Where, Oh Where, Did Our Little Dog Go?

Last night was a crazy night in our house. Troy went to the temple, I took the boys to baseball, and one of my friends met me there with her kids so she could go visiting teaching. I left the house in a hurry, thinking oh we will be back in an hour, the dog will be fine outside, not realizing that we going to have thunderstorms come in while I was gone.

I ended up staying and talking to my friend for about an hour after practice and during this time the thunderstorms started rolling in. When I got home, Tipper was no where to be found. It is not uncommon for her to get out of the backyard when it is dark, but she usually just goes to the front porch and lays under the bench. I got the boys in bed and then went and walked all around the backyard and up and down our street, no sign of Tipper.

Troy gets home, he looks for her he can't find her. We had some huge storms come through last night, and I was hoping that Tipper would find her way home, but she never did. I know that I have probably wished this upon myself. We have had her for 8 years, and we were told she about 7 years old when we got her. She can't hear, is having a hard time walking so we can't take her on the family walks anymore, she won't stop scratching herself so she can't where a collar because she will scratch herself raw around the collar, she won't let the boys play with her anymore so she spend most of her time either outside or in our closet hiding. I have been telling Troy that it is time for her to move on, this is a miserable existences that she has. But now I feel bad that she ran away during a thunderstorm, and who knows where she is. When I was teenager we had a dog run away during a thunderstorm, and I have always felt bad about that.

We have placed ads on the Savannah blogs for her, but right now she has been gone over 24 hours, and the boys haven't mentioned her once. That is really sad, she has been a member our family the longest, and yet has become the most unnoticed. I don't know how I feel about this right now, I am sad that she is gone, especially knowing that she was scared when she ran away. Part of me is thinking - the boys haven't noticed that she is gone. Would it be more traumatic for them to realize in a couple of weeks that she is gone and they haven't missed her, or to find her and have the boys deal with her dying in the future.