Lessons from a Holiday Miracle

Let me start by saying how happy I am for this family and their dog. This is one of those minor miracles that makes us all smile, share vicariously in their joy, and maybe even shed a tear. At the same time, it is stories like this that drive me just a little bit crazy, maybe more than a little now that Howie is in our lives.

Given that I grew up addicted to The Incredible Journey, you would think that improbable stories of people pet reunification would only bring me smiles. But the truth is, stories like this prevent people from taking the proper measures to ensure their pet’s safety- after all, MSN never publishes a story about a dog that gets lost and dies of exposure. We only hear the reunification stories with the most improbably circumstances- a decade has been past, or a blind dog that disappeared in an Alaskan snowstorm makes it safely home (without even any frostbite). And this case in particular required to mini-miracles to reunite family and dog.

The truth is, when your dog goes missing, it’s just as likely to end in tragedy as joy, no matter how many precautions you have taken. And when you don’t take precautions, well, that just sucks for your dog.

Obviously, we don’t know the whole story, but according to the reporting from the local newspaper, this dog liked to spend her afternoons sniffing around the family’s five acre lot. During a recent snow storm, she wandered off.

Abby was sniffing around her yard, not fenced in, not “chained” or leashed, but just wandering freely. Heaven- until a snow storm comes in. She’s blind, so that lack of visibility isn’t going to make a difference in her finding her way home, but snow storms tend to distort sounds and scents.

I grew up in a neighborhood of free range dogs. I’m not against it in general, but there are still precautions you take. Eastern Montana winters are remarkably similar to Alaskan winters. When the weather started to turn bad, the dogs weren’t allowed to wander freely. Just like the kids, they were rounded up and brought in the house. A dog who needed to go out in the middle of a snow storm had a person watching them the whole time. The dogs were treated much like we kids were- not really left up to their own devices in the bad weather.

Miracle one was that after days of being lost in extremely cold weather and following trails by scent, she found someone’s house, apparently none the worse for wear.

But then miracle number two was required. The fact that there was a snowstorm may have been what prevented Abby from finding her way home that day, but the truth is, as a blind dog, left to wander on her own, she could have disappeared any time. And yet, she didn’t have a tag or a microchip, so the person who found her had no idea where she belonged.

In this case, he lived in a pretty big dog community and with the help of friends and neighbors, the rescuer reached out via social media to find Abby’s family. The family’s neighbors were the ones to recognize the dog and get the rescuer in contact with the family. Talk about lucky.

I don’t think dogs need to be on leash or somehow confined at all times. I really don’t. But I think people also need to be realistic about dog behavior- and that includes occasionally wandering off.

I know that some people worry about collars getting caught and trapping the dog somewhere. And I know some dogs don’t wear collars in their homes, so if they snuck out the door, they wouldn’t have a tag. But here’s the joy of living in modern times- a tag isn’t the only way to identify your dog.

How many times do we have to read the stories of microchips reuniting dogs with their families years after they were separated for people to understand the power of a simple procedure? Where I live, no shelter will even let a dog go home without a microchip- because even if I never update my information, the shelter will be notified, and they can track me down.

So yes, I am thrilled for Abby and her family, but please, please don’t let stories like this make you think you don’t need to do anything to protect your pet or to help strangers track you down if your pet does become lost. The power of the internet is mighty, we know it is, but you can’t depend on it to find your dog if you don’t do the prep work, especially if you live somewhere with a population bigger than the state of Alaska.