what happened. The other possibility, someone picking her up -- at that time of morning, the only people I can think of driving down the highway would be going to work, travelers or truckers. I can't imagine anyone being able to take her to work. If she was picked up by someone traveling or a trucker, then Lord only knows where she is by now.

I've called the Humane Societies around here and a neighbor who rides horses and asked him to keep an eye out for her. We'll call the newspapers and put an ad in and we'll put up fliers. At this point, all we can do really, is hope. I've got a headache from worry and I'm so sad I can't even believe it. She's a loud, bossy thing, but sweet as can be. I love her and miss her. Hug your pets today and give them a little treat.