Phantom Whispers: We are lucky souls

Last Sunday, my husband, the Mailman, took our 10 year old dog, Atlas, to a nearby park to exercise him. Atlas is a pound dog, supposedly a lab mix but from his face a body we figure he is more, pit bull/rottweiller with a bit of lab for good measure. The Mailman had put Atlas in the car, a 10 year old Subaru Forester, tied Atlas so he wouldn't come to the front of the car and opened the windows to give him air. The Mailman noticed his friend with his dog was coming back to his car that was parked behind the Mailman's car. He got out to talk to his friend. They chatted away standing between the car, with the car door open.

As they chatted a man walked past them and jumped into the Subaru with the open door and THE KEYS IN THE CAR. The Mailman and his friend, yelled and tried to pull the man out of the car to no avail. The man managed to start the car and narrowly missing a fire hydrant, drove away with the Subaru and more importantly, Atlas.

The Mailman and his friend jumped into the friend's car and gave chase while calling the police. They lost the man after a few miles due to traffic and a bit of good sense to not run red lights, etc. The man got away.

That night we pondered the fate of our dog. What would someone who stole a car do to a dog, a big dog? A dog that could look scary but was a sweetie. Would he hurt him? Would he just dump him out of the car and if so where? It just went round and round in out minds. We and I went driving around. Our sons went driving around. The Mailman's friend went driving around. No luck. No sign of the car or our dog.

Our hearts were heavy as we went to bed that night. When I went to work out the next morning, the gals at my Curves knew something was wrong and heard my tale of woe. On my way home I drove by the humane society but they weren't open yet. I drove home and was pulling up in front of our house when th Mailman called me on the cell phone. The police had called.

Our car had been found not far from our house (or the humane society). We quickly drove there to find our car AND ATLAS. To shorten an already long story, Atlas was fine. He needed a potty break and some water but he was fine. And the car was fine too, no damage at all.

Are we lucky, or what? Actually, we figure we are blessed. We already knew that, but it's not often that it is so blatantly pointed out to you.

And I was good. I had managed to not play the blame game with the Mailman for which I am grateful that a little maturity has finally sunk in.

And the Mailman has learned a lesson. Never, ever leave your keys in the car...no matter for how short a time or how close to the car you are. You just don't know what will happen.