I've made a decision, although knowing me, I'll probably feel differently tomorrow. I'm going to stop logging in to the missing dog website. It's been five weeks since Danny disappeared and there has been no concrete evidence to suggest where he is.
So far, there have been so-called sightings in Troedyrhiw, Merthyr Town Centre, St. Mellons in Cardiff, Tredegar and now a possible one in Brecon. I'm beginning to get very skeptical about it all.
I was just about to dish up Sunday lunch last weekend and we had a few special visitors to join us when Colin disappeared in the car. I found out that some kids had rung claiming they had seen Danny. He got there within minutes and found the children but no dog. When they gave him the description, he sounded nothing like Danny at all.
All these sightings are so vague and upsetting to be honest.
The type of call I have been waiting for since putting up posters and it going in the paper, is either: "Mrs Rees we believe we have your dog. We thought he was a stray and have been looking after him." Or: "There's a man living down the road who has recently taken a dog in fitting that description." Not something like: "I saw a dog twenty miles away two weeks ago that might have been Danny." I say: "Did he have one long pointy ear and one floppy?" "Er, I didn't notice." Believe me, mate, that's the first thing you would have noticed about him.
So for now, I am not going to keep logging into the missing dog website several times a day. All these leads [pardon the pun] are far too vague for me.
There has to come a point when I bring closure to this for my sanity's sake. There will always be well meaning dog lovers who will keep logging in and posting messages to Danny's page to say they think they have seen him.
I'm going to do as Ed kindly suggested, write a story with an ending about what really happened to Danny that night. I'll probably make it a happy ending, even if that isn't really the case.
2 comments:
Hi Lynette,
People are often well meaning, but sometimes that is actually not useful for a person.
If they can see that someone is struggling with something...I don't know...perhaps they don't have the heart to tell them what they probably need to hear...? In some ways it is easier to give someone hope, rather than put them out of their misery, so to speak.
With missing pets (and people) I suspect that is always going to be a difficult combination of holding out some hope and being pragmatic about their chances of survival.
You have held out hope longer than many people would, indeed what I think I might if one of our pets went missing. I would certainly not beat yourself up about giving up or anything. It sounds like a good idea to put this to bed in the way that might be best for a writer like yourself - that is to write it down. Perhaps in a way that you would have liked things to have worked out - Danny's adventure - instead of the way that they actually have worked out, which you have already chronicled in detail on your blog. If that makes any sense...?
I hope that you are okay - you do sound like you have made a decision about how you are going to handle it, which is good.
best wishes
Ed
Thanks for your thoughts, Ed. I'm going to take some time, when I get the house to myself, to write Danny's story with a happy ending.
Hope you are well!
Lynette
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