Jackson's Little Adventure

What a day. i mean, what. a. day. it started out when Philip's alarm went off at 520. I was on call today. but i was second call (the second on call nurse to be called in). So while I was awake I went ahead and called work to see if they were going to need me at 7. yep, they did. apparently people were calling in all over the place. st patty's day got a little crazy I guess.
So I went in. and you are never in that great of a mood when you get called in. but, I did my best.
Around 1130 I got paged telling me I had a phone call. I picked it up and an unfamiliar voice told me she 'was with Windstream and was at my house to bury our cable. When I opened the gate to your backyard, your dog got out and has been missing for an hour and a half.' The first thing I said was why didn't you call me or Philip to tell us you were coming over. she said she didn't have our number. I told her then she had no right to be trespassing into our backyard. She then proceeded to tell me that she ' had to leave because it had already cut 30 minutes into her lunch break'. my frustration went to anger. I told her I couldnt care less (in so many words) about her lunch break. I told her ' you will stay there until my puppy is found'. she then stated that she 'trains dogs and your dog has no recall. he didn't come when i called'. I told her of course not, he was a puppy (again in so many words). I hung up on her. I became a little bit hysterical. I went to our charge nurse, who is a huge animal lover and managed to tell her (in between sobs) i had to leave and go look for my dog. She said go. So i left. I knew we had a 'float nurse' that could take my assignment so I wasn't too worried. I called Philip and it took a few minutes until he could decipher my blubbering and figure out what was going on. He was working in Danville. I told him I would call him back soon. then i called my parents. I love that they are retired. they offered to come up if i needed them. I headed home, and unluckily for her, the windstream woman still at my house. I asked her to leave. actually I told her to get off my property that she had no right to be on in the first place.sorry, I was upset. and had she been apologetic to me I might have reacted differently. but she never once apologized. She did tell me that our wonderful neighbor Mike had been driving around for an hour looking for Jax. I got in my car and started driving. I passed Mike. I was still crying. he said ' i have been searching. we'll find him'. I thanked him. I called my friend Kelly. she couldnt understand me either. I mean, i was a mess. but she managed to figure out it was about Jackson. she started heading towards my house. my manager called her husband who was home and asked him to start looking for Jax. I drove down the streets calling his name. I went down the road to the park. that's where I was when kelly called me back. 'are you at my house?' i answered. ' yes. with your dog'. WHAT! she said she pulled into my drive and jackson was trotting up the driveway. she ushered him into the backyard and slammed the gate. I came speeding back. Jackson was panting and muddy. I was so happy to see him. i didn't even care that he covered my scrubs in mud. I called Mike and he came back and hugged on him too. we are so lucky to have him as our neighbor. that was way above and beyond 'neighborly duties'. Philip ended up being able to leave work and came home too. by the time he got home, jax was home too. I know some of you are thinking ' its just a dog'. well, at this moment him and Maya are the biggest parts of our family. so yes, we love them. a lot.
lessons learned: 1-puppies will run free when given the opportunity. 2-Insight contracts out people to bury cables. they don't tell you they are opening the gate into your backyard, they just let themselves in. 3- we have wonderful friends and neighbors. 4- you don't want to mess with my babies:)