My twenty-one-year-old daughter and her dog, Popeye, a four-year-old male pug, had been living with us for four months, and I was Popeye’s caretaker during that time. When my daughter moved out, she took my beloved Popeye with her, and we didn’t hear from her for about two months. When I asked about Popeye, she told me that he had escaped from the yard at the house where she was staying and she could not find him.

I made up a flyer, took it to the copy shop, and had a hundred copies made. I put up posters all around the area where Popeye went missing. When I asked how long he’d been gone, my daughter said a month. I was shocked that she had not told us sooner. Statistics will tell you that if you don’t find an animal within the first three weeks, you most likely will not find him at all.

I received several phone calls about a pug in the area, and I always ran to wherever the caller said they had seen him. Then one day a caller said they had a male pug, so I rushed to the address only to find that it was not my baby. As time went by, I put up more and more flyers but got fewer and fewer phone calls. I put an ad in the paper and searched the neighborhood, spoke with people, and handed out more flyers.

Until then I did not know about The Secret. It came into my life when I took my son to Mississippi State University for a college visit and went to the bookstore on campus. The first time we went in, I purchased several items but not The Secret. I didn’t even see the book. But later that day my son wanted something else, so we went back to the store, and as we were getting in line to check out, I saw The Secret. I had no idea what it was, but the cover struck me, so I purchased it. After the weekend was over, I took the book home and began reading it. Then I realized why Popeye was not home yet. When he left, I put his bed in the garage. It had been in my closet, but it hurt me to look at it. I put the bed back in the closet, and I went to the vet and got his food. I still put up posters, but I also said thanks daily for Popeye being home. I so believed he was home that I would cry because I was so thankful.

For a couple of weeks, there were no calls of any kind, yet I never lost faith. Then one day I got a call from someone saying they had seen a pug in the area. At the time they saw him, Popeye had been lost only a couple of weeks, but they just wanted me to know there was still hope. I thought that was wonderful of them. Then a few hours later I received another call, and this man told me that Popeye was in Texas with his niece. He said that she had been visiting at the time Popeye went missing and had found him by the school, which was very close to where he escaped. She had walked around the neighborhood asking if anyone knew him but found no one. So when it came time for her to go home, she took him with her. Her uncle had been traveling for several months, so when he came home and saw my flyers around town, he called his niece and told her that Popeye’s family was hunting for him. He gave me her number, and I called and asked if the dog she had did Popeye’s trick, and sure enough, he did.

Now, you may be wondering how I would get Popeye back when he was in Texas and I was in Mississippi. Well, the rest of the story is that she lived fifteen minutes from my father, who picked up Popeye and is bringing him home to me when he comes for my son’s graduation!