Be careful who you entrust your pets to

My downstairs neighbor took off on vacation for the holidays, presumably to spend time with family, and had to leave his dog in the care of a sitter. I've pet this dog plenty of times and it always comes up to greet me whenever we're both out. He's a very good boy.

I come home from work 2 days ago and start seeing hand-made missing dog flyers detailing his physical description and contact information for if he's found. I didn't know at the time whose dog it could be, but the physical description sounded a lot like this dog.

I do a little digging online and unfortunately my suspicions were correct. Reading more into the story via posts and comments, it turns out that this dog was left with a sitter in a neighboring city using a service called Rover. The dog managed to escape from her house and bolted away, presumably looking for his owner, in a city he's unfamiliar with whose only familiar face is a woman he barely knows.

It's been 2 days now and as of just a few minutes ago, there is no update on his whereabouts. His owner is 3 time zones away and can only do so much remotely. I would have loved to join in on the search for him, but by the time I was able to read the online posts, it was well into the night and he had already been missing for 7 hours. He could be anywhere. It would be hard to know even where to look.

He's not a very big dog and it's been rather cold the last two nights. A part of you fears the worst. As the owner of 2 dogs myself, this would be a nightmare for me. I can only imagine the gut-wrenching agony my neighbor must be going through.

I have to remind myself that, statistically speaking, the overwhelming majority of dogs that go missing do end up being found alive. I just read a story about a dog that got separated from his family had managed to survive in the woods for the last 7 years before being reunited. He's a pretty smart dog, so my hopes would be that he's still hanging in there.

The dog himself must be terrified. My best bet would be that he's found some bushes to hide in, especially considering that there hasn't been any updates to the lost & found pet sites and most shelters are closed for the holidays. At this point all that can feasibly be done is keep hoping and following up on any leads. I'm keeping my eyes peeled for reported sightings so I can make the drive over if needed.

I guess the lesson here is to be very careful when it comes to your pets. One of my dogs belongs to me solely because he was entrusted to the wrong person. His original owner left him with her mother, and the mother didn't want anything to do with him. After he ran away she didn't bother to look for him and wouldn't take him back after I found him. Luckily for all of us, I figured my place would be a better home than an animal shelter