I'm sorry, but I couldn't help but laugh when I read your post. I wasn't laughing at you, though. There are probably few of us on here that haven't been on these wild goose chases! I know I've been on plenty of them over the years!
Your pride will heal, but at least you got her back in one piece and everything turned out all right. The reason I was laughing was because I still have plenty of memories of furbaby chases myself and I can still replay them in my mind.