Mango Tango

Last weekend, my entire family was in Seattle for my cousin Rosanna's wedding.  We stayed over at a hotel overnight thinking the weather was warm enough for the dogs to stay outside like they do sometimes during the summer.  While we were enjoying the company of family and watching a certain sister get plastered out of her mind, there was a big windstorm in Gig Harbor that blew a patio umbrella over and probably scared the dogs, prompting Mango to jump the back fence.  When my parents returned that night to check on their menagerie of animals, he was no where to be found.  Buttons was still in the backyard barking his little head off, but they weren't able to find Mango.

The next morning they searched for him again and spotted him on Hwy 16, muddied up and running across the highway.  My mom got out of the car and tried to flag him down but it was hard to do, since she was on the opposite side of the highway and Mango was panicked.  That morning Mike and I came back to town and he questioned my parents' neighbors.  It turns out that one of the neighbors had heard seen Mango standing outside my parents' fence, so they tried to corral him.  He got scared and ran, thus ending up lost for the next three days.

After repeated searches in the rain, posting flyers all over Gig Harbor, and checking the kennels and deceased dog folders at the Humane Society, I was almost ready to accept I'd never see my crazy little OCD dog ever again.  Then, on Tuesday, after I got off work, my family showed up and Mango jumped out of the car.  Someone had noticed him walking in their neighborhood (which apparently looked very similar to my parents' neighborhood), enticed him with a biscuit, and managed to get close enough to him to check his tags and call the number.  The place he was found was 10 miles away from my parents' house.

My parents said Mango was so happy to see them when they went to pick him up.  He started yelping nonstop, even when they all came around to hug and pet him.  Buttons was so excited to see him as well, and his bark was already hoarse from barking while Mango was missing.  Mango's eyes were all red and he seemed pretty tired, but otherwise he seems okay.  My dad said he just slept all day yesterday, his first day back at home.  We're all glad to have Mango back safe.  Although he's always been a little nutty, we love this silly dog who likes to sit on our feet and steal bathmats.