We are dogsitting a sure descendant of Harry Houdini, the great escape artist. As it turns out, Houdini was born in 1874 in Budapest, Hungary (just four hours from Belgrade), so we are pretty sure that Brody -- our canine charge for the next month -- must bear some relation to the great Houdini.
Last Friday, our friends, Chris and Paul Bergen brought their sweet new puppy over to stay with us for a month while they go on home leave to the United States. Needless to say, the kids were terribly excited to have a puppy to hang out with for a month, and, as kids often do, promised to entertain him and care for him 24/7. As it turns out, Wes and Virginia have, indeed, spent every waking moment with Brody, and Brody has become attached already, to all three kids.
The Bergens also brought all of the accoutrements required for a dog, including a crate, tons of food, a book of 101 dog tricks, leashes, copious dog toys, and two pages of instructions. Part of the instructions were to crate Brody when we leave the house. So, Sunday morning came around, and it was time to go to church, so we put Brody in the crate, and said goodbye. (I should mention that Eli had left on Saturday for the states, so I was on my own with the kids and the dog throughout this little episode).
Church was great, but the kids were super excited to get home to see Brody. When we walked in the house, the crate was empty, and Brody was nowhere to be found. How did Brody get out of the crate? That will forever remain a mystery, but it appears that he figured out how to unlatch the crate in order to let himself out. Houdini-like, indeed. I assured the kids that Brody was in the house, since there was no way he could have gotten out of the house with the doors locked, etc., so we started an exhaustive search of the house. Paul had said that Brody sometimes hides under beds if he is scared, so we started looking under beds, sofas, etc., but still no Brody. I was in the living room looking around, when Wes called me from the kitchen saying "Um, Mom, come here." Uh-oh. I didn't know what I was going to find, but slowly and tepidly started walking toward the kitchen. When I arrived, Wes was standing at the kitchen window, and pushing the screen out.
Now, I've attached a picture of this window. Let me first start by saying that the window has a decorative security bar on it made out of iron, as well as a screen just on the other side of the bar. Nevertheless, it appeared as if Brody, the little Houdini, had jumped up onto the sill, squeezed himself through the security bars, and pushed the screen out. Another relevant fact about this window is that it is approximately 15-20 feet off of the ground. Boy, was I worried that we were going to find Brody hurt on the ground below the window, but no sign of Brody there, either. No sign of Brody in the yard -- it appeared that he had managed to squeeze himself through the front gate, as well.
At this point, panic set in for me. The Bergens have only had this dog for a month, and he literally is like a child to this family. I could not have imagined anything worse than having to call the Bergens on their vacation to tell them that Brody had escaped, and that we couldn't find him. So, Wes, Virginia and I started the neighborhood search, first on foot, and then having had no luck on our street, in the car. Now, searching for a lost dog in a city like Belgrade is a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack. Belgrade being so vast, and so full of stray dogs, alleyways, parks, busy roads, etc., one can only imagine where a dog like Brody might have gone if given the opportunity. Needless to say, we were unsure of how to begin our search, but started by going to an area in our neighborhood where dogs tend to congregate. Although a few dogs were hanging out there, Brody wasn't there. The kids kept asking me if we were going to find him, and it was one of those parent moments, where although you are full of despair and pessimism yourself, you put on a brave and positive face for your kids and try to get the words out: "Yes, I think that we will find him."
We drove down to the commercial shopping area in our neighborhood, hoping that maybe he had followed the scent of people, food and activity, but again, no luck. Several minutes later, we were driving back towards our house, when we noticed off on a side street, a big dog. I stopped the car, backed up and said "let's just drive up here and see what's going on with this dog." This was not really a street, but an alleyway of sorts. As we drove up the street, the big dog disappeared, and then I heard Virginia exclaim "there's Brody." I looked up to the right, and sure enough, there was a Serbian woman standing behind the front gate of her house up some steps, holding Brody. I've never been so happy to see a dog in all my life!! It turns out that her husband had found the dog on the main road, and when we pulled up, her son, who spoke English, was trying to call the Bergens (they had ID info in a small charm on Brody's collar). The son came out, and I explained that we were keeping the dog for the Bergens, and thanked them profusely for rescuing Brody. We put Brody in the car and drove off, so incredibly relieved that we had found him.
All in all, you could say that between the Graham episode and the Brody episode, it was an eventful and stressful weekend for us. We learned some lessons, though, and the kids got to witness and experience the conversion of two situations that appeared, at first, to be completely disastrous. I'd say that the weekend of July 17th, 2009, was a formative weekend for the Richardson kids, and one they will not soon forget!
All our love,
Erin, Eli and Kids
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