If you’re with me on Facebook you probably know about Annie. Annie is the pet of our former neighbors, Glenn and Margie. An open door while a worker was in the house let her escape unnoticed.
Like most pups, Annie is a member of the family. Her loss was a shock. Glenn and Margie were beside themselves wondering how to find her and get her back.
They started getting the word out as soon as Annie was gone. My post, multiplied by all of you who shared it, was one method. They also had flyers printed and posted around town.
For the first two days, nothing. Then sporadic sightings, all in Hamden and within a few miles of their home.
As soon as a sighting came in they’d rush out to look and to slip flyers in mailboxes. Margie said it began to feel like they were “chasing a ghost.”
Over 700 flyers were distributed. They didn’t give up, but over time the trail started to grow cold. No calls Friday or Saturday.
Then, Sunday another sighting. Another scramble. Another dead end.
They drove home.
That’s where they were around 8:30 when Glenn looked at their back door and saw Annie, her tail wagging! Unbelievable, isn’t it?
How did she find her way back? Annie’s not saying.
It’s obvious she’d been through a lot. Her paw pads are worn, one cut. There’s a rash on her belly. She was caked in dirt and four pounds lighter than when she left. So far they’ve removed at least a dozen ticks.
The vet has looked her over today and prescribed some antibiotics. Annie will be fine.
After nine days if you’d asked me the chances of Annie being found, I’d have said slim… maybe none. The ratio of missing to found dogs can’t be good. And yet she’s happily home.
It doesn’t happen often enough. We don’t get enough fairytale endings. We’ve got one here!
The pilot came on from the cockpit to tell us thunderstorms around Atlanta were going hold us up. It would be an hour until he found out when we’d be!” And, since the gate was needed for another plane, he’d drive to a quiet spot for us to wait.
I actually found the plane, an ERJ170, reasonably comfortable. Just like the Dash-8 I took from New Haven to Philadelphia, this plane had plenty of legroom in narrow seats. The interior was spartan and somehow European. The interior actually reminded me of a Fokker-100.¹
The trip to Atlanta was bumpy, but uneventful. Getting off in Atlanta was another story. The terminal looked like a mall on the weekend before Christmas. It was jammed – as busy as any airline terminal I had ever visited.
This evening (a late evening) I joined Mark and Annie, both of whom I worked with at Channel 8, for dinner. I left it up to them and we went to Ted’s… owned by Ted Turner and featuring Bison meat!
We all had Bison burgers, which were very good. I also had New England clam chowder (could have been warmer and larger, but it was very tasty). This being Atlanta, Coca Cola’s world headquarters, I broke down and had a Coke, which was served from the glass bottle.
Next stop was CNN, where Mark and Annie now work. This is interesting because there are familiar views in the CNN Center that I’ve seen for years.
Actually, that gave me more of an opportunity to look around. Their newsroom, directly behind the news set, may be the most photogenic TV space I’ve ever been in.