So before I start let me explain a little bit about the animals I have in my house. We have 2 dogs and 1 cat. Dogs are Bernard and Belle. Cat’s name is Jada. They are all mostly indoor animals. The dogs go outside in our backyard to relieve themselves. No big deal. It’s been like this for years. This is Bernard

So let’s backtrack to December 30th. I had the day off from work so I wanted to do something with my hubby. We decided to go to Twin Falls. We’ve done this lots of times. So we’re driving along no problem when out of nowhere the cylinders start misfiring and shaking the whole car. At this point we’re over 100 miles away from home. Yay. We have a reader that can tell us what codes the engine is flagging. Cylinder 5 and 6 are misfiring. We don’t have tools to fix this remotely. So we get roadside assistance to take us to a local gas station. This is where our roommate J2 and my son J3 come in. They drive to come pick us up and take us back home. Nothing extraordinary here. We get in our van and go down to a local U-haul and rent a car trailer. Then drive back out and get the misfiring car on the trailer. No issues happen here. We settle in for the night.

December 31st – hubby got the car off the trailer and then he went to our storage and got the other car that is completely inoperable on the trailer with J2 and J3’s help. They make it back to the house and in order to get that car into the garage stuff needs to get reorganized and moved out of the 3rd bay. They took some of the stuff and put it in the backyard through the side gate. This comes up later. I’m working from home this day so I was only told all that was happening. I fell asleep before the new year.

January 1, 2024 – I had off from work so we decided to go get breakfast and then go to Tmobile to see about upgrading our phones. Breakfast happened no issue. While we are waiting at Tmobile we get a ring on our doorbell. It’s our neighbor telling us that our two dogs are loose. I start panicking because they’re both chihuahuas and likely to get hit and it’s also cold out. I call J3 and he runs out and gets Belle. This is where J2 finds out that the side gate wasn’t latched correctly and that’s how they got out. We don’t know who did it, just that it happened. I’m not trying to blame anyone. Anyhow, Bernard on the other hand is still loose. He’s part greyhound so he’s faster than hell and he thinks he’s in trouble. He has bolted. This is when we all split up to try to find him. Long story short we spent the better part of 4 hours walking around trying to get him. There were multiple sightings of him all over the place but not on big roads thank goodness. J3 stayed out continuously looking for Bernard. He really loves our dogs so it particularly scared and worried him. I was also a mess but trying to keep my collective shit together so I didn’t collapse into a heap. We tried again later in the evening but into the nighttime. Our neighbor found him hiding behind a rock. We tried to get him then but he was running scared and bolted. Almost got hit by a car and ran off the other way. We continue to try to find him but the fog is rolling in and we can barely see anything let alone a little small white dog. We call it for the night.

January 2, 2024 – no news really happens today outside of going to Target and getting AirTags that I have now put on collars should this happen again. No sightings happen at all. I’m very distraught and as night rolls around I weaken and give in to my sadness because Bernard is a big part of my life. Sleep comes but I had to force it.

January 3, 2024 – the day starts and I’ve for the most part have given up my baby for the worst because it’s been very cold recently. I am sleeping when my phone rings. I answer and it’s a stranger asking me if I’m still missing my dog. I answer yes. They think they have him. I ask the question I’m dreading. Is he alive?……….

Yes he’s alive.

We get dressed so quickly the service would be proud. We get to the corner that they told us to go to and lo and behold they have Bernard in their arms. Que happy tears and me melting because I had thought the worst. We get him home after a short walk. He is acting like nothing happened and he’s happy and healthy. This is Bernard now. So a happy ending for a rather crazy couple of days and horrible nights.