I woke up today at 6am like I do most weekdays, to see that my hubby's lunch was packed and that his socks matched. We had our coffee, and I walked him to the door. Expecting to see him give a gentle kick to our 12 week old puppy who lovingly attacks the hubby's legs and feet almost daily. Today was different. Hubby walked to the gate door with out as much as a whine from the pup.

No eager attacks to his feet. No ball dropped at his feet for a quick game of "doggy fetch"  Hubby runs to the car." Yeah, I thought it was odd, but I also thought WOW, the pup finally got the message,  her daddy does NOT want to play fetch at 6am every morning.

So I called out to her expecting her to come to me. Mommy always has time to throw the ball a few times and rub her head. NOPE, not today. Our puppy who we call Sugar, because she is so sweet and looks like caramel never came to me. I looked in her dog house expecting to see a very sound asleep puppy. Silly me, the dog is a beagle, she can hear a pin drop a mile away why would she not come to me? Of course she was not there. She was not anywhere in our yard. My heart immediately sank! Oh no, my little girls, they are going to be so heart broken!

So I quickly got out of my pjs, put my hair in a pony tail, flip flops on, bowl of food in hand and was off. It was about 6:30am and I was in our alley whistling and shaking the bowl of food hoping to hear her famous beagle yelps.

As I was about to give up, I passed a yard and heard her. She was there, in a yard, in a dog cage, with a dog house and a bowl of food. She was being held hostage in my own neighborhood. I walked closer to the wooden privacy fence and could see her between the tiny space in the planks of wood. It was her, it was my SUGAR! I was elated. My daughters would not be heart broken after all. They could be happy with thier puppy after all. The thoughts of possibly finding her in the middle of the street flattened dissapeared. All was good. But wait, I still had to actually rescue her.

I walked towards the side of the fence to see if the door was locked. I never checked the fence because the garage door was wide open the SUV was on and idling. Throwing caution to the wind I approached the SUV. No one was inside. What was I to do? Do I just barge in to the yard and rescue my dog? Do I wait to see if the SUV leaves and ask them to give me my dog back. What if they refuse. I was feeling helpless which is very ODD and not me to feel this way. The only thing I could think of was to call the police. So I called the police.

The operator asked me if I had asked for the dog back yet. I was stumped. I had not asked. I had not even tried. I had to admit to her that I had NOT asked for the dog yet. I told her I was soooo scared. So she very kindly said try that and then call us back. I think God was watching over me because at that very moment the owner/ dog napper pulled out of the garage and into the alley where I stood. I told the operator he's leaving. She said ask him. I said ok. "Sir, My dog!" Yep, it was very British of me.

Why I said it that way was beyond me. Go figure. I think it was the only thing I could squeeze out at that moment. He quickly said, "is that your dog? Good it kept me up all night!" He then went into the yard, no lock on the fence by the way, and released the pup from the cage. Sugar, quickly ran to me jumping and licking at full force. She knew that she was being held hostage and was grateful to be rescued.

I'm not sure that I buy the "lost dog in the alley" story the man gave me though. I guess it could be possible but, I really don't think so. Every thing in me is telling me that they decided the night before when their children  lovingly played with the puppy at the playground that they wanted that dog. The kids wouldn't leave the poor pup alone that day. How convenient that they had every thing to make the poor dog comfortable yet they had no other dogs. I'm thinking they thought the lost dog signs would go up, and they would simply ignore the signs. I don't think they ever expected for this crazy woman to walk up and down the alley with a bowl of dog food in hand and actually physically try to find the dog.

I was not going to put up useless signs. I wanted to spare my children heart ache. had a mission to accomplish, and I did!

My question is. Who could do this? Why would they do this? There are children who love this dog and have loved her since the moment we bought her for them. She was just a tiny pup when we bought her. She had just been weened from her mother when we brought her home. She only knows us now. So too bad for him if the dog kept him up all night like he said. That's his fault. Why would he knowingly keep a dog that he knew belonged to other children. Selfishness is all I can think of. He wanted his kids to be happy with that puppy they fell in love with at the playground the other day. Disregarding the anguish the owners could be feeling. Who cares! My kids are happy. Well, NO! NO SIR! or

Good day sir. This pup is mine! Buy your own damn dog!