It's been almost a year...

It's been almost a year since my darling boy, Danny, went missing. If you don't know the story you can read about it in the blog archives for June 2007.

I still miss him, a lot.

I still look at the empty armchair where he loved to sit [see above].

I know in my heart he's not coming back but there's a small part of me that hopes he is going to return on June 1st, 2008, exactly a year to the date he went missing.

I realised quite quickly [well within a few weeks] that I had to let go. It wasn't healthy for me to keep checking the missing dog website. We had done all we could do when he initially went missing with regards to reporting it to the police, online at various missing dog websites, contacted the local dog warden and those in surrounding areas, the country ranger, put up posters etc. My hubby even took some posters to the local school and the headmaster asked the children in assembly if anyone had seen Danny.

The problem I found with the missing dog website was that if I wasn't careful it could become an obsession for me. There were many well-meaning people who checked it and desired to help but some bordered on the fanatic. One day I got a call from three different people claiming to have seen Danny in three totally different areas miles apart. When I asked the people did they notice anything about his ears, none had, which was very strange. They were the first thing anyone would notice about him. They were extremely long and pointed and one was damaged. So one pointed up and one pointed down. He looked more like an Australian Kelpie really than a Border Collie.

What happened to him the night he went missing I shall never know, that's what haunts me the most. I think it would have been easier if I had known, even if I had to live with the fact that he got run over or shot by a farmer. But then again, maybe nothing like that happened and it's possible he is having the time of his life living with some other family -- I do hope that's the case.