Alaska on my mind…

Panda Bear, as cute and good natured as she is, has one major flaw, she likes to roam. She comes by it naturally, her dad Kevin is infamous for his long Walk-Abouts and car rides to McDonald’s for ice cream with complete strangers. But that’s another story for another time.

She usually goes to one of three places: the neighbor’s house through the woods behind the sawmill because the ‘ol Captain has a playful Black Lab about her age and they like to get into mischief. Or she goes up to another neighbor’s house down the street who also has a dog that she plays with. But mostly she goes to Jake’s house.

Jake being her first hooman to know and love. One of two hoomans she gets so excited about that she pees a little. (Mo is the other!) Jake’s house being where her mom Sarah and brother Hank live. You see, Panda is just a social butterfly and has a lot of friends. She has places to go and doggos to see.

She either comes home in an hour or so or Jake calls to say, hey, are you missing something? Come get your dog. Or generally being a good sport, he brings her home.

But not so last night. Dean had her outside, as usual. He’s out there with her always, she doesn’t get to just be outside unsupervised. But as soon as you turn your back she is like Casper the Ghost. Quietly and quickly without notice she’s completely gone. Last night was just such an escape.

She was gone for 4 hours. Dean and the kids, and Jake too, we’re all out looking for her. The kids rode the wheelers around all over the neighborhood calling for her but she didn’t come home. I went looking for her on my way home from grocery shopping, stopping to talk to neighbors, with no luck. She was just gone. We were starting to get really concerned.

Then I get a call from a friend that she saw a post on Facebook with Panda in it, so she message me the info and I called and left a message. Then I rushed into to pull up the post and respond to it directly.

She was down the road a little bit farther and they had her inside. Before I could get ahold of them, Jake knew where they lived so he just went and picked her up. He’s such a softy when it comes to these critters. He brought her home and she’s both loved and welcomed home and scolded for running off. Giving us such a fright.

These four-legged friends sure do impact us. We’re happy she’s home but dang she sure is hard to break from running off exploring.

She’s lost her tag -again- with my number on it, which makes it harder to get her back. So once again I’ll try to get a replacement for her. Too bad they don’t make them big enough to print:

Hi, my name is Panda Bear, I’m on a walk-about, I like to meet new friends. I’ll go home so don’t put me inside. I’m happy with my home, I get fed and lots of attention, I’m just a free spirit, social butterfly. Nice to meet you. If you can call my hooman Mom and let her know where I’m at, that would be great.

The Life of Panda Bear

Even today, still another friend noticed the post and messaged me. Everyone loves Panda. Thanks to all of you good hoomans who help look out for, care for and return my doggo… Juni, Chris, Jake, Shelly & Skyler. ❤️