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| Tony 6 months old Christmas 2001 |
In September, we drove for an hour to a farm, to pick out a puppy from a large litter of German Shorthairs. They were all on a blanket, and we decided that the first one to make it to the tree a short distance away, would be ours. They were still too young to come home that day, but we made our choice -- Tony!
Tony was to be a hunter & running buddy for Mike. As Tony grew, it was Nate that developed a very special bond with Tony. They wrestled and slept together! Tony had the cushy life' unlike his brothers & sisters who were living outdoors, he was sleeping on the couch & warming his hiney by the fireplace!
It was on a rainy day,Sunday, the 16th of December, that our lives were changed forever.....
Tony was out in our fenced in back yard... and when it was time for him to come in....he was no where to be found!
Panic! When we all realized that Tony was no where to be found, we all jumped into action - CHAOS broke out! Children still in their jammies and barefeet were running up and down the sidewalks hollering TONY, TONY.... My hubby jumped in his car & drove the streets....since we were unsuccessful, we were hoping he would be. When he came home empty handed, ....our hearts sunk! I jumped in the car with the 3 children & drove the streets for another hour --- still unsuccessful!
The children all cried so, that day, Nate would bring me to his bedroom (a thing he does when he needs to tell me something) ---and just bawl --- missing his BEST FRIEND! He found a book that he had written about Tony, earlier in the year, and read it to me... he found all the pictures of Tony, and showed them to me. Tony had really been a big important part of our lives, but especially for Nate.
Monday came, after a terrible sleepless night. The children had to go to school. We had to go to work. We placed an ad in the newspaper, contacted all the animal shelters, vets, police dept. and street department -- No one had seen our Tony.
Tuesday, same drill... no one had seen him, except for a man that worked at one of the shelters...he said he had seen him running down 48th street and 4th ave. on Sunday. That is quite a hike from our home; but Tony is a hunting dog, and probably got excited by the smells!
Mike and I went to work, going about our business, in a fog.. wishing folks a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays & Good Cheer, all the time feeling so helpless and empty inside, from the great hole in our hearts.
We got an encouraging phone call from a lady that had seen Tony in her driveway and near her house on Sunday night, but had not let him in! She thought that he went back out into the woods! OH how frustrated we were!!
Wednesday came; Mike went to drive the area where Tony had been seen, before he had to go to the schools he was scheduled to see that day. The younger children had their holiday program at school that day. They dressed up so nice, and sang so well, despite their heavy aching hearts. I went to the office, and began working the phones again, after driving the area myself, during my lunch break.
One of Nates teachers told me, that they were writing in their journals at school, about what they wanted for Christmas, and Nate wrote in his, that all he wanted for Christmas was his dog Tony. My heart was CRUSHED. Imagine what I felt like inside, knowing that there was a slim to none chance that we were going to get Tony back. It had been 3 nights already, and no one had called about seeing him recently; and none of the shelters had him, I even called the road crews, to see if they had seen a dog that had been hit.
Regardless, we made another big push. Mike took posters that we had made up around to the city of Moline maintainence garage, and then to the newspaper, that would run a 6 inch ad on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. All this effort, would make Tony one of Molines' "Most Wanted" dogs! We were praying that all this would work, but afraid to get our hopes up.
At about 3:30 that afternoon, we received a phone call from a man that had worked at the city maintainence garage. He had seen a dog that looked like that, running in the ravine, near his house; for two days!
With higher hopes, Mike jumped into his car and drove to that area, walking the ravine for nearly an hour -- no luck. When Alexis and I left the office, we too went to that area, and walked around in the ravines -- no luck. That night, feeling so close, yet so far....we all dressed warm -- it is December, remember. We gathered some flashlights, and we all headed to the woods, in the dark. The only thing we found was a heard of deer, staring at us, with their big green eyes. They were probably wondering what we were doing in their habitat, making such a ruckus! Needless to say, we came home empty handed. Tony was not to be found. We all went to bed that night feeling better that we had tried, yet we were depressed and worried. Mike and I both slept terrible... having dreams about being in the woods. At 3:00am, we were both to worried to sleep any longer. Mike had decided that he would spend his Thursday, in the woods and ravines searching for Tony. I was on a big prayer campaign with St. Anthony, and St. Michael the Archangel, who I believe to be one of the most influential saints. I had been praying all along, but was especially devoted and focused this morning, knowing that we just HAD to get him back today. The weather up until now had been pretty tolerable, but it was going to get colder and Tony was SUCH a BABY.
The task ahead, was not going to be easy. The wooded area is so big, and he had been gone now for 4 nights. I knew that it would take a miracle to get Tony and Mike together in the same spot, at the same time!
I printed out some prayers to St. Anthony, and when the kids woke up, I gave the prayers to them. We huddled in one of the bedrooms, and prayed together, that Mike would find Tony. I ran to the grocery store, at 6:00AM, to buy a box of bones to shake, and a squeaky toy, that Mike could take with him, to make noise in the woods. By 6:30AM, Mike was out and driving around, and we were still praying.
Then something unexplainable happened....according to Mike.... he had been driving the ravine area, for about half an hour. Seeing nothing, he was going to make a right turn, and head down the hill, to the city garage, to try to talk to the man that had seen Tony before. For some reason, instead of turning right, he somehow turned LEFT, and heading up the hill, driving slowly, turning his head and looking in his rear view mirror.... he saw a movement out of the corner of his eye. Mike saw TONY! He stopped his car in the middle of the street...driver door wide open, and went to where he had seen him.... MIRACULOUSLY, Tony and Mike were in the SAME SPOT at the SAME TIME! When Tony first saw Mike coming, he ran away. Mike did not chase, but sat down, in someone's driveway and started talking to him ....he was scared, cold, disoriented & hungry. It took about 10 minutes of coaxing to get Tony to come close enough.
At 7:00am, we received the call, from Mike's car, that he HAD TONY! We could hear Tony CRYING and CRYING in the background. It was the best sound we had ever heard! Tony laid by the warm fireplace all day! Our family cried tears of joy that day, Dec. 20th, 2001, and is still praising the Lord, for miraculously putting the two of them, in the same place at the same time.
.....and Nate has his Tony boy, back in time for Christmas :)
