Laying low all day today and recuperating from Dog Trauma Day yesterday. Dan and I were dogsitting my dear friend Brad's dog Dexter. We took the dogs on a great off-leash dog walk by Los Gatos Creek, and in the midst of the sniffing and gopher-hole digging and chasing, Dexter somehow slipped away in the blink of an eye. Horrible. Such a nightmare.

I knew he couldn't have gone far, because we had seen him digging next to Bugs by the creek just a minute previously. You can only go forwards or backwards on the Creek Trail, as there is creek on one side and a big fence on the other. So Dan took one direction and I took the other. I immediately ran into a family that said that they had seen Dexter with a blonde woman who was looking for his owners. They had just passed her, so I took off running, and ran for about a quarter of a mile. NOT a good idea when nearly nine months pregnant! I finally realized that it was crazy for me to be running, and I couldn't even see anyone on the trail ahead of me, so I slowed it down to a brisk walk.

I searched and called out Dexter's name for another half an hour, making a complete loop around the area where we had been walking, but no Dexter and no woman. I went back and got Dan, then HE ran around like Dustin Hoffman in Marathon Man calling out for Dexter and looking for the woman, but no luck. Dexter had tags on with Brad's New York phone number, so we gave up walking around after more than two hours, went home and made some flyers, went BACK and posted them up, and by that time I was barely able to walk, having already done the running thing and then walked at least several miles that day. It felt like my pelvis had shattered into several pieces. We just hoped and prayed that the woman would call Brad and Dexter was safe. In the meantime we were both just devastated. Nothing worse than losing your dog, unless it's losing someone ELSE'S dog. Ugh. Dan and I barely said one word to one another, we were so stressed out and miserable, and not only that, but it was our first wedding anniversary that day.

All ended well though. The woman's husband called Brad and left a phone number, so we were able to go pick up Dexter. They lived *right* off the trail, I don't know why those fools didn't stick around for more than two seconds after they found him. Idiots. But at least we got him back. No more running for me though, I can still barely walk. I must have strained something pretty badly. There is a cartilage seam down the front of your pelvis and it starts to get *very* soft in pregnant women right around this time, in preparation for the baby to come. I really hope I didn't tear it or do anything severe.