After today, I believe in miracles. Against all odds, Juna is home! After three days on-the-run in 20 degree winter weather, our skin-and-bones girl is home safe and sound. Aside from some burrs in her fur and some bloody and irritated paws, Miss Thing is cuddled up for a nap like nothing happened. We lost her at 11am on Friday when she slipped out of a crack in the door. She’s a new rescue and still learning and the door seemed like a fun place to go, I guess. For a while I thought she would run and run but eventually tire out and give in. Italian (mini) Greyhounds aren’t built for the cold, so 30 minutes in knee deep snow didn’t sound like a workable situation for her. We spotted her a couple times, 50 or so yards away, but she’d bolt the minute she sensed humans. Even at my fastest I can’t successfully chase her up a snow covered hill. Brian, Danny, my parents, and I spent the next day doing all the things: flyers, knocking, searching. And to be honest, it started to feel hopeless. This dog is like a giant burrito on chopsticks. Or like a stark naked baby trying to survive in a blanket of snow. I thought she had likely died. But at the end of the day Cook connected me to a guy named Josh Grassi. Josh is Clifton Park Pet Search and he’s the guy, I was told. I met Josh on Sunday morning and, along with his team of incredible and selfless dog-loving friends, we were able to spend 8 hours searching for Juna. Around hour five we spotted her under a deck off an extremely busy road and chased her like a silent SWAT team with various traps and bags of lunch meat. She managed to stay on the run for the next two hours, during which she traversed a snow covered golf course THREE TIMES. We split up with no less than 6 vehicles going back and forth around the perimeter until my phone died as I was chasing her back to the road, her third lap across the golf course. I screamed the direction she was heading into the air and magically, Josh heard me! Juna leapt across the busy road into another development where we followed the fresh tracks in two directions. My new friend Laurie finally cornered miss Juna on a porch between some snow banks and in a few minutes she was wrapped in a blanket in our car. This weekend taught me a lot. I’m not someone who believes in miracles, but twist, I certainly do now. Second, never give up hope. I know I know, but: “toothpick dog survives below freezing temps for two nights and returns home.” Is that for real? Lastly, there’s a whole boatload of incredibly generous, selfless people out there, led by Josh Grassi of Clifton Park Pet Search and a ton of people, neighbors, friends, new friends and dog lovers, who helped bring Juna home. Tonight we get to finish celebrating my paused birthday from Friday. Although Juna probably could have survived another night in the cold, I’m much happier she’s here.