Our two dogs, Sam and Zoe, are missing. (But see the bottom)

I had been taking them into the front yard every day after lunch for a 15 or 20 minute play session, keeping Zoe on a long leash and letting Sam run free. I had let both off leash on several occasions, and on two of those occasions they had decided to run off into the woods for a romp. They came back both times before dark.

On Wednesday I took them out. I let Sam off leash and kept Zoe on her long leash. I had been doing that for several days. Sam would run around, sometimes keeping out of Zoe’s reach and sometimes not. But every time Sam ran past us, Zoe zoomed out to the end of the leash, jerking my arm and sometimes making me take a short, jarring run to stay on my feet. On Wednesday I let go of the leash a couple of times so she could catch Sam. So one time instead of wrestling, they simply trotted into the woods. I heard them thrashing through the leaves as they disappeared off to the north. They did not come home Wednesday evening, and so far they have not come home tonight, Thursday.

If I could have run, I might have caught them, but my running days are in the distant past. I didn’t worry too much at first since they knew their way home, especially Sam, who has lived up here five years. As it got darker and they didn’t come back, I took my truck around the top of the mountain to look for them. After dark I drove around some more. And then before I went to bed, I decided to drive further. So I spent about an hour right after midnight driving around in Texas Valley and on the other side of the mountain down to the road that leads into town. I saw a lot of deer, one coyote at our old house, and two stray dogs in Texas Valley. But not our dogs.

Thursday morning I drove the same route. Down on Huffaker Road, on the front side of the mountain, I saw someone trying to catch the two strays, who had walked probably five or six miles from where I had seen them the night before. I stopped, and it turned out it was a woman who had brought Zeke back one rainy night when he got loose. She knows the dogs, as do most of the people on the mountain and those who drive over Fouche Gap Road when I’m walking the dogs. She said she would look for them. Our neighbors said they would, too.

I am not optimistic. I’m afraid something has happened to the dogs. They would have come home if they could, so something is preventing it. I have no idea what it is. It could range from being lost at best to having been shot by someone who didn’t want them on their property at worst. Zoe was dragging her long leash when she disappeared. It’s possible she could have snagged it on something, but she has shown a tendency to chew on it, so I doubt it would take long before she chewed through it. I imagine they stayed together, at least as long as they could.

I drove more than 30 miles all around Texas Valley on Thursday afternoon. But we are in the middle of thousands of acres of forest, and there is no particular reason the dogs would be on the road at any given time. Driving around looking gives me the feeling of doing something, but I have no real expectation of finding them on the road. I walked through the woods later Thursday, following where they had disappeared, trying to see if there was some sign, but I saw nothing. I thought about looking further in the woods, but covering the areas where they might be would take me weeks, if not months. It’s not a realistic plan.

I am having some lost-dog posters printed. I will take one to animal control Friday, and I’ll post some around the mountain. Both dogs have tags with our phone number, and both are chipped. If anyone finds them it would be easy for them to contact us. I continue to hope, but deep down, I am afraid they are gone for good.

UPDATE: Sam showed up in our front yard a little after 9 pm Thursday. He ran back into the woods but eventually came out after I went in looking for him. Zoe has not shown up. From this I assume that something happened to Zoe. It does give some hope that Zoe might still be out there and might still come home.