I selected my little girl “Odette” from the humane society when she was 6 weeks old. A cute little mix / mainly Aussie Shepherd. To be brief, when she was 14 years old, my wife and I took a long weekend in San Diego and had a friend house sit to take care of the place and the dog while we were gone. It was over the July 4th weekend, and my friend didn’t think to bring Odette inside during the fireworks that invariably get fired off around the neighborhood. She spooked and jumped the fence (had never done that before.) Upon my return I scoured the neighborhood, my mom’s house (she lives about 1 mile from me, and across a very busy intersection) and for the next several weeks kept looking at the humane society and animal control. Eventually I gave up on finding Odette.

Then, in late September, my mom called me and said I should come over to her place to see what may be Odette’s remains. Sure enough, I went out behind a shed located in my mom’s back yard and found Odette’s decomposed corpse (identifiable by her collar.) It seems that while my wife and I were away, Odette jumped the fence and ran through traffic to the only other place where she knew she would be loved. My mom never knew she had made the trek over to her place, so Odette wandered over to behind the shed, laid down and dehydrated to death over time (July in Tucson.) Bottom line – she knew where to find loving. Sad to say that we let her down in not being there to give it. Broken heated / how sad. But great memories of our little girl.

Steve from AZ