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Rascal and Bubba

My friend, Micki has a little maltese mix named Rascal. I have a Bichon named Bubba. They get along ok, except in the car because they don’t like to take turns driving. Rascal was 11 years old when he got out of the fence at the groomer’s and ran into the woods. We all looked for days for Rascal, including Bubba. We went up and down the roads and through the woods, calling Rascal, and Bubba would bark to Rascal. Micki always said Rascal was her best friend. We did not find him. 3 months later, Micki moved to Virginia.

 

About 6 months after she moved, I came home from work to a voice mail from a lady saying she had my dog. Well, I looked over at Bubba and thought, what is she talking about? So, I called her and told her she had left the message on the wrong person’s machine. She said ‘no, the vet gave me your number, off the rabies tag, and said this dog’s name is Rascal.’ After 9 months! I could not believe it. I had forgotten that I had taken Rascal for his shots with Bubba and the vet put him in my name – that was a miracle itself, because they never would have found Micki.The woman said she found him outside her house, matted cold and hungry – about 40 miles away from where he went missing! Well, I did not call Micki right away because I wanted to be sure I had Rascal first. I asked the lady if she would take Rascal to my co-workers house, who lived in her town, because I didn’t know that town, so she did that and my co-worker brought Rascal to work the next day.

 

When I saw Rascal in her car, he went to scratching on the window and trying to get to me. I just cried and was so happy! I went home and called Micki and got her voice mail. I left her a message ‘Micki, this is Marsha, I have an old friend of yours here.’ She called me back ‘You have Rascal! She was screaming. ‘Put him on a plane’ I said ‘Micki, let me keep him a few days and get him groomed – he’s pretty matted and dirty’ No, she wanted him on a plane, so my husband and I took him to Dallas. Another place we are not familiar with. We drove around and around the airport, trying to get to the live animal area. I thought he was going to miss his plane. I put a note on his kennel ‘My name is Rascal. Help me get home to mom – I’ve been lost 9 months. Micki said when she arrived at the airport, she was on one side of a wall looking for the desk where the animals were and she said to someone ‘is the line for the animals?’ Well, Rascal was sitting in his kennel on the other side of that wall, and he went nuts, barking, crying, moving that kennel up and down. The woman running the counter was afraid he was going to work the kennel off the counter. Meanwhile, Micki knew that was Rascal, she came around the corner-straight to the head of the line and grabbed the kennel – and the lady just said ‘ go ahead honey take your dog! ‘ The note was still on the kennel. That was about 5 years ago. Rascal is slowing down some now, but still driving around with his mom.

 

Marsha from TX