That's just crazy talk!

Winston decided to scare his mother half to death Sunday afternoon. And the story goes… Phil wanted to go over to the farm to shoot his gun (you can’t shoot a rifle where we live) and he wanted me to go with. So, I figured since we were going to the farm I’d bring Winston like I always do. Then he can play with his brother! On our way to the farm Justen said that there were already a bunch of guys out there shooting. We pulled up, got out of the car and walked about half way over to where everyone was and then the first gun shot went off – Winston was gone in an instant. Tail between his legs, scared and gone. I figured he just ran up to the house so I didn’t go searching for him immediately. About 5 minutes later after I said hello to the boys I went to go find him to put him in the shop with his brother. I could not find him anywhere. I walked the entire farm a few times and went in every shed/barn that he would be able to go into and nothing. At this point I was pretty ticked at him but I figured he wasn’t far away. So I drove over to the neighbor’s house almost right across the road and they said they hadn’t seen him but they’d help look. We then went to the other neighbor’s house and didn’t see him there either. A few minutes later we had 5 or 6 cars driving around the section looking for Winston. After about an hour I started to panic. My worst thoughts were that some weirdo saw him trotting down the road and picked him up and decided just to take him home. I had a feeling though that he wasn’t taking the roads and that he headed straight in the opposite direction of the guns. The opposite direction is a field and then about a mile up are some woods. And guess where we found him, hours later – in the woods covered in mud. Man I was happy to see him! I even let him jump on me and get me all muddy. We have come to the conclusion that even though golden retrievers are hunting dogs, Winston is not. I’m so thankful for having such great neighbors and friends to help us look for him. If it weren’t for them we would have never found him in the woods. :)