Cici's Night Out

In October me and "The Cease" went for a little walk. La la la, everything is grand, la dee da dee da...when all of the sudden evil spawn dog comes charging out of its yard and goes right for Cici's throat. What the? Seriously, the dog latched on to her neck/collar and wouldn't let go. The dog's owner (boyfriend of the owner) comes over to try and get his dog off of mine. Meanwhile, I'm yelling who knows what and in shock of what's happening and Cici is looking at me with the most terrified look ever. I can't explain how sad her face made me. After a couple seconds Cici managed to wiggle herself out of her collar and then bolted for her life. I called after her, but I honestly don't think she heard me. My pup was scared to death. I watched her sprint across 90th South!!! Hello heart attack at age 27!!! I seriously think my heart stopped while I watched her cross through all the lanes of traffic. It's a miracle she didn't get hit right then.
I ran after her, but she's so dang fast I lost her in a second. I started running through the neighborhood she was in and kept calling her name....nothing. I had no clue which street she turned on or what direction she headed. I was just guessing. After a little bit, I decided I'd better head home and grab Trent and who knows, maybe Cici headed home too. I jogged home and as soon as I opened the door to our house I started crying as I yelled for Trent. He comes running upstairs and I tell him what happened.
Side Note: I fell in love with Trent a little more this day. He is awesome in crisis mode. He hugged me and stayed calm as he grabbed his shoes and keys.
We both jumped in the car and headed to the neighborhood where I last saw her. We rolled the windows down and called for her....again nothing. We stopped people on the street or sitting on their porches and none of them had seen our dog.
Another side note: Cici doesn't run away. She is glued to us all the time. She stays with us when we're in the yard and seriously hates to be away from us. Anyway, that is part of the reason I was so sad. I knew she was terrified and running on adrenaline so yes, this was a crisis for me.
Back to the story, the other dog's owners were really nice (that night anyway, but that's another story) and they were helping us look for her. Also, Cici's previous owner came and helped us look.
After a couple of hours and another while of sitting on the porch hoping she'd come we called it a night which was a really really hard thing for me to do. How do I just stop looking for her? Animal services was closed and there was really no other people to come help. I stayed on the couch the whole night hoping that she would show up on our doorstep. I put an add on ksl for a lost dog and was trying to find any information I could on any "Lost Dog" websites. Deep down I knew that no one had her. There's no way she would have let anyone near her if they tried, but my fear was that she'd get hurt and because she slipped out of her collar she had no identification except a chip, but most vets were closed by now.
Side Side Note: After we had called it quits for a while I went back out by myself really late. I was just driving around crying. Conveniently a cop pulled me over right then. Ha ha, poor guy couldn't understand a word I said through all the blubbering. Needless to say, he felt really bad for me and let me off with a warning :)
The next morning Trent and Thad hopped on their pedal bikes and started the search again. I headed to the pound to see if anyone had taken her there. She wasn't there but I did get a phone call from a lady who saw my add on ksl. She said that she heard an unfamiliar bark the previous night and it was with a bunch of other dogs. She said that she recognized my dog because she's seen me out running with her several times. She said she felt strongly that it was my dog she heard. This woman is a dog person times 1,000. I thanked her for calling and told Trent to head in the area she told me about. Hmm, I'm sure there was a little "divine" help in letting us know where to go.
While Trent was over there he ran into a cop. Trent asked him if he'd seen Cici anywhere. The cop said no, but right as they were talking he got a call on the radio saying.....a dog had just been hit by a car over by Jordan Commons :( Right place, right time...for Trent, not Cici :(
Trent and I both headed over there and sure enough Cici had been hit. I can't even explain how sad she looked. She could barely walk, she was all bloody and just exhausted. I, don't be too surprised, started crying when I saw her.
We took her to the vet immediately and found out that she had a broken femur bone among many other gashes and bruises. They stitched her up and we got to take her home cause they couldn't do surgery on her leg for a couple of days. That night she was so weak and I've never seen a dog eat or drink as much or as intense as she did. Me and Trent both think she was on the move all night, I can't imagine she would just sit down and chill. She wanted to get home.
First of all how awesome is she that she was able to get herself one block away from our house? I was so impressed that she found her way back. She was only a mile or so away but she took off in a neighborhood that we had never been in before. Also, I would've loved to be a flea on her back that night (Cici doesn't really have fleas). When we got her back we saw blue paint on some of her paws, some of her nails were really jacked up and cracked. I really wonder what her night was like.
Fast Forward: She had the surgery. It worked...sort of. One of the pins they put in embedded itself into one of her tendons. Goo!!! So they had to have another surgery to remove the pins. Since then she is doing really good. She is almost back to normal. She still favors her leg a little bit in the morning because it's stiff, but other than that she is walking and running on it and it doesn't seem to bother her at all. Yay!!! It's been a crazy thing, but I'm so grateful that we were able to keep her and that things didn't turn out much worse like they could have. We seriously love that dog :)