Lost and Found

Thursday night, Dan and I lost our first child.

Our beagle, Ollie.



This is our four year old beagle, Ollie.





It was possibly the scariest, saddest, guiltiest, helpless we have both felt in a looooong time. Here is what happened:

We were having Young Life leadership at our house, and Ollie started to get a little hyper, as he always does when he is surrounded by large groups of people, especially if they are not paying any attention to him. So Dan let him outside into our back yard, which is fenced-in, but also borders a major highway.

 

 

An hour (or two) later, after people had begun to leave, we decided to let Ollie back in the house. But there was a problem--Ollie was not in the back yard anymore! Now, I don't know how much you know about beagles, but they have a VERY strong sense of smell, and we had been warned that many beagles are hit by cars because they hone in on a scent and lose track of what is happening around them. So, of course, we both immediately assume the worst. Luckily for us, there were about 12 leaders still at our house who were more than willing to help us search for the lost pup.

We armed the search parties with flashlights and then sent them out in various directions around our neighborhood. Oh yeah, and this all was happening at around 11:00 at night. Dan, assuming the worst, decided to hop the fence and walk along the highway to see if there were any signs of Ollie. Our house sits approximately a quarter of a mile from the exit ramp, at which lies a Speedway gas station, a Harley Davidson dealer, and La Quinta hotel. Dan walked all the way around these establishments and began making his way back towards our house, with no sign of Ollie.

 

And unfortunately, no one else spotted him either. After an hour and a half or so of searching, we decided to pause the search until the morning and thanked all of the leaders who stayed to help look. At that point, Dan and I were feeling pretty exhausted but also pretty upset. We knew we had to do something else. We called the non-emergency police line, printed up some "Lost Pet" flyers and posted them all around our town, and created a "Lost" ad on Craigslist. Finally, we decided we would just have to wait until the morning to do anything more.

 

The next morning, Dan woke up before me to drive around to the local vet offices and animal hospitals in order to give them Ollie's information. When he returned, the anguish he was feeling was so evident on his face. I figured there had to be SOMEONE we hadn't contacted yet, so I googled "Lost Pet" and the number for our local humane society came up. I clicked on the link, called the number, and a woman answered the phone. I told her that I wanted to report our pet as missing. She asked me what kind of pet it was, and I told her it was a beagle named Ollie. She replied with, "From Clark County?"

 

Now, here is an example of the responsible pet owners Dan and I are. We have lived here for a month and Ollie still has his old tags from where we used to live.

 

I could barely speak; I felt like I was going to cry. I had no idea before Ollie was missing how much I really enjoyed having him around. I think, though, that it made me more sad to think about Jonah and how much he would miss having Ollie around.

 

So the woman at the humane society told us that he was found at La Quinta hotel near our house. She gave us the name and number of the woman to call who had Ollie. After giving her a quick call, Dan hopped in his car to go pick up Ollie from the hotel.

 

When he arrived, the woman behind the desk, Joyce, said she had enjoyed spending the night with Ollie. Apparently the hotel is a pet-friendly hotel, so when Ollie followed some customers in, the hotel clerks did not think twice about it. However, when Ollie didn't follow them into the elevator, that is when they knew this dog did not have an owner staying in the hotel. So, Ollie checked himself in to his first (pet-friendly) hotel, snacked on Milk Bones all night, and made a few new friends. I'd say he did pretty well--he may even be able to keep up with Sassy, Chance, and Shadow (who's with me??).

 

Loosing Ollie was so scary, but finding him was so incredible. I can't help but think about how the Lord must feel when we finally decide to follow him. Like Ollie, our noses take us on these grand adventures, sometimes dangerous paths along scary highways, and we may even end up somewhere grand, like a pet-friendly hotel! But what is all of that worth, if we don't have anyone who loves and cares for us, and wants to give us a place to call home? Dan and I know Ollie better than anyone else, just like Jesus knows us better than anyone else. Just think of the adventures we can have if we choose to follow him.

Thanks for reading.