yesterday was exuberant

4/26/09 Sunday
Yesterday was an exuberant day. Yesterday was Cherie’s birthday. I took her out to a nice expensive restaurant that Steve and Janie suggested. It was nice, and expensive, but we enjoyed it greatly. It was nice to find such an establishment. Cherie had a wonderful birthday.

I wanted to write more about that but am a bit down. We knew that our two outside dogs, Gretchen and Ben, were at risk because they went exploring so much. At about noon I noticed Gretchen had come back alone. That is very unusual. The two of them are always together, all day and all night. My heart sank. I called for Ben and called hoping he would run around the corner, but it was not going to happen. Cherie came out and I told her about Ben being gone. Then I hopped in my truck and started driving up and down the roads looking for him. There was no sign of him. We hope he’ll show up but I think the odds are against it. Gretchen had been running when I saw her. If Ben could have he’d been with her so something happened. At the least we hope someone found him and decided to keep him, and give him a good home.

I hoped Gretchen would lead me to Ben like they do in the movies but she just stayed near me. Now I see her looking around for him and whimpering. This will be hard. They had both just gotten over the depression that came when their daughter, Ginger, was run over. We really like having outside dogs and feel strongly they make the place safer. I would have rather lost Gretchen than Ben. She’s in heat I think and that probably contributed to whatever happened. Poor Ben has been fixed so it was quite frustrating for him. If he doesn’t show by the morning I’ll put up a “Lost Golden Lab” sign in front of the house and we will print up flyers to put in the post office and grocery store.

Right now I’m trying to finish up tying the drip irrigation stuff together and planting everything Cherie bought. I’m depressed. Cherie went to get mail and is driving around looking for Ben.