Our Vizsla, aka Penny, just turned 13 last month and is having a wonderful trip.

When not sleeping on the floor between the driver and passenger, she is curled up as close to the gas furnace outlet as she can get.

She is known for pointing anything but wild birds. Here she is with an Arizona Tree Lizard a few years ago.

Saturday, she discovered that there was a bird at our friends’ house where we were visiting.

As part of the plan suggested by the vet to keep her healthy and less hyper, I am giving her pills for anxiety. We ran out and were awaiting a shipment.

So a few days ago, we decided to take a short drive to go into Patagonia for some shopping and mail pickup. We stopped at the Post Office, and the Sally did a little grocery shopping at two stores. Then she hit a gift store. I waited, catching up on email, and after a while, turned to see if Penny was staying cool – and found the van dogless.

The next two to three hours were spent searching. We suspected that she slipped out at one of our stops. Sally walked up and down the back streets talking to dozens of folks. I drove the van all over, visiting the posrmistress, the marshall’s, the public works guys, and dozens of others. People were wonderful but no red dog in sight. At Sally’s suggestion, I called the park but they had no loose dog.

We were just devastated, fearing the worst, when my cell phone rang and the park ranger told me that Penny was with our campsite neighbors. The imp had snuck out of the van as we prepared to leave and we drove off forgetting that her brown snout is always up under the dashboard. She had been watered, fed, walked and had had a much better afternoon than we did.

Perhaps there are enough anxiety pills to share.