My heart breaks even more with each day that passes without my Klause. Five nights ago he got out of our yard and we have seen neither hide nor hair of him since. At first I thought he had snuck out when the gardeners came to do their thing, but they said that usually he follows them around the yard and he wasn’t there. Later that night, I heard our dog Molly barking and I got optimistic that he had returned, but when I opened the front door instead I saw the other German Shepard book it across our front yard and down the dark street after a cat. That was the moment we discovered that the single board missing from our fence had turned into a larger hole, with the other slats hanging on near the top like a one way doggy door.

What terrifies me the most is that he’s just gone. He was old and had gotten in the habit of wanting to go out in the middle of the night. I took that as he wasn’t comfortable inside anymore and preferred to have access to the yard if he had to pee.

My husband has mentioned that Klause may have snuck away to die as to not be a burden on us. I can’t deal with that at all. If that is the case, he gave no hint that he was sick.  (Other than the restless thing.) He was still eating. He looked healthy. He may not have liked you to touch his hips, but he could get around just fine. However, it has been told to me that dogs never reveal their true pain unless it’s excruciating.

Since we realized he was missing, I have become obsessed with the local animal control website. They update throughout the day with new lost/found pets and I keep checking it for his sweet face, but there is nothing. I haven’t put up posters yet because I am hard pressed to think they work but who knows. It couldn’t hurt to at least try. The only thing it does is keep up the hope.

This boy was the first pup I had ever raised. I was the one who took him to training and he always slept on my side of the bed. I loved him. Until this event I never knew precisely how much.