Savannah

Since finding her way home from her 12 days of being a lost dog, I can see a definite change in our Savannah. That puppy who loved to go outside and walk has been replaced by a dog whose only mission outside is to use the grass for bodily functions and then get back inside the house as soon as possible.

During the first few days of being home, Savannah wanted no part of the path leading to our driveway, which leads up to the road. I have to wonder if she truly remembers that the firework explosions happened when we were walking up there on our road. To this day, Savannah still wants no part of the driveway and that road.

Savannah walks towards the left as soon as we get down the porch steps... her grass of preference is now behind the garage and in the backyard. She will barely even look down the driveway, and one can certainly see that she is on high-alert when she's outside. Any sort of noise will have her turning around towards the house. It pains me to see this dog so terrified of being outside, but I can understand her stress. She was lost for 12 days, somewhere out in the woods in our community or in one of the surrounding towns. We'll never know for sure, and Savannah refuses to talk about it.

I have tried making peace in my mind with the across-the-road neighbors whose fireworks sent Savannah running off in the first place. I realize that it was bad timing on my part to be out there, but the lack of concern from those neighbors during those horrible days is just unfathomable. Aside from that, I don't understand why they chose to set fireworks off so close to the road when they have 18 acres of property over there and surely going deeper back into that property would have been safer for everyone on this road. They have no idea how injured I was when I fell to the ground after those cannon blasts, and I don't think they understand the anguish we went through during Savannah's twelve days of being lost.    

Being that those neighbors were the ones who called me on the 13th day to say that they had seen Savannah running up our hill and dragging that long blue leash behind her, I thanked them profusely in person that Sunday morning, and then I called them the next day to once again thank them for letting me know Savannah was running towards home, which made us turn the car around and come back to the house that morning.

I never did give the house key back to those neighbors, as I had planned to do. I was given the key to keep in case of an emergency, but then after the firework fiasco, I didn't want the responsibility of their key.  After Savannah came home, I decided to keep the key if they ever did lock themselves out, and they never knew that I was set to return it.

And now, every day with Savannah going outside and being so terrified of this usually-quiet country bubble... it brings back all the reckless and careless manners of the new neighbors. No matter how much I'm trying to just let it all go, the fear on Savannah's face when she has to go outside is just heart-breaking. That same neighbor also set off fireworks on Memorial Day weekend, so now and forever more I'm thinking that any fireworks in this community will be coming from their property. Not exactly what I would like to look forward to.

We are hoping that our once-happy puppy will forget the trauma of exploding fireworks and being lost in the woods with heaven-only-knows what sort of wildlife. And I am personally hoping that this bitterness in my heart for those neighbors will disappear in time. Bitterness is never good.... it turns to anger, and anger turns to hate. And hate is just never good, no matter the situation.