Thank You, Kind Strangers

The storms around here have been quite ridiculous.  Nasty gusts strong enough to knock trees down, fling patio furniture and move the BBQ grill several feet - even with the wheels locked.

Oh... and fling open the gate for the fence.

That wouldn't be so bad if I had actually noticed it.  But I was up around 5 AM fighting lower back problems and simply wanted to find the Ibuprofen.  For the most part, I adhered to my normal morning schedule - I let the dogs out, took my medicine, got something to drink, made sure the dogs had food then let them back in.

Well, at least I think that's how the morning went.  Nestle wanted in and out a few times which was driving me crazy since I just wanted to stay in one spot and let my back stretch.  I'm sure I let Glacier in once then she wanted back out later.  I don't know what time that was though.  The girls woke up earlier than normal, I read the paper while they played and somewhere in there I stretched out on the ground hoping the back pains would go away.  It's all kind of fuzzy since I didn't get much sleep last night.

Then shortly before 9 AM, I went into the laundry room to get something and through the window could see the gate to the back yard wide open.  I ran into the kitchen and told DH that the gate was open.  He called for the dogs while I waited to visually see them come to attention.  Nestle did.  Glacier didn't.

I ran through the house looking in all her usual hiding spots and had just walked out into the front yard when the phone rang.  The nice gentleman on the other end of the phone said "We have your dog."  He proceeded to give me directions and I was amazed at the distance she had managed to get in what I didn't think was a very long period of time.  Several blocks.  And when I say several, I mean a good few minutes drive worth.

I headed off to pick her up as the guy, Shawn, an employee of the City of Bettendorf and Debbie, the driver of a red minivan waited patiently on 53rd Street.  Yes, my Glacier had escaped and was running down the middle of one of the busiest streets in town.  Thankfully traffic was stopping for her.

It's a good thing the cars saw her because she had difficulty seeing.  She had a tumor in 2004 and had one of her eyes removed.  Her depth perception is totally off and she can only see things on the right side of her body.  What a sight it must have been for drivers on 53rd - a fluffy white one-eyed American Eskimo dog running down the road.  Thank you for not running her over!

But most important, my heartfelt thanks go out to Debbie who pulled over and coaxed Glacier into her arms and to Shawn who pulled over behind her and telephoned us with the good news that she was safe.  If you know Debbie or Shawn, please pass along how very thankful I am for what they did this morning.