by Chantelle Leetch

We adopted Cheyenne when she was 8 weeks old. Cheyenne has always been the sweetest but shyest dog we've ever had. A week after we lost Duke (our 10 yr old Rottweiler) to cancer - Cheyenne and Star (our other dog) were taken to a groomers in Tukwila and she mananged to jump out an open window while we were not there.

We got a frantic call saying - "Your dog just escaped and we can't catch her"

We raced up there and continued searching and calling for her all night, but could not find her anywhere. I continued to search for her everyday in everyway imaginable - scent tracking dogs, 1000's of posters, checking every shelter from Tacoma to Everett, placing ads on Craigslist and every other classifieds and Lost Pet site I could find.

We had many people I had never even met volunteer to come out and help me search in person and spread the word via the internet, but she remained missing for 5 MONTHS!

Then we got a call from a woman who saw one of my posters and thought it was Cheyenne sneaking into her yard late at night to steal some cat food off her porch.

It took me 4 nights of camping outside this house ..... I had treats around the outside of my car and one in my hand, my window was down - and on the 4th night I heard a whimper from the woods across the street and waited for her to cautiously start circling the car - I thought she had disappeared and then suddenly she jumped up and had her front paws in the window and grabbed a treat from my hand - she started to run back across the street but when I opened the door and called her name, she came running back and jumped in my lap covering my face with kisses!

Truly a miracle! Somehow she survived on her own all that time.

She had lost about 25 lbs and was so scared, but thankfully, she was ok. She is now very healthy and back to her normal weight.

We Thank God she is back home healthy and happy, and for all the people who helped me during the search, and of course the woman who made the phone call which resulted in getting our Cheyenne back home.

The day we brought her home was on my husbands birthday, August 30th 2007.

We had just adopted Zeke (The Rotti) a couple weeks before finding her...... They started playing together right away, as if they had always been together. We had also just adopted 2 kittens from a litter we were fostering for the Tacoma Animal Shelter ... and they also all got along as if always together - truely remarkable!

We feel very blessed!

How to nominate your pet for Pet of the Week:

Want to nominate your pet for Pet of the Week? Stop by the VCA West Seattle Animal Hospital at 5261 California Ave. S.W. and just ask for a form. A nomination is not a guarantee of appearance and your name and photo may appear in our newspaper and online.

Photos may or may not be used and our "Pet Reporter" may be in touch with you to arrange to take a photo. Pets nominated will be chosen on the basis of uniqueness of the pet and the quality of the story and information submitted.