Our other child

While this blog is almost entirely dedicated to the happenings in Margaux's life, it should also be known that we have an older child named Fergus.  Fergus is 9 1/2 and a lot furrier than Margaux. He's the family dog.  For the first time in his life, Fergus ran away over the weekend.  Mike's dad had the misfortune of being on duty when Fergus decided to make a break for it.  And, wouldn't you know it, Fergus decided to go walkabout on the coldest nights of the year.  He was missing for 3 nights.  We cried, called the animal shelter, posted signs, visited all the vets in town, and cried some more.  Where was this lovely guy who usually laid on the couch all day in our warm living room?  Finally, after much agony and worry, the phone rang!  A man was driving to his office downtown and saw one of our signs.  A few miles down the road he saw a black schnauzer like the one described in the sign drinking from a broken water main near the library.  He got Fergus in his car and went back to the sign so he could get our number.  When I answered, he said he had a black schnauzer in his car and asked if I was missing one.  Yes! Yes, I was! He was about a block away when he called so he drove Fergus straight to our house.  I was crying so hard, I am not sure I even remembered to thank the man.  I did get his name, so I plan to write him a note. The good deed he did that day made our family complete again.  A few interesting details from this saga.  First, the man who found him said he knew no dog with a Nantucket collar should be drinking from the water main.  That cracked me up.  The second thing, which is really weird, is that someone obviously had Fergus for at least part of the time because his beard, eyebrows, and eyelashes had been cut.  The person clearly wasn’t in the dog grooming business because he looked pretty crazy when we got him back.  Last, the library where he was found is over 4 miles away. I am super impressed that Fergus survived.  It was 20 degrees out on those nights!  I would have taken Fergus for more “Lady” and less “Tramp,” but I guess I was wrong.  As I write this, he’s back on the couch where he should be.  Oh, and he went to the groomer today, she was able to make him look like he does in this picture.