andrea
I’m so sorry about your dog Vestalight! I personally know how heart wrenching this experience can be, as it happened to us a few years back in winter when we had the big windstorm that knocked out all of the power in WS…it also happened to knock down one of our side gates, and our two dogs got loose. They were both lost for a number of days…I posted on every website I could find pertaining to lost pets, I put up fliers on every pole in the area, I searched every park and greenbelt area we frequented with them, and I checked out the Seattle Animal Shelter and KC Humane Society personally every other day to make sure they didn’t have my dogs and not realize it! After 4 days, my Husky was found clear down by the Greyhound bus depot on W. Marginal (we live on Genesee Hill!). It took almost 6 days for my little Shepherd mix to be found…clear down by Home Depot on 1st Ave! I have no idea how they each got as far as they did or what they did while they were ‘on the run’, but I have since become super aware of lost doggies, and apparently they have a great ability to wander when they are lost and can cover vast distances trying to find the way home. My dogs were ‘found’ or ‘caught’ once they finally got tired of wandering and were really in need of food, water, and shelter and thus were more open to people approaching them to check their ID tags. That is the main thing I was thankful for in all of the mess of them going missing, that they had all their tags visible on their collars (ID tag w/ name and phone numbers, pet license number, rabies tag, and the scan code & company name for their hip chips), as both people who found my dogs used that info to call me and get my dog babies back to me. I hope this is the case with your Minty, and that she is just off having a lark and that as she tires and gets hungry, she will pop out of hiding to someone who can get a hold of you and you can be reunited! Just don’t get discouraged…keep the faith that you will find her. It just may take longer or be farther away from home than you thought to look originally. I will certainly continue to keep my eyes peeled for her!!