{"id":71,"date":"2010-12-09T10:34:18","date_gmt":"2010-12-09T10:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendywolfe.wordpress.com\/?p=71"},"modified":"2010-12-09T10:34:18","modified_gmt":"2010-12-09T10:34:18","slug":"maddies-last-big-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wendywolfe.com\/?p=71","title":{"rendered":"Maddie’s last big adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wanted to share a story with you about our Toy Poodle, Madelyn, aka, Maddie.\u00a0 This happened on December 16, 2005 and will stay forever\u00a0 in my memory.\u00a0\u00a0 But before I start the story, I wanted to let you know that my birthday is in a couple of weeks.\u00a0 If you feel so inclined, you can help me celebrate by supporting one of my favorite causes…the animals.\u00a0 I have a page at the Waupaca County Humane Society where you can make a small donation (even $1 helps) or I suppose a big donation if you just won the lottery.\u00a0 Here’s the link and Many Thanks.\u00a0 Waupaca County Humane Society<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Maddie the explorer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was a cold December evening, about 6:30 pm.\u00a0 I was home alone nursing a cold with the dogs while Becky was at an office Christmas party.\u00a0 I opened the patio door to shake off a rug when Maddie decided to dart out the door running like a maniac towards the barn.\u00a0 Normally, this would not be a big deal.\u00a0 She would run down to the barn, snatch a couple of horse apples and come right back to me.\u00a0 Not on this very cold night.<\/p>\n

You see, we had already received about 2 feet of snow that year and paths were plowed to the barn and down the driveway.\u00a0 Because the snow was so high, it was a bit like a tunnel to an 8 pound dog.\u00a0 And did I mention she is white?\u00a0\u00a0 Have you ever tried to find a white dog in white snow?\u00a0\u00a0 By the time I grabbed my coat, a flashlight and boots she was nowhere to be found.\u00a0<\/p>\n

How was I to find a white poodle in the snow? I looked down and saw her foot prints in the snow and followed them down\u00a0our long\u00a0driveway to Pleasant Drive.\u00a0 With all the snow piled up in drifts she was confused and just kept running down the driveway.\u00a0 At the end of the driveway I couldn’t tell which way she had gone.\u00a0 There were many prints and it was hard to know if they were hers or a rabbits.\u00a0 After about 30 minutes I\u00a0got really scared.\u00a0 She had never done this before.\u00a0 I began to think of all the horrible things that could happen to a little dog like her; owls, coyotes, cars.\u00a0 I tried to communicate with her but was too upset to get anything.\u00a0 Fear had closed my heart, the key to\u00a0communication.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I searched and searched and searched not even noticing how cold my face and hands were.\u00a0 At one point I fell down on my knees, crying out, sobbing, “not Maddie, not Maddie”.\u00a0 I was angry with God.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I called my friend Jodi who\u00a0arrived about\u00a08 pm to help me search.\u00a0\u00a0You know who your true friends are when they will drop everything, drive 45 minutes and come help you search for your dog in freezing weather.\u00a0 And it was cold. \u00a0I kept watching the temperature in my car drop, it was 12 degrees last time I looked.\u00a0 More panic.\u00a0 Even if she had escaped the owls surely she would be frozen by now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I tried calling Becky’s cell phone at least 10 times.\u00a0 She had left it in her car.\u00a0 When she finally began her trip home and saw all the calls from me she knew something was terribly wrong.\u00a0 Finally, Becky\u00a0arrived home after 9 and we continued to search for our Maddie.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At this point I was able to collect myself enough to connect in with her.\u00a0\u00a0 Maddie was scared and confused.\u00a0 She didn’t know where she was and all she could see was snow and trees.\u00a0 I told her we were looking for her and that she needed to stay safe.\u00a0 “Maddie, find a house with lights on, you will be safe near a home”\u00a0 And if you can find an open garage or some other place to get out of the cold you need to do that”.\u00a0 “We will keep searching until we find you”. “Just look for lights”.<\/p>\n

I went to all the neighbors who were home.\u00a0 I gave them our phone number but no one had seen her.\u00a0 By 11 pm I figured the neighbors were not comfortable opening their doors to a stranger at that hour, so I went back to searching up and down Pleasant, out in the woods, and down Hwy 54.\u00a0 I gave up about 12:30, sobbing, sure she was gone.\u00a0 Fear had taken over again and I could not connect with Maddie.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Becky continued to search until about 1:30 then went out again at 4 am.\u00a0 Neither of us slept all night so it’s no wonder my cold got worse and Becky got the flu.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The next morning we called all the shelters, sheriffs and vets.\u00a0 We made up a poster.\u00a0 I remembered what Tiger had taught me and reminded Becky.\u00a0 Our animal companions are here with us for a certain time and when their work is done they will leave.\u00a0 And so we surrendered to the possibility that this was what was meant to be, though we weren’t giving up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

About 10 minutes later the phone rang.\u00a0 Becky ran to the phone, sure it was about Maddie.\u00a0 My fear convinced me Becky was\u00a0 unrealistic.\u00a0 Fear is an interesting thing, it truly is False Evidence Appearing Real.\u00a0\u00a0 When we allow fear to get hold of us we lose perspective and lose sight of our inner wisdom.<\/p>\n

On the phone\u00a0was a neighbor (not someone we know), she had Maddie and she was fine!\u00a0 She had opened up her blinds that morning, looked out the window and Maddie was sitting next to a bush in the sunlight.\u00a0 She said she noticed Maddie because there was a beam of sunlight shining on her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The woman followed Maddie’s tracks and discovered she had spent the night huddled in the window well of her basement window on a piece of styrofoam.\u00a0 She called a neighbor who was one of the people I had talked to and was given our phone number.\u00a0 She brought her in, put her by the fireplace and fed her Chex and milk.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I asked Becky, “where do they live”?\u00a0 She replied “You know, that house on Hwy 54 with all the Christmas Lights.\u00a0 They have about\u00a012 pine trees lining the driveway all covered in Christmas lights as well as the entire front of the house.\u00a0 \u00a0Maddie heard me and followed my instructions; she went to the house with lights.<\/p>\n

It’s amazing to think that she survived a night in single digit temperatures and didn’t have frostbite anywhere.\u00a0 This little\u00a08 lb dog, smart little thing that she is, survived out in the cold night.\u00a0 She became our Christmas miracle that year.\u00a0\u00a0 The angels watched over Maddie that night and kept her safe.\u00a0\u00a0 And we let her know, this was her Last Big Adventure.\u00a0\u00a0 By the way, she has never darted out in the snow since.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wanted to share a story with you about our Toy Poodle, Madelyn, aka, Maddie.\u00a0 This happened on December 16, 2005 and will stay forever\u00a0 in my memory.\u00a0\u00a0 But before I start the story, I wanted to let you know that my birthday is in a couple of weeks.\u00a0 If you feel so inclined, you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","entry","gs-1","gs-odd","gs-even","gs-featured-content-entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wendywolfe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wendywolfe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wendywolfe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wendywolfe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wendywolfe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wendywolfe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wendywolfe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wendywolfe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wendywolfe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}