THE GREAT ESCAPE

Cooper on the right and Jessie on the left.

The best laid plans have a way of going in a different direction, at a moments notice. Such was the case yesterday morning, when Nancy and I were having a conversation next to her 5th wheel trailer. All of a sudden, one of my neighbors yelled "is that your poodle in the street"? We quickly discovered that Cooper had crawled under, or through the driveway gate, and was already several houses away. With many dogs, that wouldn't have been a huge problem, but with Cooper, when Nancy and I ran toward him, he apparently got frightened, and was off to the races. We chased him behind a couple of houses, then completely lost sight of him.

Nancy with her two dogs, after the capture

For the next several hours, Patty and Nancy drove around in the jeep, and I searched first on the scooter, then in my truck. No sign of Cooper, and we were all starting to feel that it was becoming hopeless, kind of like trying to find the proverbial needle in the haystack. Nancy seemed to think that Cooper would probably continue running if he was scared, and that he might have covered a lot of ground in the hours that we were looking for him. At about 2pm, we returned to the house, and Nancy began to call folks like animal control, and the company that had Coopers information, from the chip that had been implanted. We began to make plans for making lost dog flyer's, and I told Nancy that we would cancel our plans to head for the RV rally in Yuma, remaining here with her to do whatever we could to help find Cooper. Patty and I know the feeling of unexpectedly losing one of your pets, having gone through the emotions of almost losing our cat in Washington last summer. Things didn't look very promising, until a little after 2, we heard a loud knock on the door. The same neighbor from across the street, told us that Cooper was just in the front yard, and that he again took off down the street. With the information from another neighbor or two, and after I grabbed Jessie to help lure Cooper back to Nancy, she was able to locate him, and snatch him up. To say that we were all relieved, would be the understatement of the decade.

After the little Houdini was safely put back in his house on wheels, and we all decompressed a little, we restarted our original plan to take a ride in the boat. With the boat already in the water, it didn't take long to get out on the lake, and enjoy a few hours of boating and sunshine. Nancy got some water views of the London Bridge, taking a bunch of pictures, then we headed up river toward Topock Gorge. Except for the delay of a couple of shallow water sandbars, we made it back to the marina around 5pm, and the rest of the day was pretty calm, compared to the stress of earlier in the day.

This morning, we're packing a few remaining items in the motor home, and heading south to Yuma for the Gypsy Gathering RV Rally that begins tomorrow. Nancy is driving south with us, and this will be her first RV Rally. We had a good time at this rally last year, and it should be fun and educational for all of us, once again. Then, we'll be back home on the 11th, in time to get everything ready for our annual Alaska in Arizona BBQ on Sat. the 12th.