Bingo on Monday

Well, it's been quite a week!  I was on the phone with one of my radio guys and the UPS guy was knocking at the door. So of course, Bingo started barking. Radio Guy said, "Do you have a chow?" I said she was a black lab mixed with something that had a curly tail. He said she sounded just like his chow that he'd had for 11 years. I said that she has a black polka-dot on the underside of her tongue. And then I asked, "Do chows have dew claws on their hind legs?" He said that his dog didn't, but she came from a litter where 2 of her siblings did. Ah-HA!

Bingo's dew claws on her hind legs. 

Chows are very smart dogs and can do tricks. Well, that's Bingo!  I read a story of a chow that liked to climb out the bathroom window onto the roof! 

Bingo and I take a walk around noon-ish. We were walking up the driveway when she spied the mail truck. She started wagging her tail. She knows the truck and she knows that our mail carrier, Tessa, will have a treat for her!  Well, it wasn't Tessa that day, it was a substitute. But Bingo got her treat! A coupla days later, Tessa came up the driveway with a package.

Everybody loves Bingo!

Bingo is sniffing out food! Gluten Free goodies! Thanks, Joy!

So the next part of our week doesn't have any photos to go with it. I think this post has the fewest pix ever--and none of Tabby Bobcat!  Anyway, I popped over to Neighbor-Friend Rita's on Saturday night. Rita says she's Bingo's other mommy. We had a vizzie for about half an hour and then I let Bingo out the door to go to the car. I'd forgotten her leash and had thought, "Meh. It's door-to-door. I don't really need it." Ha! She took off  where she blended into the black of the night. I called & called. Nothing. It had snowed just a bit so that I could see her footprints in the grass, but they ended on the driveway. 

So I got into my car and slowly drove down the road, calling her name. I got all the way home. It's about a mile between me & Rita. I called John Morgan, trying not to panic. He always says the right thing:

"No dog that well-loved runs away and doesn't come back. She'll either come back to Rita's or find her way home."  

I felt a bit better, but was concerned about her being on the road or hit by a car. Or stuck out in the cold all night because it's been bitterly cold.  It was 9:15 by this time. John suggested I start knocking on doors. So I grabbed a flash light and headed out on foot.  I walked along the road calling out "Bingo!" and making noises with her treat bag.  I knocked at every house with lights on or that had the flickering blue light of a TV. I met more neighbors in that time than I have since I've lived here a year & a half and I gave them all my card. Half-way to Rita's, I met a lovely lady named Vicki who invited me in (it was freezing)! She was so kind, and when I started telling her about Bingo I started to get teary, and she just hugged me and said, "It's going to be okay." So with new resolve, I set back out and made my way up to Rita's, stopping at a few more houses. I kept visualizing that when I would get to Rita's, she would tell me that Bingo had just gotten back. Or that she would call me and say, "Bingo's back." As I got to Rita's front steps,  I called out, "Bingo!" And out of the darkness she came running up to me. It was 10:30p and it had been an emotional 2 hours. She was her happy self, having gone who-knows-where. 

I'm grateful for all the kindness from my neighbors, many with dogs of their own. I'm grateful for John telling me to start walking and knocking. And I'm so grateful for Bingo. She just wanted to go on an adventure, I guess. Happy that she's back home.  :-)