[8/29/11] Monday Memories: How the Girls became Kelleys

Abby

 Hailey

I still tear up a bit when remembering this story. But it does have a happy ending.

(This is not the teary part of the story.)

When we moved to Arizona in November 2002 I needed a running partner. I couldn't seem to coordinate schedules with any of the other ladies that ran regularly, so I decided to look for a four-legged running partner. We had been talking about getting a dog anyway, so I did a lot of research and came to the conclusion that a retired Greyhound would make the perfect running partner and family dog. They are pretty docile - when not running - to the point of being called "couch potatoes," they are well-behaved, they are pretty non-allergenic, and they are great family dogs. 

We talked things over as a family and decided we wanted to add a Greyhound to our family. The kids said they'd help with the pet care. We were all pretty excited!

I contacted a local greyhound rescue and we were introduced to Chief, a recently retired greyhound. We met Chief at his foster home and he was great. Zach and I tend to be a little allergic to dogs and cats, but Chief didn't bother us one bit. We decided to take the plunge and foster him for two weeks to make sure we all fit together as a family.

Chief's foster mom brought him over one Saturday morning and the first thing he did was run up and down our stairs. Greyhounds aren't supposed to be able to climb stairs (we weren't quite sure if Chief would have full run of the house yet.)

He was so excited that he had a bit of an intestinal issue all over my brand new carpet. Greyhounds are not supposed to be very excitable.

And he had obviously grown in the week since we'd first met him because he looked much larger in our home and took up an entire couch when he lay down. On the couch. Hmmmmm....where are the rest of us supposed to sit?

His nose rested on the kitchen countertop, which I wasn't too thrilled about.

The lady hadn't bathed him for his first encounter with our family in our home, which was a bit surprising, and when Zach and I petted him we started to break out in little itchy bumps.

Not good.

The lady left and Chief went out in the backyard to do his business. I didn't want to let him back in.  John was going out of town the next day for several days and I didn't want to be the only adult in charge of the new Greyhound, who wasn't acting like a Greyhound. At all. It was all quite overwhelming.

Chief obviously hadn't read the Greyhound Textbook.

After a two hour family discussion, including tears on my part, we decided that Chief needed to go back to his foster home. He was just too large when we saw him in our home. The kids really didn't want anything to do with him.

So we called the lady, who was not too happy, and returned Chief to her along with the food we'd already bought for him.

Fast forward several months.

My friend Melynda got the cutest black Chihuahua and we started having those "wanting a dog" feelings again. We found a lady who had chihuahua puppies for sale and we bought a cute little chocolate girl we named Maggie.

(It's kind of humorous how we went from a Greyhound to a Chihuahua. Totally opposite ends of the dog-size scale. Unfortunately I can't find pictures of either Chief or Maggie.)

Maggie pretty much instantly became a member of our family. She was a tiny little thing but could climb the baby gates we put up while we were potty training her. She could find ways to get out of her crate from time to time. She was very smart.

And oh, how we all loved her.

Fast forward a few more months.

We were planning a family trip to Kentucky to visit John's family and to New York to see Niagara Falls and our church history sites that are in the Palmyra area. John's Administrative Assistant not only bred chihuahuas, but also boarded them.

We thought she'd be the perfect person to leave our Maggie with.

(Here is the beginning of the teary part of the story.)

The night before we left I got Maggie all ready to go to her boarding house and John and I put her and her stuff in his truck. Maggie started to bark and squeal and make all sorts of pitiful noises. I should've seen this as a sign. But I didn't. I reminded him to remind his Admin. that Maggie does climb and jump things that are much taller than she is. Which he did.

We got up and went to the airport bright and early the next morning. During our layover in St. Louis John called his office and the whole time he was talking to his Admin. she never said anything about Maggie. So he asked her how Maggie was doing. At this point she told him that Maggie had climbed two walls earlier that morning and they couldn't find her. She and her husband had been out all morning looking for Maggie and he was going door-to-door asking their neighbors if they had seen Maggie but he still hadn't found her.

At this point in the conversation the kids and I could tell what was going on and we started freaking out a bit. And we started crying....it was absolutely horrible. We couldn't believe what had happened.

John called and talked to his Admin.'s husband and he was almost as upset as we were. He was still looking for Maggie and had some of his neighbors out looking for her too.

John's Admin. and her husband lived outside Phoenix in an area that is pretty much desert and some orchards. Coyotes are known to frequent their area, which was not a good thing to think about when your little chihuahua is wandering around, probably trying to find her way back home. I really tried to keep those pictures out of my head.

As we boarded our plane for Louisville everyone kept looking at the kids and I - we were all sobbing - and then at John. He felt they were thinking, "What did you do to your family?" 

As soon as we landed in Kentucky I called my friend Melynda and told her what had happened. I emailed her a picture of Maggie and she and some other friends plastered "Missing Dog" signs all over John's Admin's neighborhood and all the neighboring stores, including PetSmart. The next day Melynda, who was 7 months pregnant, took her boys out to look for Maggie. Mind you, at this time it was mid July in Phoenix and it's not unusual for temperatures to reach 115 or more at this time of year. They walked around and drove around and called Maggie's name. Some other friends joined in the search. At church on Sunday one of John's counselors (John was serving as Bishop at the time) announced what had happened and several other families spent their Family Home Evening the next night looking for Maggie. 

I was so very touched by the outpouring of love from our church family. I couldn't believe how many people were looking for our Maggie, in the hottest part of the summer. It was amazing.

Unfortunately, Maggie wasn't found. When we got home from vacation we immediately went out and looked for her and called for her, hoping that she'd been frightened and was hiding.

We still didn't find her.

There was definitely an empty space in our home. We were all very, very sad. We had been praying really hard during our whole vacation that we'd find Maggie, but even though we didn't find her, we all had faith that the Lord was in charge and everything would somehow be okay. Even if we never found our Maggie.

One Sunday several weeks later we were driving home from church and the kids were talking. We drove by a man walking his chihuahua and the car got really quiet. When we got home and were walking into the house Parker, out of habit, called out, "We're home, Ma...," and stopped short as he realized what he was doing. It got even quieter.  

We talked to the kids and decided it was time to find a new dog. We found a chihuahua breeder and picked out a cute little black girl and named her Abby. 

Abby was, and still is, pretty much the perfect puppy. She was a breeze to train and instantly fit into our family. She has never really thought of herself as a dog, she really thinks she is a person. Although we still loved and missed Maggie, Abby filled an empty place in our family.

About 10 months later we decided that since Abby was such a great dog we wanted to get another chihuahua and we thought it would be nice for Abby to have a friend. We visited several breeders and found a cute little black chihuahua with a unique white hook shape around her neck. We brought her home and named her Hailey.

Hailey was not the perfect puppy. She was definitely a dog and not as easy to train as Abby. At all. I started giving her a treat every time she went potty and she quickly learned how the system worked. I'd take her outside, she'd go a little bit and then come to get her treat. Then she'd turn around and go some more and come to get her treat. Pretty smart. But after her "terrible two's" time was over Hailey became a more perfect puppy.

Abby and Hailey have added so much to our family. They are funny and loving and always so happy to see us and be with us.

And we can't imagine life without them.

(The pictures are from a birthday party the kids had for them when John and I were in NYC. They even got to eat a little bit of their birthday cake!)