Ahnung's 5 minute adventure!

So yesterday was an exciting day on many levels. We got to go on a home visit for Julius (aka 'son of ahnung') up in Lake Elmo, Minnesota. I've blogged before about a dog, Julius, that was rescued from the same area up at the Red Lake reservation in northern Minnesota where Ahnung is from .... I have every reason to believe that Julius is Ahnung's son. I share more about it on a previous blog post.

Yesterday afternoon I picked up Julius from his foster home in Eagan .... I brought Ahnung with me as Julius' new mom said she would love to meet Ahnung. And my friend Danielle of Canine Coach was also coming (as Julius' new dad is her brother!) and she was going to bring Ahnung's buddy Sharpie. Party time for the dogs!! :)

Julius immediately hit it off with Sharpie. We were out in a more cabin-like atmosphere with lots of wooded areas, space and no cars. Sharpie is used to being off leash. Julius is what we call a "stick around" dog and wasn't going to go anywhere ...or as Danielle said later, a "pack dog" as he was either hanging out with Ahnung or Sharpie. Well ... my sweet girl Ahnung ... I know this about her as I learned this when I first met her up at Red Lake reservation. Her rescuer Karen initially kept her in an outdoor kennel. The photo on the right is of Ahnung when I first met her in October, 2008 after she was dumped and rescued with her litter of 8 pups. She lived in an igloo in an outdoor kennel nursing her pups. Well, at night time she somehow figured out how to escape and climb this 8 ft kennel ... every morning when Karen would come down to the shelter to feed the dogs Ahnung would not be in the kennel and would be roaming around outside. Karen had a calm acceptance about it ... like she just understood Ahnung ... she had her own way and had a free spirit about her and Karen just knew to let her be ... she would tell me, "she'll be back. She'll come back when she's ready." And every morning she always did.

In November, 2008 when I returned to Red Lake to pick her up and bring her to the cities and into Pet Haven's foster program we were planning on leaving early the next morning. Well, Ahnung has escaped her kennel again the night before and was out roaming the reservation .... she hadn't come back for breakfast so I started to worry. Not Karen. She just kept calling out her name and calmly said, "i'll drive around and find her." Karen drove around for 10 minutes and came back empty-handed. She continued to help pack up my car with kennels as I was transporting dogs and cats back to the cities for other rescues and again, calmly said, "she'll be back." She was right, again. Ahnung came strolling back 30 minutes later.

Well, yesterday .... Ahnung decided to take off into the woods. We lost sight of her and started to call out her name. We put Julius and Sharpie in the house so we could go out and start looking for her. Danielle was getting ready to hop in her car to drive around. Part of me didn't panic ... you would think I would've had a heart attack, but I guess I could hear Karen's voice "she'll come back". With every passing minute though, the larger fear inside of me started to kick in .... "up at her reservation, that was her home. She knows the reservation. She doesn't know Lake Elmo. This is her first time here. She won't know how to find her way back, ...... " Then Susan (Julius' new mom) calls out to me as i'm running in the woods "she's back". Lo and behold, my sweet girl, comes sauntering up the driveway as my friend Laura pulls in -- her tongue is hanging out on the side but I swear, she has this biggest grin and smile on her face like she's saying "oh, that was so much fun. I miss roaming around in the woods!"

She was only gone for 5 minutes ... for me it was like an eternity. I guess i'm grateful she decided not to freak me out for too long. She probably heard the panic in my voice as I was calling out her name. As Danielle, who's a dog trainer, tells me "she knows her recall ... she just responds in her own time." I know that nothing can keep her back, not even an 8 ft kennel could stop a 60+ pound dog who had just had a litter of pups! There is a free spirit and a wisdom that Ahnung carries ... i live in the city so what comes with that is having her always be on leash. I don't think my girl is street smart (I did have another rescued dog, Shadow, that was very street and city smart) --- my girl is country and wood smart. Yesterday she had a chance to roam freely for 5 minutes. I could tell she was beyond happy. I just need to remember what her wise rescuer always said, "she'll be back."

Ahnung ... thanks for coming back :)

And Julius, congrats on your new family! You have a rockin' family and we hope that we can continue to be a part of it. I know I want to, and I am sure Ahnung does too ... you are, after all, the "son of ahnung."