Ups and Downs

This week has been filled with some truly wonderful things, and some that well, I will put it to you straight, stinky things! We celebrated Alexis' 3rd birthday on Saturday evening. We had a blast, and so did our princess. Sunday rolled along. The kids and I drug our tired butts out of bed, that is the least we could do for God, and headed to church. Church was great. We headed home and relaxed the rest of the day. Evening came and went. By evening things started to go south. We have a beautiful Siberian Husky named Zoey. Zoey is an outside dog for the most part. She eats, sleeps, and rests in our heated and cooled garage. She would spend more time in the house, but she keeps trying to befriend an unfriendly skunk (I think it is a pack of skunks). Anyways, she is good about staying right by our house. Late evening started to roll around and no Zoey. My husband and I yelled, clapped, honked the car horns, drove around, and no Zoey. We stayed up until 1:00 am (well I did). No Zoey. Monday rolled around. No Zoey. My husband and I took turns searching our woods and the nearby offroad park. No Zoey. Monday night I listed her as missing with Home Again. Zoey had a chip implanted by her breader when she was a puppy. That chip has a number on it that is exclusive to her. If the chip is scanned by a vet or shelter it would tell the person who the dog belonged to. I also made flyers and sent a very sad e-mail to the breeder we got her from. In the meantime our children had noticed. Our daughter refers to Zoey as her pal. Lexi kept asking me where her pal was. I kept fighting off tears and telling her I was not sure. In the wee hours of Tuesday morning the tears could no longer be held back. As I sat at 1:30 am in the kitchen with a left over piece of birthday cake, I sobbed. I sobbed for the loss of our dog. I sobbed for our kids who had lost their pet. I sobbed for all the times I ranted and raved about our dog. Like the time she drug my margarita machine in the front yard and ate it. Then she procedded to find the margarita mix, eat the cap off, and threw herself a little fiesta. I sobbed for jumping up and down and throwing a fit like a 2 year old because she ate something else. I sobbed because of guilt. I just sobbed. I love our Zoey, but there have been times I could have pulled my hair out. Everyone has those moments. They have them about their kids, their husbands, their friends, their pets, or anyone who has every come in contact with them and did something to drive them batty. I have had those moments with Zoey, but that did not mean I loved her less or wanted her to go away forever. Well, the night finally eneded, but the sobbing did not. Tuesday came and it was Alexis' birthday. The first thing she asked me was if her pal came home. As I told her no my heart broke into a million pieces. Later that morning I called the breeder to make sure she got my e-mail. While I was on the phone Alexis came into the room. She told me that she wanted her pal for her birthday present. Well, as you can imagine I became hysterical. I was crying out of control. I am sure the breeder thinks I am nuts, but if she would have seen our 3 year old with her wild curly bed head and Tinkerbell pajamas she would understand. Alexis and I spent the afternoon hanging fliers about our missing pal. Well, she is still missing. We have hung fliers, called vets, called shelters, went door to door, and still no Zoey. Alexis has asked about her pal at least 25 times today. I went to the doctor this morning and the nurse who was checking me in asked me how I as doing? Alexis told her "My pal Zoey is gone. I miss her. Someone took her" IT WAS AWFUL. The poor nurse was speechless. I explained who Zoey is. We all shared a moment. Brent, our oldest who was sent home with a fever today, prayed for Zoey at dinner once again. He is heartbroken. We are heartbroken. I turned on all of our outside lights on again tonight and left the door open to the garage in hopes in the morning  I would be gagged with the smell of skunk and she would be laying on her bed. We will see. I will pray once again for God to keep her safe and allow her to find her way back home. I will pray for strength to be able to deal with 25 more questions about Zoey from our children tomorrow. I will pray. Here are some pictures of our pal. Zoey we miss you and love you. Please come home!