I haven’t posted much (or at all) during these last few weeks. The reason is, that I haven’t had the time or the heart. Four weeks ago this evening, we came home from work and our dog Scully was not in the yard.

We spoke to some neighbours who had seen her that morning running in the street and tried to call her over, but she’d been panicked by the thunder and lightning and didn’t respond. We rang the after hours ranger and the local vet and drove around all the places she’d last been seen. I was convinced that when the rangers office opened the next morning, I’d call and she’d be there.

The next morning I rang the ranger as soon as they opened, but they didn’t have my dog. I rang all the neighbouring councils – nothing. Vets. Nothing. I left work early and posted notices around the local shopping centres and dropped flyers in letter boxes around my area.

We did the same thing the next day, and the next day, and the next. Notices in all the papers. Posted on an Australian lost pets forum. Bugged the rangers. Visited the pounds myself. Calls started coming in. People had seen a white shepherd Monday afternoon, Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday. Promised to try and grab her if they saw her again. Then nothing. I made posters and plastered them on street lights in my suburb and those nearby.

The third week, there were a lot of promising calls in an area a good fifteen minutes drive from us. We turned our poster assault on that area, door-knocked, flyer-bombed. Got an address where this dog was seen. It turned out to be a male, not my dog. Got out of the yard a lot.

Then on Friday, Dave took the call we’d been dreading. Someone had hit our dog with their car, on the freeway at night, a couple of days after she disappeared. There was nothing they could do to avoid her. They’d called local vets but obviously not the same ones I had, or perhaps they didn’t put two and two together, white shepherds are unusual and often mistaken for other breeds.

So that’s it. The reason why I haven’t had time to post. Or felt like posting. We’re moving into our new house this week. I picked the block because it was opposite a park, and I thought that would be great for Scully. We’re taking delivery of our new kittens next week. I picked the breed because they’re known for standing up to and getting along well with large, boisterous but sweet-natured dogs. Every photo I look at has a white ear or a tail tip or something in it. I miss her an enormous amount.