How we Lost (and Found) Clara

I'll begin this story by saying that Clara is safe and sound and the gates to the back yard are now padlocked ;)

So in the last couple of weeks, what with the extra guests and neighborhood children coming in and out of the back yard via the side gates, we have lost Clara a few times. She goes out, and we don't realize that one of the gates is open or not properly shut, and she takes off. Every time we have found her on our street somewhere within a few minutes of realizing she was gone.

Yesterday I walked out onto the back deck with her when I let her out, visually confirming that both gates were shut , and even watched her go over and sniff around at one of them and, satisfied that it was secure I went back inside. And totally forgot about Clara for  twenty minutes or so. Upon realizing she had been outside a long time I went out back to look for her, went over to one of the gates and realized that although it was closed, it was not latched and thus she could have pushed it open and gone through. Which is apparently what she did because she was nowhere to be found.

I walked up to the top of the street and asked the neighborhood kids riding their bikes if they had seen her, then walked down towards our house again, thinking "oh great she could be anywhere, i am going to have to drive around looking for her and hope I find her." Just as I got back to our house an SUV pulled up and the guy said, "Hey I found a white dog running around on Pineville Matthews road, do you know anyone -- " At which point I cut him off so very relieved and told him it was MY dog. Clara was riding in the trunk of the car. So, such a major stroke of good luck that the man, who does not live in our neighborhood, stopped and picked her up and decided that since she was wandering near an entrance to our neighborhood that he would drive her around and try to find the owner. And very good luck that I had realized Clara was gone at that time and was outside to see him drive up with her!

But the coincidence doesn't end there because, when I called Joel to tell him about this (he was at the grocery store) , a woman in the grocery store overheard the conversation and came up to him after he got off the phone. Turns out that she and the guy who had returned Clara had both pulled over upon seeing her trotting down the road, and she had called Clara over to her and then debated with the other passerby what to do with her. She had been going to take her home and take her to the vet later to check for a microchip (because of course Clara was not wearing her tags), but then the man offered to drive her around our neighborhood to try to find the owner.

So if dogs have nine lives like cats do Clara has used up most of hers with this latest adventure! We are incredibly lucky to have gotten her back so quickly!