Reunited!!!!

She’s back…. Our crazy white dog decided it was time to come home today. We spent the weekend at my parents, and when we turned into our driveway I saw something on our porch. I took a closer look and said “She’s Here!!” Gary gasped and couldn’t believe it. It was a sweet reunion for everyone. She is filthy dirty and a little bit skinnier but still the mysterious white dog that is Adah. What I wouldn’t give to be able to talk to her and find out just what in the world she was up to for almost 10 days. I wonder how far she traveled? If she heard us calling after her? What compelled her to take off in the first place? Was she really lost or just on walkabout? Did she get it out of her system? Was it as difficult a week for her as it was for us?  Who knows she is just a dog after all. We are glad to have her back though there was a definite void in the Marcoccia household last week. Thank you for mixing all of those good thoughts and well wishes into the cosmic soup on behalf of Adah and our broken hearts.

The Unkown

[click photo for a larger version of the flyer]

Yep, that’s our Adah. We found her because she was lost and now, well looks like old habits are hard to break. Ellie and I were out on our daily morning walk with the dogs and our neighbor. I got distracted for a bit and she was gone. She has done this before but has never left us over night. The kicker is I had the intuition to put her on the leash and the walk started out that way but when we met up with the other dogs she was so excited and started to whine and look at me with those pleading eyes to let her loose so she could run and play with them.

Gary has spent two days wandering all over TL and Heber. He is exhausted both emotionally and physically.  We’ve been calling animal control in both Summit and Wasatch County. We have put up fliers like you see above all over TL and have sent out emails to our neighbors. We have done everything we could possibly do. It’s up to fate now. We will keep looking and doing our part. I’m not saying we give up yet. In fact I haven’t allowed myself to shed a tear yet because she still has time to appear out of nowhere like she is notorious for.

So the point of this post is to ask everyone who keeps tabs on us to put good thoughts out there into the cosmic soup for our Adah that she will come back to us unscathed.

The Story of Adah

When Adah the Kuvasz found me she was a lost dog. I was assisting with a field camp for the Utah State University Geology Department. We were in the Drum Mountains just west of Delta Utah. The Drum Mountains are great for geology, but a harsh landscape to live in. There isn’t much vegetation for shelter and pretty much supports only lizards. She came around our camp and had been harassing the students by barking at them as they hiked all over the area doing their field work. She stuck around all day and I caved in that evening and fed her some of my hamburger. She kept her distance and wouldn’t take it out of my hand, or come near me at all for that matter. When I went to sleep she followed me and stayed close all that night.

The next day I was set to go home, but this dog was still around camp. She was emaciated and filthy dirty, but she was so beautiful with that white coat it was hard not to be fascinated with her. As I got my things together she proceeded to harass the students and followed some of them up the hillside. Finally it was time to catch my ride home and I had to make the decision to take her or leave her. She had captured my heart so one of the professors helped me fashion a leash and I hiked up the hill to bring her home with me. It was a bit of a spectacle she had never been on a leash before you see so she didn’t know what to make of it and it scared her a bit so the whole way down the somewhat steep hillside she walked between my legs. Then we had the chore of getting her in the cab of an old Chevy pickup truck. Professor Pete helped me out and held her on his lap for the ride into Delta. She was shaking and shivering the whole way. Gary was meeting me in Delta to take me home. His first introduction to her she was freed from the truck and immediately peed and laid down at his feet. Gary was hesitant for only a few seconds until something in her eyes captured his heart as well and then he was convinced she was coming with us.

And the rest is history. Adah is now a part of our pack. She was immediately accepted by Chip. The first year we had her she challenged us by chewing up a few things such as my journals and photo albums, a pair of feather pillows, and our landlords bird feeder. She still challenges us with her feral ways. She is constantly on the prowl and has to be watched for those sneaky-break-aways where she decides to roam the neighborhood. She definitely raises Gary’s blood pressure at times. She has provided us with some good stories and adventures like that one time she was dunked in the Green River by a Moose. My favorite as of late is seeing her take on the role of Momma number two with Ellie. She let us know one day when I was vacuuming that Ellie was awake and crying. It may just be coincidence but my parents said the very hour that Ellie was born Adah jumped up and started to bark and carry on and Chip joined in. I like to think that they knew what was going on and they were celebrating her arrival and welcoming her into the pack.