Sweet Zoey Lost Options

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Last Saturday, 12/1, my husband and I were at Mark Twain Lake where we have some property. Two of our dogs Ollie and Zoey went out that morning with my husband to relieve themselves. I came out about five minutes later to feed them. We have an electric fence, but we had not yet put on their collars. We were shocked that they had already wondered into the woods before I even feed them (this is why we put in an electric fence last year). I admit we have been lax about the collars as they hate having them on and I knew they loved the woods and stupidly never thought this could happen. We just always "knew" they would return. My husband said he had a bad feeling when several hours later they still had not returned. Four hours later Ollie came back but was without Zoey. We started searching at that point. This is an RV subdivision however this time of year not many weekenders like us come up. The area is sparse with full-time residents, lots of woods and farm property.

I walked back to one house that is not too far thru the woods from our place and strangely enough one of their 7 dogs never came home Friday night. I left my phone with several people but we had to leave Sunday late afternoon to come home. I took off work Tuesday and went back up with one of my other dogs Bodie and we searched the woods and creek bottom for hours to no avail. I called all the nearby shelters, although there are none in the immediate area. She is chipped. I'm driving up tomorrow morning (Sat) with dozens of signs I made that I am going to post everywhere within 50 mile radius as she could be anywhere at this point.

We are just sick. Feel a tremendous amount of guilt - we let her down. And all the what if's...what if we had just put her shock collar on, what if we had her regular collar on, what if we had called for the dogs as soon as they went missing as they couldn't have been far because my husband had just seen them going potty near the woods five minutes before. We have been so depressed.

Zoey is a sweet sweet girl. She was brought to work at 6 weeks old by a friend of mine who found her sitting on the curb of a busy street in several inches of snow and the cold in East St. Louis. She was lethargic but healthy and I took her home with me. Everyone absolutely loves Zoey. She is a gentle loving dog who loves people. She is extremely laid back, in fact, we joke a lot about how lazy she is - she is a lounger for sure. We miss her and this has been gut wrenching - especially the not knowing part. Where is she? What happened to her that she didn't/couldn't come back? Is she hurt? Did she get shot by a farmer? Is she cold? Is she hungry? We are so depressed.

I can't think of anything else to do after posting signs tomorrow. We are so very sad. It will be a week tomorrow. Where is our sweet baby girl? We want her back so badly.

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Well, it's almost 8pm. Just got back from the lake. Some good news and bad news. Good news is Zoey is alive and well. Bad news is we still couldn't find her. There is a hotel some people own not far from where our place is and they live there. Apparently, we are guessing Zoey must have gotten lost, which I didn't think she could do. They have a couch on their front porch and she has been sleeping on it. They have been feeding her. They have also let her in their home a few hours every day. Their kids even gave her a bath. Said she was/is full of ticks on her neck. But for some reason, every time she went out, she would roam off for a few hours, then come back. I guess it isn't enough she was lost once?? I was up there Tuesday searching the woods and probably passed her sitting on their porch on my way home. If I would have just done what I did today, posting signs and knocking on doors, I would have found her! And another missed opportunity...on Wednesday night me and my husband thought of the signs and I thought about taking off work again the next day and doing it but I only have one day left until the end of the year, so we thought I should hang on to it in case she was found and I needed to get her. We thought, it's just one extra day and that day cost us dearly. The last time they saw her was Thursday night. And for whatever reason, she never returned Friday or today. Now it is supposed to rain tonight, and it's cold out and supposed to really get cold in the next few days. I cried all the way home. They have my number and were also looking for her today as they feel bad they didn't hang on to her (or why not take her to a shelter??). I posted 60 signs in and around the area, knocked on doors, placed signs in the two towns on the outskirts in their only grocery store and gas station. We are glad she is alive but still super depressed. Where is our Zoey? Why didn't she stay put where someone was feeding her, giving her water and a warm bed??? Why won't God just give us a friggin' break?!

So I missed an opportunity Tuesday because I was stupidly searching the woods. Why oh why didn't I at least go to a few places around there. I'm just sick, absolutely sick. Our poor Zoe, I'm so worried she is cold tonight.