Our New Year's Eve Adventure

You may be wondering why the only picture I have from New Year's Eve is of our dog, Cooper but he was what made New Year's Eve 2017 so memorable!

We had invited another family over for New Year's Eve to help ring in the new year with games and yummy food. About 20 minutes before they were scheduled to arrive, we noticed that Cooper was missing. Our other dog Maya was in the house but as we searched the yard (in the dark) and all over the house, we became worried that somehow Cooper had gotten out. Our neighbors were setting off fireworks already which had really spooked both dogs so maybe Cooper had tried to get away. Jason took Abby and drove all over our neighborhood looking for Cooper, but to no avail. Our friends came over and I was trying to play a good host but was worried about our crazy dog. I posted a notice in our neighborhood Facebook page that our dog was missing and someone sent over a link to a Facebook page for missing pets called "Lost and Found Furbabies of Washington County, MD." I immediately checked it out and someone had posted about 30 minutes prior about seeing a Lhaso Apso running around outside near an intersection about a mile from our home. I immediately knew this must be Cooper. He had never been outside of our neighborhood before and actually hated being outside but somehow those fireworks spooked him enough to make him run for it. Jason went out driving around again, this time with the other Dad from the family that came over. They searched all the surrounding neighborhoods, but came home empty-handed. It was a very cold night so at this point we thought maybe someone had pulled him into their house for the night and we might have better luck in the morning. Lots of tears were shed and prayers were sent up for our Cooper!

Then around 9 p.m. I got a call from our neighbor. They said they had seen our Facebook message and just couldn't sit at home so they went driving around looking for Cooper. They had spotted him and he almost got hit by a car as he crossed the road right as I was talking to them on the phone! Jason, Abby, and I immediately jumped back in the car and went to join our neighbors in an area about 1.5 miles from our house. At this point we could see a little dog hiding out under a shed right near a busy road. We started calling out "Cooper, Cooper" and when the dog came out from under the shed, we realized it was our dog!! He barked at us from a distance for a while but eventually made his way tentatively over to Abby where she scooped him up and we brought him home.

We were so thankful to our neighbors who had taken the time on a cold New Year's Eve night to go looking for our Cooper. He was so cold and scared when we found him, but he was safe and unharmed and we felt so very blessed. New Year's Eve could have ended so tragically for our family but instead it ended in a miracle!!

We spent the rest of the evening playing games, eating, and having fun with our friends with Cooper right by our sides. Thank goodness for tender mercies from Heaven!