We adopted Charlie on Tuesday this week. He is a three-to-four-year-old Lhasa Apso mix, weighing about 25 pounds. He had just been neutered the day before and, while he didn’t like his protective cone, he was amazingly calm and loving and adjusted to our home very well. Still, it takes a while for the hormones responding to fear to leave animal systems, our human ones included. That night we learned a big lesson. Here’s our story…

Late afternoon on Wednesday, I had just come home with groceries and my wife had just removed Charlie’s cone for his dinner. With the outside door slightly open, Charlie came out to greet me. At least that’s what I thought. Instead, he bolted on by me and took off at full gallop through the neighborhood. We chased him, but to no avail, as it was dark, cold and very windy, making tracking Charlie down impossible. I called our vet, and all of the local authorities, and they told me to register his chip with PetLink  immediately. I had been planning on following up on PetLink later that evening but, instead, I followed the advice and also reported Charlie as lost on the PetLink site. My wife and I both had tears in our eyes.

Amazingly, a couple of hours later, we received a call from Plainfield Animal Hospital saying that they had Charlie. It seems that a neighbor somewhere had found him and taken him there where they read his chip and saw the ‘Lost dog’ posting. An hour later, Charlie was back home with us, no worse for his romp. Meanwhile, we’re thrilled to have our boy back home safe and sound and we are all a bit wiser for the experience!