spike's story... since you know, he's like famous

since so many were invested in helping us find Spike (seriously, thank you people!), I thought I would give a little background and then tell you how we found him. But mostly it's just for me to remember years down the road so I can laugh at this experience because it was such a major crisis at the time.

Spike is my in-law's dog.
He is the son to my parents dog.
I'll explain.

My mom is one of those crazy dog people.
She puts our dogs in dog shows, gets them trained, and once they win, she breeds them (done this twice).
We are a lover of Portuguese Water dogs. They are pure bred (meaning you can only breed them if they win so many times at dog shows) so the dogs are rare and hardly anyone knows what they are (until Obama got one... gee thanks!).  Ironically, Jeff was raised with a Water dog in the home, too.

In the Summer of 2009, my mom bred our dog Zippy.  Jeff's mom was missing having a Water dog in the home since theirs died in 2007. My mom was also planning on keeping one of the puppies.  My mom always takes a girl, and Jeff's mom likes the boys. Zippy had 4 boys and 2 girls. Guess which dog was my favorite? SPIKE. Except we named him Crew.

He had the cutest little markings. I fell for him. I held him every day and watched him grow for 2 months until Jeff's mom came to choose. My mom chose Amie (my least favorite... she's still crazy) and Jeff's mom chose Spike. I was ecstatic! I could still see my little guy.

Does he remember me?
I like to think so.
Every time I go over to Jeff's parents' house he runs and jumps on me. He about knocks me over every time. He doesn't settle down until I grab a toy for him to fetch. I

Jeff's parents create a dog heaven on earth. They take Spike on walks every day. He goes to Heber about every day and runs with horses and plays with other pups up there. He gets so dirty that my MIL washes him about every day. He gets to eat the great foods we eat. He is spoiled. And so loved.

Now onto the story.
Last Tuesday, my MIL took Spike to her daughter's house in Orem.  They were going skiing so she left him in my sister in law's backyard with my SIL's dog.  About 2 hours later they received a phone call that their dog was on their porch (they had dug a hole under the fence).  Of course my SIL's dog came back -- it was her neighborhood.  But Spike was long gone. They raced home and called Jeff to go find him. I heard 2 hours later and came rushing over with my dogs so confident that they would sniff him out and find their son and brother. WRONG.

I posted on Facebook that my dog was missing -- had anybody seen him?
i love the internet.
Within minutes I had people telling me where they had seen him.  We jumped into the car and raced to 8th north because it was the most recent sighting. We had 5 cars roaming the area and couldn't find him. I was so confident we would find him before dark, but no.

We went home and 30 minutes later, I got another lead. He had just been seen by OHS 15 minutes ago. My MIL, my mom, and SIL searched the area. Jeff and I jumped in the car and raced there. Calling his name... couldn't find him.

Wednesday we heard nothing. We didn't know where to look so we looked everywhere. At 6pm we heard he was still by OHS at 7:30 that morning. So we concentrated on that area. But you can only do so much when the sun goes down at 7.  These were cold nights, too.

It was so depressing. All I could do was think about this dog. I couldn't get any homework done. I wanted to skip all my classes. I was feeling for this animal!

Thursday we set out early, determined to find Spike. He was staying in this area so we posted more LOST DOG signs. They were on every block. We had 5+ cars roaming at all times. Every street corner I'd turn, I would see my mother in law roaming the same block. Jeff walking the same street. How were we not finding him?!!

That night we heard he was by 400 n so we rushed there. Couldn't find him. Jeff and I staked out intersections so we wouldn't miss him. For 6 hours that intersection was watched. NOTHING!! Then, finally, when I decided at 1:30 in the morning that I would go to bed and try again the next day. Jeff made me. I wanted to pull an all nighter. I had to find this dog. Then, we got a lead that he was by CVJH. Jeff and I searched and couldn't find him.  Found somebody else's dog and returned him though (Jeff returned 3 lost dogs during these 3 days) but no Spike!

I woke up at 7:30 Friday morning and decided I would talk to all the kids going to school to see where he was. No one could tell me where he was that day just where he was days before ..... "oh that dog... i saw him at recess! Yeah, he was playing with us at recess yesterday." uh.... seriously? and no one called the pound? where are the teachers?! "oh that dog? yeah, he chased me on my bike yesterday!" I put up more flyers in that area. Now they were on every block of those streets. I set out with the dogs to find Spike again and got a phone call.

A woman had called my MIL and said she saw Spike crying at the mouth of the canyon on the east side of University Avenue. This lady said she had never taken her phone with her running except for that day. She saw the dog and then saw Jeff's flyer (perfect spot, babe! good job!) and called the number on the flyer. We raced to the location. Spike was no where to be found. SERIOUSLY?!! We scattered. Someone on 8th north, someone on Univ ave, and someone up the canyon.  No sign of him. My MIL was about to drive away (she was at the gravel pit -- a construction site a little up the canyon) when she saw this little black thing on the top of a ridge. She got out of her car and called his name. He didn't come to her. She got closer and kept calling his name. He finally realized it was his mom (my opinion) and not just more people calling his name that he could never get to and came running toward her. She said he got to her and looked at her like "what?" She had a chicken breast in the car and when I got there he drank 4 of my water bottles. He looked pretty ratty but looked pretty good for what he'd been through! We'll never know what he went through. I wish he had a camera on top of his head so we could see.

I am so grateful my MIL found him and in one piece. All those busy roads he crossed... it's pretty amazing. I'm grateful she found him when she did because I'm not so sure he would have been alive a few hours later. Going up that canyon he would have gotten hit or something else would have happened.

I'm thankful for the kind people who cared and helped us look for Spike. Seriously I had so many people help. And only few were friends. Most were acquaintances or friends from high school that I never see anymore. I'm grateful for their giving attitudes. I'm pretty sure there was a lot of gas wasted on finding Spike but I really appreciate all those who helped and sacrificed their time and money. You have brought back my MIL's best friend. I don't know how she would have functioned without him. He is her buddy. He goes with her EVERYWHERE. And he is very loved.

THANK YOU!
I'll never be able to express how grateful i am.

This was such a time of crisis for us and knowing that you cared and were helping made it better.

We had a celebratory dinner for Spike yesterday because we were so happy to have him home!

(this really happened randomly... i was just lucky to have my phone in hand. love this dog)