The time where Callie liked New Mexico so much, she almost stayed behind

The story begins with a gas station in Santa Rosa, NM.  We stopped to let the dogs out to stretch their legs and go to the bathroom.  Jeremy was in charge of walking the dogs while I went to the bathroom and he was bringing them back to the car when he went in to use it.  It was SO hot out I put all 3 dogs in the back of the car to give them a drink of water.  I KNOW all three dogs were in the back.   Jeremy came back and started cleaning out the car.  THAT's when I think the unthinkable happened... Callie jumped out!  

My back was turned to the side of the car telling Jeremy not to get stung by a bee at the garbage can and she must've either thought she was supposed to get out or she saw the food getting thrown out and wanted to get a bite!  That, or she just maybe thought New Mexico was nice and wanted it to be her new home.  Either way she jumped out and I closed the back of the car without seeing her.  The scary part is I then backed out of the parking lot and THANK GOD did not hit her!!

Fast forward 1.5 hours to our arrival at the hotel in Santa Fe. I grabbed Chester from his spot on top of the sleeping bags and went upstairs to the room.  Jeremy then called my name but I had my hands full and was trying to get the key to the door.  

He came upstairs and said "Callie's not in the back."  I immediately started questioning him about how that could be at all possible because I 100% saw her in the car when I was giving them water.  We ran back downstairs and looked at the trunk.  Both her leash and her harness were there so she HAD been in the back like I said.  The question now was did she hop out at the gas station (which Jeremy thought) or did she hop out in Santa Fe just now and wander off (which Jen thought).  

We started calling her name and looking around.  2 other people at the hotel saw us and said they would help look too, which was really nice of them.  

Jeremy then had me figure out what town we were in and what gas station we stopped at so he could called the Santa Rosa police dept.  I ended up speaking on the phone with the officer who said someone had called the police about a brown dachshund barking at everyone at the gas station.  Oh Callie - always making friends.  They tried to get her but she was barking at the police and slipped out of her collar and ran towards the river.  

That might have been the scariest thing I've ever heard "she ran towards the river."  Now picture this, it's this random town in New Mexico with 2 gas stations and 100 closed shops and my dog is now "running towards the river."  I was sure we would never see her again.  '

At that point we had hopped in the car and started driving the 1.5 hours back to Santa Rosa to go look for her.  I then called the animal control people for the county.  A really nice woman was still there at 6pm when I was sure I would get an answering machine.  She sent out an email to all of the staff members in case we couldn't find her and she turned up another day.  

My next call was to the gas station that Callie was last seen at.  The woman answered the phone and I BLUBBERED to her that Callie was our dog and what happened?  Apparently Callie tried to bite a customer who was trying to see the tags on Callie's collar so they called the police but hadn't seen her since the police arrived.  I then BEGGED her to believe that Callie is a nice dog who is just scared and if they could put out any food and water and just keep feeding her until we could get there we would pay for everything.  They said fine but honestly, I was skeptical.  I mean Callie was barking aggressively and apparently tried to bite someone who was trying to help... why should they help her? 

The drive back was the longest hour of my life.  Yes hour.  Jeremy managed to cut off about 30 minutes from the drive.  I didn't want to know how fast he was going so I didn't even look at the speed.  He told me he topped out at 110!  Thank God I didn't know.  But part of the speed had to do with THUNDERSTORM that was going on just south of Santa Rosa that we were driving towards.  All we could think of was searching for Callie in the DARK, with a Thunderstorm going on in a town that we know NOTHING about.  Needless to say I was an absolute mess.  Jeremy was just very straightforward: we are going to Santa Rosa and we are not leaving until we have Callie.  

We finally got there and pulled up.  Jeremy immediately started running around calling her name but I told him to go to the store and ask the workers if they had seen her at all since we spoke.  Not 20 seconds later but Jeremy came around the corner with Callie in his arms.  She was greasy, smelly but she got about 1,000 kisses from me.  

We went back inside to find out what happened and to thank the women.  They explained that they put out cat food for Callie and she ran into the store and started running around doing laps.  Finally they got her some water and she just sat by the door waiting for us.   We must have thanked the women 100 times and offerred to pay for the food Callie ate.  They said they have pups of their own at home and not to worry about it. 

Now it was time for the 1.5 hours drive BACK to Santa Fe.  Callie fell asleep on my lap the moment she got into the car.  Normally she wants to climb all over me and look out the window so she must have been EXHAUSTED.  She must've been so scared and confused, poor baby.  

Thankfully we have the whole family back together again.  And now we check the car about 30 times before we leave ANYWHERE.  

We love you Callie!! <3 <3