Woke up Friday a.m. "with my alarm" ( I struggled!). Got up, went to the bathroom, & made my way to the kitchen to hand out the morning brush chews. Grab 4 as always & attempt to start dispensing when I realize Ziva isn't there. I look around & say her name "Ziva?" Nothing. Very unusual as she NEVER misses a snack EVER!
"Ziva!" "Ziva?!" I call. I walk to the front, check my office. Check Rich's office. Check the bottom of the basement stairs "Ziva?" Open the front door, look out. I walk to the back of the house & turn on the patio light, open the door, & ask "Ziva?". Open the front door again, no Ziva.
This alerts Rich (Ziva is his baby). "Looking for Ziva?" "Can't find her". He traces my steps & rushes to get dressed. I start looking for my slip on shoes & coat. Of course I can't find my stupid slip-ons because she was playing with them the day before.
Finally, locate a pair I can slip on & head out the garage. She's not in the garage, so I open the door & start out. Down the driveway, up and down the side walk calling for her. 'ZIVA!" Nothing. It's dark out & I think I see movement on the trail--but can't be sure "Ziva is that you?" NOTHING. I'm worried about her, but I am more worried about Rich because this is his baby. He will freaking lose it. In the house, he's opened the backdoor & left it open so she could come back in if she does try.
After a few minutes of back & forth, calling her name I decide I probably should drive around calling her. I head back inside to get my glasses & keys.
As I am coming in, Rich is coming out. Asks if I've seen her, I tell him I haven't. He then heads out to try & look for her-hoping hearing his voice brings her to him.
Not even 10 seconds later, he comes back in followed by Ziva. Apparently my calling her brought her to us.
Longest 15 minutes of our life.
The night before Rich was getting into bed (I had long been asleep) & Peryn bugged him to let him out. This was at 11:20 PM. During that excursion, Ziva went out & didn't come back in. She doesn't sleep in the bed, she tends to sleep in the closet--so he didn't notice.
We have all the Security Logs & videos to recreate the whole event. She was so happy to see us & didn't seemed too fazed. Not ONCE did she bark while outside. She lies outside most of the day, so we think she just assumed it was one of those times but we weren't letting her in. None of the dogs alerted us to her (because again, she stays outside a lot). Had she barked, THAT would have got their attention.
She's fine. She's happy. Can't tell she spent the night outside. Took us the whole day to get past the panic we had when we couldn't find her.
It did show us we don't have to worry about her wondering off as she had the whole night to, but stayed home.
We're really lucky to have dogs that choose not to explore & wander off. They prefer to stay with their humans.
And we do have an invisible fence, but the collars are not kept on them for extended periods of time. So it would not have been on at night. She really does not require one because when she's outside, she rarely leaves the patio. That's her domain, hanging out on the patio & watching people walk buy or just laying around enjoying the weather.
Below are the camera captures of an "Animal" on our patio (corresponds to the log above)
David---just bug Rich ..I don't want to hear it.
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