Lotus gone & back!!!!

Last Monday I went to the ridinghall where I use to have classes every Monday, very nice as usual :o). After that I went to my hometown to leave all the papers for 2009 to my auditor. On the way back on Tuesday I stopped at my cousins place for a visit. We went for a walk in the wood with all our dogs. We were the first to walk there so the snow was deep, good for Zaa but a little bit hard for Lotus. He did it fine and hold close to us all the time.

We hold a little paus and Lotus were standing close to my cousin, the we went on through the snow. After 2,5 minutes (I measured the time later) I find out that Lotus was gone. He doesn't hear so well anymore so I ran back to look for him. It was almost dark but he had a little light in his collar, couldn't see him. We thought he had went to the small road and back to my cousins house so we went out again. Back home, no Lotus!!!! Went back to the wood and drove around to look for him. No dog, no sound, nothing!!! We started to call a friend who is police, she helped us with some numbers and people we could call. Soon their came a searching-dog and more people to help us. We looked for him the whole night without any results... I was so frustrated and if it wasn't for all nice people that helped me I would have got total panic. At 5 am we went in for some rest and to organize the work for the morning.

We started a facebook-group, called radio, newspapers, printed messages to hang up in the village, called people, knocked on doors and put a reward of 500 Euros for the one/ones who could found him. Not a sign, no one had seen him... :o( I had hundreds of terrible thought wath could had happend and my worst scenario was if we would NEVER find him...!! At last I just had the wish to find him, dead or alive... We decided to start two organized searching rounds at 11 am and 3 pm. When we all met at 11 and get out of our cars there came a young guy out from the forest... with Lotus in a tiny roope...!!!! We couln't belive it, Lotus was back, alive and healthy!!!! :o) The happiness was total and we all attacked the young boy Max and old Lotus with hugs and kisses!! What had happend, where had he been???? Max told us that he went up in the woods (as he knows pretty well) and tried to find some tracks... he went through the deep snow about three kilometers in to the wood and there he found Lotus, walkning away from where we came..! He was lost, totally lost and I think he just walked at random, totally in the wrong direction. But our hero Max luckily came and saved my old Lotus!! Everybody were so happy and it has never been such a pleasure to give away 500 Euros... ;o)  Max was a hero and worth every single cent!

Lotus gets water and cookies from Linn.

Lotus in his tiny roope, the hero of the day, Max and a crying Jenny...

Some of the dogs and people in the happy searching team!!

The rest of the day I talked in telephone  and informed all people that Lotus was back. I was tired and decided to stay at my cousines place until the morning after. I was totally exhausted but so happy... My Lotus was back and all these fantastic people....!! Amazing. I can't belive it. It felt like the whole world were looking for Lotus. Friends, family, students and people I didn't even know. Everybody just left what they did and drove for hours to help me. I can never say thanx enough!!!

He was very thirsty and a bit stiff but otherwise he seemed to be quite unmoved by the incident. The day after my cousins kids trained tricks with him and at my friends place he played with a toy like a crazy... ;o) He looked very dissapointed when he had to stay at home while we went for a walk along the beach with the other dogs. My old, lovely superman!!!

Lotus with "welcome-home-flowers" in a Crufts trophy and Max's roope in his mouth  :o)

- "It's always good to have a roope in the pocket, Max says..."

Today I will go to Nettans place and we will train some agility, nice! Tomorrow I will go to Denmark for a competition. A bit slippery carpet but nice anyway. It's hard to train in the snow and there are so few competitions.

Have you heard about our Swedish Anja Pärson?? She crasched very bad in the downhill skiing race and yesterday she managed to start in the super-combination and she got bronze!! Amazing :o) I'm impressed about that she won over he fear and pain and just did it!! :o)