Lost and found and found
To the editor:
If you have ever lost your dog or cat (or hamster or turtle), you can understand the way I felt when my new puppy went missing within 5 minutes of bringing her home. She didn’t have a name yet and she didn’t know where she was. However, this story is not as much about sadness as it is about happiness.
My husband and I moved to Pine Island a year ago and have met some really nice people. But what happened the day my puppy got lost is testament to a level of generosity I have never experienced before.
Within only a few minutes of beginning our search for the little run-away, our neighbors here in Bokeelia started to help. Everyone who saw us out on the street asked what was going on and when we told them what we were doing, they all started looking too (and campaigning to others they knew). Before long, there was a posse forming. These people stopped everything they were doing — for hours. And the determination with which they hunted would make you think there was a lost child!
It was a little hard on us to move to a new place with no friends. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth now. Although citizens of our home state, Alabama, have a reputation for hospitality (and with good reason), we witnessed a multitude of total strangers treating us like family. We experienced something truly amazing. This community stands high above any we have lived in before and the kindness we were shown has inspired me to be a better friend myself. So, here is to the new friends we have found. To Bob & Barbara, Carol Ann, Rocky and Leslie who spent their time and gas driving around all day; to Lynn at the marina who helped me post flyers; and to everyone else whose name I never got. And, of course, I have to thank my husband who led the search party and did not give up until he found her … 11 hours later.
We named her Mia, for Missing In Action.
J Amy Patterson
Bokeelia