Some of you may remember some of my previous blogs about our family dog Calli and her "escapades" around town. Eight years ago we were lucky to find our Australian Shepherd mix at a shelter in Missouri. Because of her past as a stray, she still gets an urge to travel. She used to jump the fence at our former house and visit places like the Sandusky Fire Station or the home of a former city manager. But we moved, and with the new house Calli no longer has a fenced-in yard. She now has a radius around the house that is her domain....as long as the battery in her collar is operational.
About two weeks ago, her battery wasn't operational and our family found ourselves without a dog. This was the first time since the move that I had to hop in the car, turn on the police scanner (to listen for a found dog), and put down the windows to try to whistle Calli back to the vehicle. This was a routine that I had gotten used to at our former house.
So away I went, driving whatever streets I thought where I might see a black and white streak in a backyard or a quick glimpse of two red eyes staring at me as my headlights beamed down the road.
I made my routine non-emergency call to the police station, now Perkins Township Police, to report our dog missing in case anyone called in with an unwelcome canine visitor to their yard. And I have to give credit where it is due--I saw a PPD cruiser in our neighborhood looking for Calli for a brief moment before the officer was called to something more important.
While I, and the Perkins Police Department, was looking for Calli, my wife Beth posted "Calli is missing. If anyone in the area sees a blue merle aussie running around Sandusky, please let me know!" on her Facebook page in the hopes that either someone we knew found her or Calli herself might have logged in and checked Beth's status.
Back in my vehicle I heard something come over the police scanner about a motorist having an unknown problem at Danny Boy's Pizza on U.S. 250, not too far from our house. My "jump-to-conclusions" thinking kicked in and I'd thought for sure Calli had run into some trouble or had gotten run into while on her latest escapade.
Lucky for Calli, she didn't get anywhere near U.S. 250: unlucky for the motorists, their battery was dead. I offered to give the out-of-towners a jump, they accepted and then it was back to looking for our dog.
A little while later my phone rang and it was Beth. Her co-worker had been Facebooking (If that isn't a word yet, I am coining it now) and he had noticed Beth's post and also another one of his friend's posts. That friend wrote that he had found a well-mannered dog if anyone knew of someone missing a dog.
Beth gave me the name and after checking the phone book I started calling numbers. The first one was the wrong number, but the second one I was able to ask the random question of "Did you find a dog at your house and then post it on Facebook?" "Yes, could you describe the dog?" the man answered. "Black, white and grey with long hair," I replied. "What color eyes?" he asked, which was a good question because Calli's bright blue eyes are endearing to some and a tad freaky to others.
As it turns out Calli was about half a mile away and was enjoying a little roast beef compliments of her temporary family.
Calli is never happy to return to her permanent family because usually during her jaunts she gets into something that doesn't smell so good and a return home also means a bath.
So thanks to Facebook, Beth's co-worker and Calli's temporary family for getting our furry friend back to us.
 

QUICK NOTE: Thanks to Dustin Sharp (Beth's co-worker), Andy Waldock (Dustin's facebook friend) and his family for helping us get Calli home.