... and found!

Obviously I have found my dog. I feel kind of over dramatic now that I have him back. Yesterday in the space of the 6.5 hours that he was lost , I called the animal control, the 2 vets in Heber, had my friend Angie call the police to see if anyone reported hitting a dog (I couldn't do that one myself), wasted about 1/4 tank of gas in my jeep, went on 2 LONG walks, Dallas went on a bike ride, we printed up and put up 25 fliers, I posted on here just to make sure I was doing everything that I possibly could, and we went for another bike ride (in which we found him). I have caught someone trying to take him out of my yard before, so I was worried that was what happened. I figured if we started out early we would have a better chance of finding him, right? Now I kind of just feel like a freak... so, here's the story:

On our final bike ride we were going to turn around because we had Will and McKenzie and they were both saying they were "all done" and trying to climb out. I said we would just go up this last street. On that street there were some kids playing and I asked them if they had seen a dog. They said they had, and showed me where. There was a fence that was crossing a creek (the same one that runs by my house), and you could walk underneath the fence through the creek. So, Dallas waited and I just jumped in the creek and waded on up. Behind the fence on one side was a small garden with some stalks of corn, and on the other was a bunch of old cars and garbage (it literally looked like a dump back there).

When I was calling for Scooter I heard a little yelp. I called Dallas and told him to find a babysitter for the kids and to come back and help me look through all the garbage. I thought maybe something had fallen on him and he was trapped. I kept calling his name and walking up and down the creek to find where I could hear the yelp- that's when I turned around and looked in the little corn field. There was a white raccoon cage, and there was something in it- Scooter! I was beyond ecstatic. I called Dallas back and told him to stay home and that I would be back in a minute. I had to knock on the old man's door whose trap it was to help me get him out.

He was such a mess, but I was so glad I found him. When I rode back home with him following me (he was just on the other side of the block from our house), Will saw him and just ran to him saying his name. It was so cute! All afternoon he kept saying "Where'd Scooter go?" and carrying around one of the posters that we made with Scooter's picture on it. (That made me even more sad when he was lost). I gave him a bath and he drank a ton of water. We were able to relax after that and have a fun night with Will and McKenzie watching the Olympics. (Yay for Men's Gymnastics, Misty May-Treanor and Kerry Walsh, and Michael Phelps!!!)