So, that happened...

So last week, I was outside pulling some weeds and looked over at Robin's ( my new neighbor) yard.  The grass had grown so tall it had turned to seed and there were weeds all over the place.  There is no way that Robin could do any yard work.  She has a hard time just getting herself around.  So that night I mentioned it to KC and he said he'd  be glad to mow her lawn. 
He went over the next morning and went to work.  Robin has 3 large dogs, so step one was to pick up the poo. There was a lot of poo.
I went over and started pulling a few weeds and cleaning up the corner of her lot where a bunch of junk had blown.  I think Tami has mowed her front lawn a few times, but the back yard hadn't been touched in months.   The dogs were barking furiously at us through the kitchen window....One of them sounded like the beast on sand lot. 
KC trimmed the front and the back, but he probably should have used the weed wacker to just go over the whole lawn in the back it was so tall.  Then he started mowing.  He got about 10 steps and the bag was full.  I raked up all the dead leaves and pulled the weeds around the house and the patio. 
When we got all done, it looked pretty good!  KC was pushing the mower out and I gathered up the stuff I was using and we headed out.  Then KC called back to me to check the back gate to make sure it was closed ( the one out to the canal road)  It was open, so I went and shut it.  Then I came out the little gate that goes to her back yard and pulled it shut too.  KC was standing there waiting for me and said
 "ok cool!" and we walked home sweaty and tired, but it felt good to be able to help.
So later that night, probably about 8:30, Robin comes to the door and Kelley invites her in.  One look at her and I could see she had been crying...a lot.  She started crying again as she told us how she had come home from work and then let her dogs out into the back yard.  After a while, she went to call them in and one of them was gone.  Happy was gone! ( he is the cutest dog...looks like a little Lassie)  She went out in the yard and the gate was open! 
She said she had gone all over the neighborhood and down 5400 looking for him.  Then she got a little histerical and said things like " I've lost everything...I can't lose my dog too!" and "why did it have to be Happy?  He was my favorite one!"  KC and I looked at each other like  OH NOOOOOOOOO!
We tried to reassure her that we would find Happy and got her to settle down a little bit.  Then we hopped in the car and went out looking for the dog.  KC went in a different direction in his car too.
We went all over the place, but there was no sign of the dog.
When we got home, Robin was standing out on the driveway holding the dogs food dish.  Oh dear, I wanted to cry.  She said she had called the police and they told her to call the pound in the morning.   We talked to her for a little while, then went in to spend a sleepless night, tossing and turning, praying and having horrible guilt and nightmares.
KC and I went over it a hundred times, analyzing and rethinking what could have happened as I went out the gate.  " It wasn't your fault mom!  I saw you close the gate!"   He said when he went in the gate, there was a click as it opened.  And I remember it clicking shut too when I pulled it closed.  anyway, I guess it didn't do any good to try to figure out what had happened....Happy was still gone. 
Robin called the pound, but they didn't answer all day.  I was telling Candice about it and she said she would call them too.  She had the same thing happen where there was no answer. 
Robin got a hold of them later, but they didn't have Happy.
The next day, as I drove out of the neighborhood, I noticed that Robin had put posters of the dog all over with her contact information.  The problem was that the dog had tags on it, but they were the tags from florida, with her florida phone number on them.
Another day went by with no response.  I can't begin to explain the agony of watching her out in her front yard, with the bowl of food sitting out there by her, waiting for him to come back home. Kelley would text me "any sign of happy?"  "no happy"  I felt so responsible for this!
Then thursday, on the way home from bunko, I get a text from KC.  He says "I saw Robin...Happy got hit by a car..."  I have my phone set on giant letters so I can read them, so I can only see about two words at a time. So I thought that was all of the message.  I just started to cry, then I scrolled down to read "JK!  Happy is home and is fine!"  Not cool KC...not cool.
I was sooooooooo happy!  Come to find out, a lady up 5400 had seen him running out into the road and had picked him up, but didn't know what to do with him so she put an ad in KSL classifieds that she had found this dog!  Robin saw the ad and the rest is history.
The next day, Robin brought over a bottle of jam and the nicest card, thanking us for our kindness and help.  She said she had just realized that KC had mowed the lawn and was so grateful...she was so distraught before, she didn't even notice. 
Thankful today for God's tender mercies and His love for a sweet lady who has lost literally everything, and came here with her dogs from Florida to try to start a new life.  So Thankful  that good people found her dog and looked after him.
So Thankful that I could laugh instead of cry when the bishopric came up to me in church yesterday and sang "Who let the dogs out...who...who...who"