Copper: Home Again

I came home from work early that day.  I needed to see what had been done to my boy.  I took him out of his crate and brought him outside, keeping him on the leash.  I intentionally kept Moon away from him.  He needed some quality one on one time.  I talked to him while he ate his supper.  He did not want me to touch his head or his rump.

I brought him into the house and down to my "office", closing the door behind us.  I sat on the floor and told him to "come", then "sit."  As usual he approached me, turned around and backed into my lap, sitting down ever so cautiously.  He was tense...almost fearful.

Slowly I placed my hands on him.  One on each shoulder.  I began to rub in a circular motion.  With each circle, the area grew.  I rubbed his legs slowly, then his chest, working my way up to his neck and chin.  Then my hands were near his ears, his forehead and then over his eyes, slowly rubbing...massaging as gently as I could, trying to let him know that I cared and that I was not going to hurt him.  I kept telling him that I would take care of him and that this was never going to happen again. 

It was then that I noticed something on his collar.  Something odd.  I had to break it away because it was actually around the collar, like a loop.  It looked like threads of rope.  After I finished getting him relaxed, he sort of just flopped in my lap, before rolling over for his belly rub.  Nothing too aggressive though...not for a few days.  He needed to "detox".

I showed my husband what I had removed from his collar and he too thought it was strands of rope.  He asked where I'd gotten it.  When I told him, "off of Copper's collar", he simply said "oh".  

Well, my friends, I never found out where Copper was, but I do have my suspicions.  You see, for the longest time, whenever we drove by a particular house on our road, Copper would just tremble, quiver and shake.  He had never done that before he disappeared and he only behaves like that when we pass that house.  Personally, I think he was there...at their place...tied up and probably being starved.  My Copper had lost 10 pounds, 20% of his body weight, in those nine long days!

When my Vet examined him, the pads of his feet were not worn, indicating that he had not traveled far.  So, perhaps that barking I thought I heard really was Copper!