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Tuesday morning August 7, 2007 between 10am and noon our Wheaten Terrier, Rosie, disappeared from our cabin in Timberlake Ranch. My wife thought she was outside with Gyllen (our Golden Retriever) and myself. I thought she was in the house with her. Sadly she was not with either one of us. We made three big mistakes during the initial two hours of her disappearance.

" We did not immediately call our neighbors.
" We did not make flyers as soon as possible and post them in strategic places (mail boxes next to Timberlake Volunteer Fire Department and the Ramah Post Office).
" We did not concentrate our search in all directions.

Our initial search was to the south, to the west and to the north but not to the east. The neighbor to the east (only half a mile away) saw Rosie in their barn right about the time we realized she was gone. Not knowing Rosie's name or her owners, she tried to coax her to come. Rosie bolted and ran. The next day a landowner saw her on Timberlake Road near the Fire Station. On Thursday another landowner saw her by Shorecliff Drive near Timberlake South. We waited until Thursday to post flyers with her picture. These landowners did not see our flyers until Friday August 10th. If we had ALERTED our neighbors as soon as we realized she was gone and posted flyers immediately, I would not be composing this article and Rosie would be sleeping right now in her favorite chair, my leather recliner. Saturday morning we placed a flyer at the Ramah Post Office. Upon seeing our flyer Saturday at the Post Office, a Ramah elementary school teacher called us saying she might have seen Rosie Friday close to the school grounds but we could not find her Saturday. Sunday morning my wife wanted to walk with Gyllen on Timberlake Road where Rosie had been sighted on Wednesday hoping that if she were close by she would see them or get their scent. By the end of Sunday we were losing all hope of seeing her again. That evening I had to go to the Ranch House and meet some Timberlake landowners and a few Ramah residents. I took the opportunity to show them Rosie's flyer. One of the Ramah residents, also a schoolteacher, said she had seen Rosie, or a dog looking like Rosie close to the elementary school on Friday. So I took another ride back to Ramah. Monday August 13th, we went to Zuni and placed a flyer at their Post Office. Tuesday August 14th, we went to Pine Hill and placed a flyer there also. We met many people during this ordeal.

We want to thank everyone for their support and taking their time to look for Rosie. We are hoping and praying we will see her again. We are not the first to go through this ordeal and we won't be the last. Timberlake Ranch is a small but growing community, but it encompasses a large area. Landowners are bringing all kinds of pets (large and small) to Timberlake and sooner or later one is going to get lost. We would like to create a ROSIE ALERT SYSTEM that may prevent others from making the same mistakes we did by establishing a phone/e-mail tree with all fulltime Timberlake residents. This would establish a first response team who will alert other fulltime residents of a lost pet(s), establish a photo bank of all Timberlake Ranch pets (horses, cats, dogs, etc.) for making and posting flyers in strategic locations as soon as possible.

NEWS UPDATE: We have Rosie back! A young Native American lady called us the evening of August 20th (thirteen days later) notifying us she had Rosie in the back seat of her car. Rosie had been using a tree in her yard for shelter and the young lady's aunt had seen the poster in the Ramah Post Office. Rosie was two driveways to the east where Timberlake Rd intersects Hwy 53. She was severely malnourished, dehydrated, and weak along with four sets of mighty sore pads. If only she could tell us about her experiences in the wild. As my wife gave the young lady her reward, she said " you made this old lady very, very happy."

Danny Montoya
rosiealert@hughes.net
(505) 783-2465