This beautiful little girl is Shasta. She's currently 9 months old and admittedly spoiled rotten! From the time she was born she had to be bottle fed and according to her Dr. basically finished developing outside the womb. So she's had special handling from day 1. She had 13 brothers and sisters who did not survive this start in life. So yeah...she's spoiled! So last night hubby and I had a nice dinner out at a restaurant we'd never been too. Then went over to his parents to visit a short time and came home for the rest of a relaxing evening...or so we thought. Upon entering our home I heard a strange sound...running water! and it was running all over my kitchen!! FLOOD! Into the laundry room...it was bad! So he runs to turn the water off and I'm still standing there shocked. We called my mother who lives on the property to obtain more towels and such...so there was a lot of confusion..I ran into the main bathroom to grab what towels we have. So I finally get to sit down..my feet are swollen and I'm in pain..just one of those things but I know I need to sit for a minute. I hear a sound from our bedroom..I count heads on 4 legged children and find Shasta missing...I've closed the bedroom door and she's stuck in there..Shasta never barks, only w/the other dogs and if some one strange is around. I've told her over and over again she has to let me know when I've closed a door on her in a room! So I open the door and no Shasta..so we begin counting heads..no Shasta! I run outside and call to her...no Shasta! Meanwhile hubby is in the kitchen with the plumbing issue at hand. He comes out and calls to her..no Shasta. I finally grab the car keys and for over an hour scour the neighborhood, listening for neighbors dogs barking at her, etc... So between trying to tear the kitchen cabinets apart to get to the plumbing problem hubby is out with a flashlight looking for Shasta...It's midnight out and I'm sure the neighbors aren't appreciative of us screaming for Shasta! I call the local radio station and start sending out the word and will put it on their web site. We're sending up prayers...Guess I should mention that the next day I am going with my in-laws to take my fil to have a catheter released to begin dialysis...so I need to be getting things in order in my house and packing a suit case...PLUS the day after we get back from that adventure we are leaving for our sons college graduation...and we have no water and our beloved Shasta is missing. Finally it's around 1:30 a.m. and hubby has to be at work early the next morning so he decides to drive the area...miles upon miles! He comes back with no luck. So we decided sadly we need to go to bed and I'll start calling and searching in the morning. As I passed the bathroom door I mention how silly I was...I even checked inside the new vanity we'd just installed this past weekend because Shasta liked to get inside it! He admits he looked there also.... I don't know why I did it but I reached into the bathroom and opened the linen closet door....THERE WAS SHASTA!!! We couldn't believe our eyes! Shock, Disbelief...you name it we ran the gambit of emotions. And yes, I cried again...Thank You Lord for answering our prayers! Also St. Anthony and St. Francis! I swear there has to be a class somewhere that will teach her to actually bark when she needs help!! We still have no water, hubby will work on that after work today and I'll be in Spgfield but Shasta IS fine and currently sleeping on my lap...