A real life hostage situation

A little while back we posted about a "hostage situation" happening in our house thanks to sleep deprivation brought on by the transition to the toddler bed. Today, our family experienced a real life hostage situation. The short version of the story is our dog was lost, she is back now, and we have been happily loving on her all evening. Read on for the longer version of the events, and the hostage portion.

This morning began like any other. Penny, our puppy, ate her breakfast and I put her in the backyard to await walk time. Lyndsie had gone up to church for first service and Noah was being a sleepy head so Penny was out for a little longer than normal. That isn't totally crazy in our family though. She loves the outdoors and often curls up in a sunny spot for a nap. When Noah got up, I got him ready and loaded into the stroller. We headed to the back yard to grab out pup for a walk. Normally, she comes running when she hears the door open but not so this time. I didn't think too much of it because I figured she had found a good napping spot. I called to her and jingled her leash which normally brings her running. Nothing. That was when I noticed a single slat out of place in our fence.

Penny is an American Foxhound. She smells things and follows her nose every which way. As soon as we figured out she was loose I took off into the neighborhood to find her. I also texted Lyndsie to let her know. We tried our normal walking route...nothing. We tried our extended routes...nothing. My heart broke as Noah alternated between shouting "Penny! Where are you?" And saying "Penny's gone."

Apparently, when Lyndsie got the text at church some church members/friends noticed her distraught face and immediately said, "what's wrong? What do you need?" They then dropped everything, rushed to our house, and helped. One person watched Noah while he played with their daughter while the other wandered the neighborhood with me trying to think like a hound dog. We listened for other dogs going nuts. We chased angry squirrel noises into the woods. We covered so much ground that my fitness tracker declared that I had reached my goal for the day by 11 am. Meanwhile, other church members took over Sunday School classes and covered for absences. Lyndsie was able to leave church and head back to search too. Other church members/friends took off in cars around the neighborhood covering more ground, Ladies and gentlemen, that is called being the church in the world. Yet again, I thank God for my church family.

With every passing hour our desperation and despair grew. Folks, we lost it. There was weeping, there was guilt, there was grief. One of our family was missing. If you aren't a pet person, you likely don't understand. If you are a pet person, you can picture it vividly. We had taken to the car too slowly driving the neighborhood shaking her food bowl out the window and calling her name. All of the sudden, Lyndsie's phone rang and it was the woman who fostered Penny be for we adopted her. She reported that someone had found her but that the situation was bad. We feared she had been struck by a car or something. It turns out she was not but it still wasn't good. The foster mom gave us the number of someone from the Humane Society who was on the way.

It turns out Penny still had her tags from being in the Humane Society system and the person that had found her called that number. This man was trying to extort money for Penny's safe return. He threatened to harm Penny and to harm the man from the Humane Society who was coming to get her. Despair for our lost dog turned to fear for her safety and shock at the sin in the world.

To greatly speed up this next portion, I'll skip some of the details. To jump ahead, we proceeded to the police station to meet officers and the Humane Society gentleman. On the way we called our pet microchip company to report her lost. We were told we may need to this step in case we have to fight to get our dog back from the bad man who had found her.

At the station, officers tried to get the story together (it was incredibly complicated at the time) and also to get information about who this person was who was holding Penny. Humane Society man listened to his voicemails and suddenly there was hope. A coworker of mine let a voicemail saying she had Penny. Praise God, light at the end of the tunnel! All of the sudden, my phone began ringing and it was the microchip company. They said they had a woman on the line who had Penny and was trying to get her home safely. They patched her through and it was my coworker! She was surprised to hear me, I was overjoyed to hear from her in that moment. We agreed to meet up at our home. Police and Humane Society traveled too. I think I broke a few traffic laws getting there but...no ticket, no problem.

It seems once the extortionist didn't get immediate cooperation and threats of police were brought into the picture, he released Penny. My coworker, her husband, and some college students found Penny crossing Main Street (4 lanes of busy traffic) and managed to corner her in the Tractor Supply parking lot.

Penny was safely returned to a very appreciative family thanks to a bunch of really amazing people. We are so thankful for a small town community willing to help, good friends who dropped everything when we were in need, and kind strangers her were willing to comb the neighborhood for us. As for the guy who held her hostage, I pray that whatever life circumstance he is in gets better. If he was so desperate for money that he would harm others to get it, then truly he needs prayer. In the off chance that he reads this, there is always a place in our pews for you with the people who drop everything for each other.