~~~Miss Annie Dog Love~~~

I was feeling so good last night that for once we were ahead of the game on preparations for winter. Unlike last year at this time, we have a tractor and loader for moving big amounts of snow. We have a snowblower.

I have eight bales of hay in the barn, which I hauled from the hay shed yesterday. There's plenty of grain in the barn.

The dogs all have blankets and a heater for their living room in the garage.

When I checked to see that all cats were in, I came into the house and said proudly that everyone was present and accounted for. Let the storm begin.

This morning, however, the best laid plans of mice and Marianne went sadly awry. I got up first, made the coffee and went to open the door to let the dogs out. I was figuring they may not stay out long, but they needed their morning run.

I walked into the garage, turned on the light and only two dogs were there. Annie was gone; the door leading to the garage was slightly open. Suddenly I remembered getting up in the night, looking out the front window and noticing a trail leading across the front yard in front of the deck. I had figured that a deer had come moseying through.

Instead, those were Annie's tracks, almost covered by this time. How did she get out, why did she get out, and where did she go?

I put on my coat and hat, grabbed a flashlight and followed the trail. It led around the house. I looked under the deck.

Then, it dawned on me why our old dog would leave her warm spot in the midst of a winter storm. We have a steep pitch to the roof, and when the snow comes off, it rumbles LOUD like thunder. Annie's scared to death in thunder storms.

I went back inside and told Bill, all the time thinking of the horror of finding Annie frozen in a snowdrift somewhere, if we could find her at all. I was also mad---thinking about every precaution taken to make our old gal as comfortable as possible during the winter. I had forgotten about the noise on the roof during winter storms.

While I put on some more clothes, Bill went down the lane to the hayshed to see if she may have gone there. He looked in other sheds. We knew she wouldn't be in the barn because the door was closed.

Then, we headed off, each with a flashlight into the woods where the wind was blowing pretty fiercely and where any tracks made by a dog would be covered. Still, the woods seemed like the most logical place for her to go to stay warm. We figured she could find a little shelter among the trees toward the middle of each grove. We called and looked while walking through snow up to our knees.

My visions of running across Annie sometime later in the winter when the snow melted made me almost sick to my stomach.

We went back to the house, hoping she might just be sitting on her couch in the garage, having come back from wherever during our absence. No Annie.

I thought about the slim possibility that she could maybe squeeze her way through an opening on the northwest side of the barn; it's at a point where we have another door which we don't use. The cats can get through, but it would be a tough squeeze for Annie. Nevertheless, it was worth a look. In the meantime, Bill headed for the road with his flashlight.

As I neared the barn, where K102.5 blares loudly all night long to keep the horses from being scared by creatures that go bump in the night, I saw the two Border Collies coming out of the front door to the barn. Getting closer, I saw that the door was slightly open, having been pushed to the east.

I slid it open some more, turned on the light, and who would greet me with a big grin but dear old Annie. Happy as a clam.

I yelled at Bill, "I found her. If she can get the door to the garage open, she can get the door to the barn open too!"

What a welcome sight! I don't think Annie has a clue how much ruckus she caused all the rest of us, but I don't care. She was warm, safe and happy. She knew exactly what to do when that snow went bump in the night: go to the barn where the country music drowns it all out!

A happy ending indeed!