“Steven?!?”
“Yes?”
“Can you come over?  Chloë got out and ran down to the end of the street and I can’t get her!”

My aunt Joanne is a wonderful person, a widow in her early 80’s, who still lives alone in the house she and my uncle bought in the early 70’s.  Just like her sister Mary, my mother, she has a penchant for attracting the strangest assortment of animals as pets.  She has the heart of St. Francis and has found her latest adoptees  from Animal Rescue groups who appear on the local morning news programs from time to time.  Chloë is the latest and most unique of all her pets.

Knowing that my aunt would be a little frantic at the thought of her dog running around the neighborhood, which is bounded by very busy streets, I rushed to her house to help the Search and Rescue teams that had no doubt been called into action.

My aunt was not at home when I arrived, so I knew that she was cruising the area in her Toyota minivan, trying to at least keep an eye on the dog until I managed to find them.  Trying to imagine which way the dog would run when set free, I circled the neighboring blocks around my aunt’s house to no avail.

Finally, turning a corner in the direction I least expected, I found my aunt’s van pulled to the curb, along with one of her neighbors, and an unlucky pair of plumbers that had been deputized into the posse.  Little Chloë was cornered under a car in someone’s carport still managing to stay out of reach of neighbors and plumbers alike.

Meet Chloë

Chloë

As I said before, Chloë came to my aunt from Animal Rescue.  So, what sort of animal is she that she managed to stage her own spring break-out and elude being captured by five grown adults?

Meet Chloë, a 10 lbs Japanese Chin, with one eye and four teeth.  She unfortunately came from the awful confines of a puppy mill and was so traumatized that she usually cowers under the bed.  But not on this day!  Today, Chloë broke free and ran the neighborhood just like the big dogs.

Eventually, Chloë was captured and returned home where she parked herself in the corner of the kitchen with a knowing gleam of excitement in her one remaining eye.  I imagine that some instinctual desire to feel the sun and wind in her face was at least momentarily satisfied.

Well done Chloë!  Please don’t do it again any time soon.

My clothes still smell like wet dog.

(here’s a shout out to Mullins Plumbing whose employees were neighborly and helped in the great search)