Dog-gone-it!

So, for all those who live here in town, you've no doubt heard me complain about our lovingly-annoying dog, Nigel. He is annoying because of the countless nights we've spent hearing him bark away at nothing in particular. This one flaw aside, he really is a great family dog, wouldn't hurt a fly and is the possessor of many a quirky personality traits that make him, well, Nigel. We do love him, and we've recently had to put him through a de-barking surgery. Four barking collars later, we realized they weren't going to do the trick, and he'd chewed up and destroyed at least two of them. So, since his surgery, he's been a darn near perfect pet. The kids have had more sympathy for him and so have been playing with him more than ever. He's a Beagle/Basset with an extremely talented nose on him, so when he's out with us, or if he gets out on his own he ALWAYS comes back home. He'll even come and bark at the front door if we go inside before he wanders back home. Incase you're all thinking, how can they do that? We live across the street from a big field, that's usually where he sniffs around, browses, and roots before coming back.. Well, yesterday, Audrey let him out in the front to play with her, he wandered off and we didn't think too much of it. Until he'd stayed out over three hours... This morning he's still not home and the kids are heart broken. Here's hoping you find your way home Nige.

Well, happily only an hour and a half after I posted our missing dog signs around town, we got a call. Apparently some people had decided to keep Nigel in their yard since he didn't have any tags... which had fallen off. They saw our posters and decided they'd better call. When I went to pick him up he was running down the street with about eight kids trailing him, you could tell he thought he was a celebrity.. He ran straight to our car and hopped in like nothing out of the ordinary had gone on.. So I guess there's a couple lessons from this, one, replace the dog tags, even if you have to do it a hundred times, and two, if your dog goes missing, make a poster, they work!