On 20th July 2021, the South Australian premier announced a 6 day lockdown due to the Modbury cluster of Covid-19. I have previously blogged on the Parafield cluster lockdown, and mandatory self isolation. This is post 6 in the the current lockdown series. You can read post 1, post 2 post 3, post 4, and post 5.

The second to last day of lockdown! And it’s a bit sad. I might perhaps be in a minority, but I like a lockdown. It’s a rare opportunity to cancel all commitments with no guilt!

The 11am press conference showed only one more case from the Modbury Cluster, and confirmed we are on track to come out of lockdown tomorrow night. Us South Australians do this right!

Today was writing Monday, and it was a day when it was like walking through mud. I only wrote about 1000 good words when I stopped and regrouped. I have always said that being able to switch between writing, editing, and plotting is a way to get out of a slump, and so I decided I would do some edits. So I pulled up the first 20k of this novel and started doing some edits on it and reading it has helped me get direction on where it should be going now. So that’s good.

While I was writing, there was a big bang, that sounded like our gate slamming. I peered out the window, and the gate was shut. I stared at it for a while, but it wasn’t moving, and I just put it down to being a big wind as we sometimes get out here. Maybe a stick blew against the fence.

About an hour later, I stopped writing, and I went out in the yard, and Myrtle and Thyme (two of the dogs) didn’t rush to greet me. I called. They didn’t come. I worried they might’ve dug out, but then I looked at the gate and found that it was locked open instead of locked closed.

I rushed inside, put on shoes, grabbed a lead, bolted back outside, calling Tex with me. My hope was that Tex would cover more ground and flush them out. As we walked around our 7 acre property, I yelled to the dogs the whole way. I called a neighbour, but she didn’t pick up. I called my husband, and he said he’d call all the other neighbours.

I got home, no sign of them. I put Tex back in the yard, got in the car, and drove a k down each of the surrounding roads. I flagged down two cars and asked them to keep an eye out. I went to a new neighbours’ house, introduced myself, and left my number in case the dogs visited them. I called another neighbour, but he was not at home. One of the neighbours had seen Thyme out the front of our house about 30 minutes earlier. That was … something.

Around our area, some of the roads are very boggy, so I parked my car and walked down one of these summer tracks. As I walked, I kept calling, and made a Facebook post with a photo of the two dogs. I shared it on a few pages/groups as I kept walking. A few minutes later, someone called me to say their friend had found a dog. They were in the town (I am in the paddocks). I said it’d take me a moment to get to my car, but then I’d come straight into town. For whatever reason, I was tentative, wondering if this person had just found some random small dog.

I got back to my car, drove towards town, slowly, scanning for either of the girls as I went. It was getting dark, and I’m short sighted, so not a good combination.

Thyme walked out of the grasses on the verge and onto the road.

I stopped the car.

Another car was approaching.

I put my hazards on.

Thyme thought twice about things and started to head back into the verge.

I said, “Thyme.” She stopped, looked up, and took a step towards me.

I hoped the ongoing car would slow down at least.

I got out of the car, said “Thyme” again, and squatted down. She came to me, at a crawl for whatever reason, and I scooped her up and started crying. I stepped behind my car to let the other car past.

I bundled her into the back of my car and drove to into town, still scanning everywhere looking for Myrtle – in case the person in town had a random dog instead.

When I pulled up in town, a family was standing out the front of the house, holding Myrtle in their arms. Myrtle didn’t give a rats, but I started sobbing and thanking the people who had found her. They showed me where they had found her – on a main road about 2km from our house! Apparently, she was “soaking wet” when they found her. I imagine that Myrtle was hunting a creature through the damp crops, picking up moisture as she went.

I sat in the car and updated everyone who was already invested. My husband was already on his way from work at this stage.

Also: I’m pretty sure “trying to find lost pets” is not one of the five reasons I’m allowed to leave my house in a lockdown, unless it counts as “for an emergency” – which it is to me.

So then I got home and watched Beauty and the Geek to try to unwind that incredible stress.