Bon

On thursday morning as I always do I let the dogs out - and went back inside for a cup of coffee.
Approximately half and hour later I went back outside and there were Mac, Rocky, Red, Drover and Guestey - but no Bonnie. I called and called but no Bonnie Girl.
So then I started the ute thinking as I drove up the dirt road she will certainly come as she always does. But she didn't.
Was I alarmed at this point - I don't know - certainly a bit cranky and a bit put out.
Then I rang my dear neighbour David -87 years old - still farming full time and a dear friend and spoke to his lovely wife a spritely 84 who said I'll go check with david - sometime later she comes back to the phone "sorry it took me so long I'm slow moving and he's deaf so I have to go right up to him and that takes time" - no he hadn't seen her - and then I had a definite small feeling of fear.
And then I started driving and calling - and walking and calling - and driving again and calling - and taking Mac on the ute and making him bark and calling until I did my last run at about 7.30 Thursday night. Thinking the entire time - if she could hear me she would come... and if she can't hear me how did she get so far away so fast. Or what has happened to her that she can't come. Snake seemed most likely - and then I stopped calling for a while tormented that maybe she could hear me but couldn't come.
Then yesterday morning after getting up through the night to call and dreaming she was wounded at the backdoor which seemed a bad omen - I pressed on and did 45 letter box drops, posters in the supermarket, the highway bus shelters, posters to the rspca, the dogs home, and on and on. But I have to admit that from about lunchtime on the first day I had thought she was dead somewhere bitten by a snake, or picked up on the highway. And even though micro chipped why would anyone bring her back.
So by yesterday afternoon I was broken hearted and was working to get my head around the fact she wasn't coming back, I had taken a box of freshly picked peaches off the tree over to Barbara - David's wife and had gone outside to play ball with the boys who had been running second to the endless searching.
At this point Dear old david turns up and says did your dog come back, no says I she hasn't come back... incredulous he says "she didn't come back"? and I a little wound up says "no david she didn't come back... (thinking how many times am I going to have to say this!"
"But" he says looking at his watch "I saw her at 3.15 pm" -
Today or yesterday David?
No today about 20 mins ago -
Where?
Next farm across - she ran away when I called her so I tried to chase her home with the tractor, I can't believe she's not here... lock your dogs up and jump in the ute we'll go and look...
And so we head off and in all honesty I didn't think it would be her - I thought she is such a sweet friendly girl she would come, so it must be some other dog from a farm over...
We stopped at the first gate going across Davids farm, where the onions are all lying in rows the sun drying out - and he said I'll turn the ute off try giving her a call here...
So I call and call and no girl, "come on he said we'll keep going" and just as I turned to go and get back in the ute I saw something out of the corner of my eye, and there she was coming over the hill running - but head up and nervous - and not sure what to do... and I don't mind saying that I yelled out to David "it's her it's her" and fell down on my knees calling my dog who flattened out like a streak as she ran and ran and then fell into my lap...
And she stank, and she was covered in burrs, and she was stressed and panting... and then started jumping and barking at me -
At which point David calls out to me - holding his hanky "come on girl you've made me cry- we can go now"
At which point I get back in the ute - with bonnie on my lap and david gives my forearm a squeeze - and says "there you go I hate to see a lost dog... and I grab his arm back and say "thank you David" with everything I've got "That's alright my girl" he says... which is fitting as My girl is what I call Bonnie.
Later on I got in my own ute to go up the road and thought what's that smell - it was my trousers of course smelling of onions. What a great smell.