Chico Rodriguez..Lost and Found

Ok, this is the first of a few stories from the Colorado Wedding..You know, Anne and I left from Daphne and made a few wrong turns here and there..We left on Monday at 8 in the morning and got a little past Amarillo after 3:30 the following morning..Yes, we took a few bad turns..But, trust me , it was a new GPS and it had its own mind about where we were going. We wised up and called On Star and he got us to a safe place to spend the night..That is, we slept for three hours and headed on our way with Chico, the tiny little dog that made itself a home in my lap for the next few hours of the trip.

We are rocking along, laughing and talking and having a good time. We get to this town called Alamosa . Our plan was to stop here and go to the Walmart and get everything we had on our list. So 500 dollars later we make our way to the car with our groceries. It is raining and it seems as we open the trailor we are pulling, everything we packed has shifted forward and we rearrange all our goods. Now, remember , we are in the rain, tired and wet, Chico hops out and is running around having a good time and we talk to him and continue on with our rearranging of the wedding stuff we have hauled some several thousand miles. We hop back in the car and we are off. Anne says, Chico Rodriguez...you with us ? We look around and both assume we see Chico and off we go...About thirty minutes down the road Anne checks on the dog and we can't find him anywhere. You have to know the car looks a little like a bomb has gone off . No Chico..We stop and look and then we panic and Anne starts to cry..She just knows Chico is dead..I talk her out of thinking the worst until we get there and this is what follows..

We walk the entire parking lot hunting for Chico in the rain. NO one has seen him except one lady who says she saw someone trying to get him on the other side of the parking lot. We go to all the surrounding stores, talk to all the Walmart employee's we can find, we scream Chico a thousand times, we talk to people in the parking lot in travel trailers. We look like two plus sized crazy ladies who just lost their best friend somewhere along the way. I am not a dog lover but I was upset for Anne..She loves this little dog. So three hours have passed and no Chico..The good news ,he is not in the parking lot dead. That is about all the good news we can find.

We are headed out of the parking lot and run into this woman who has some dogs in her car.We stop and tell her our story and she tells us she is from the animal rescue service. She takes our name and numbers and makes a plan. She puts an ad in the paper and calls the radio stations in town. The search is on for Chico. We are feeling better and makes our way to Lake City. We call everyday for the next three days to find out if there is a sighting of Chico, but nothing. We call all the animal pounds and resue centers in this town and still no Chico. We have kept this from Anne's four grown children in case we find him. Anne finally breaks down and calls all four kids and tells the whole story. They are all devastated and I am feeling like a heel for being a part of the lost dog story..Anyway, every time the phone rings, we come to a dead stop in case someone has found Chico..Well, you will never believe it but some college guys found him and brought him back to a rescue center. Chico has been found !!!To make a long story seem not so long, we drive to pick him up and indeed it is Chico..All unharmed and full of life and so happy to have his mama back. It was a miracle we found him. This town is known for taking these kind of dogs and pit bulls and use them for fighting. It was scary but had a Happy ending. Needless to say, Chico was the king dog from that point on...Steak for dinner, ;lots of love, anything Chico wanted, he got..A happy ending to a long sad story..Chico Rodriguez..Lost and Found.....His daddy renamed MR. Alamosa for the rest of the trip. Everyone heard about us losing the dog and it became the talk of the wedding preparations on how we lost Chico.

Now, I know we are a little off our rockers but we did find him and he was unharmed and the wedding was on with no tears from the family memebers. Next trip, Chico will be in our sight or in our hands at all times. No more lost and found for this little pooch. He is Mr. Alamosa and that is big up in that part of the rugged country. Now, if you are wondering..He did not get to attend the wedding even though he had been through a trauma. We had enough to tend to on the wedding day other than Chico !

Loving you from Walmart in Alamosa....