Finding Shirley

I have been following this little story on Facebook about a 3-year old Great Dane that gone missing for the past 10 days.  Shirley is her name.  Shirley was hit by a car when her mom was taking her out of the car.  She was startled, bolted, and disappeared into the woods.

Shirley's story unfolded in Germantown, a neighborhood of Philadelphia.  Apparently, it has a huge woodsy area because Shirley ran into the woods and has been lost for the past two weeks (since August 29th).

The story got me because as a dog parent, I can relate to the pain, the fear and the heartbreak.  Any pet parent can relate.  It's just like your human child gone missing.  I can't imagine losing any of my dogs.  Fortunately, I never had to experience it with Beau, Max and DuDu.  I'm praying that I would never have to go through such horror with Dexter and Victor.

Shirley's mom has been frantically looking for her.  To complicate things, the mom is in graduate school with a heavy class load, the dad is in the military hundreds of miles away and he is deploying to Afghanistan in two weeks.  Worst, Shirley is injured and has a medical condition called the Addison's Disease.

What's Addison's Disease?  According to Wikipedia, it's a disorder that occurs when the adrenal glands fail to produce enough hormones to keep the body functioning normally.  Without medication, the bodily functions will go haywire and will result in death.

What a horrible combination!  The added worry and the stress must be unbearable.  My heart goes out to Shirley and her parents.

Many people are involved in finding Shirley.  There is a search going on right now as I type this.  The searchers are racing against time.  If Shirley is not found this week and treated, she will for sure die.  It hurts to think that she will die of pain, suffering in loneliness and fear.

I follow the development through the Facebook posts.  Strangers from all over the world pour their hearts out to support the parents.  People volunteer to look for Shirley day and night.  It's at times like this that the best side of we humans shines: compassion, love, generosity and devotion.

It's already past 8pm in Philadelphia.  No words from the search group.  I can only hope for the very best for Shirley and her parents.

We all know that we will eventually part with our pets.  However, not like this.

So say a prayer to the Dog God and hug your dog a little bit tighter tonight, peeps.