Ripley's Story

To travel to places that would be out of place for a sweet little Chihuahua.

Everyone in our family gets their own tag, and this one is to tell the story of our Chihuahua, Ripley and her adventure last summer. We decided to go up north for a fishing trip. While we could take our older dog Raskel, we didn't trust that Ripley wouldn't run away into the bush so we left her with a kennel on an acreage just outside of town. Several days into our trip, we recieved a message that we needed to contact the kennel ASAP. With intermittant cell service, we were able to determine that Ripley escaped and we needed to come home right away. We jumped into the car, leaving our children with their grandparents. So started two weeks of searching. Our whole town was on the look out. We were running into strangers on back roads who were helping search for our pup. We had given up hope. This was a little dog, there were coyotes, foxes, owls, all types of creatures out there bigger and stronger and all hungry. The fields were waist high at this time of the season so we couldn't see through them although we did walk and call out through many. With heavy hearts we called off the search. One morning we got a call that Ripley had been spotted at the acreage where she went missing from. My husband borrowed a live trap, and we went to McDonalds to get some "bait"... Ripley could never resist their fries. We placed the trap with some toys and the fries inside and around and held our breath. Was she really spotted? or was it another little creature? The next morning the owner of the kennel called and said to come out right away. Ripley was in the trap. We couldn't believe it. We drove out there and slowly approached the kennel. It was Ripley!! For two weeks she was gone. We don't know where she hid or how she survived, but we caught her. After a teary reunion with the family, we brought her home. She was cold, wet, skinny and mosquito bitten. The vet checkup was good, and we had our Ripley back, safe and sound. We don't know what Ripley did on her adventures, but going forward, the family believes her travels are much better taken by her bug- and she can stay warm and cozy beside us on the couch!