What a way to start Monday--let me just say first that everything is OK now, but I'm still shaken up!
My fiance and I went out to grab a smoothie for lunch before he went to work and we were gone maybe 10 minutes. He drops me off at home and leaves for work, but when I get inside the house, Stella didn't greet me like she ALWAYS does and she was no where to be found. So of course after hearing all of the stories on here about the terrible things people will do to get our babies, I immediately jump to "someone took her!" and I started freaking out shaking, crying, etc. I called my fiance and he REVERSED off the turnpike entrance ramp to come back home right away...he's a little protective of her.
I thought it was really weird because both our patio door and our front door were locked and none of the windows were open. I thought that for sure if she was home, she would be lying on "her" rug under the kitchen table like she always does when we're gone. Also, I flew outside and interrogated the three landscapers that were right next to our patio to ask if they had seen anyone with Stella/Stella running around (I somehow magically relearned my Spanish that I never use but I'm sure I still sounded like I was crazy and/or drunk or something the way I was slurring my words and talking frantically). After they said they hadn't seen anything, I ran back inside and checked all the rooms, under the couches/beds and behind all the furniture. I was yelling her name, saying her "speak" command to try and get her to bark if she was in the house, but by the time my fiance got home I was convinced she wasn't here. He looked all the same places I did, but then he checked the back rooms really thoroughly and we were about to figure out the next step when we heard scratching coming from somewhere.
I don't think I could've been happier to hear scratching on a door! Sure enough, she was in the back bathroom that we had checked at least twice, but since we were yelling her name she must've thought she was in trouble so she was hiding in a little space behind the door every time we opened it. That really shook me up because we ALWAYS keep that door closed...so for some reason it must've been open just a tiny crack and she decided to go exploring in there (accompanied by a pile of ripped up toilet paper
) and then when we were looking for her we shut it all the way so she was trapped.
Regardless, I'm happy everything is okay but we're both still really shaken up, thankfully fiance's boss is very understanding about "family" things like that. The whole thing makes me wish she would cooperate with a crate or x-pen but she has never liked confined spaces (she'll dig her paws raw trying to get out) so we just leave her out because she just sleeps.
There goes my productivity for the day!