My lost, but thankfully found dog

Have you ever lost your dog?
Well on Sunday that happened to me and my family.
My fiancee and I travelled into town from her home in the country just outside of Bemidji, Mn. to pick up some groceries and do a few other chores.
Being that it was a beautiful day the kids decided to head out and play in the yard about 15 minutes before we arrived back at home (around Noon). We had been gone for about an hour. As we rolled up to the driveway the kids, a friend and one of our dogs were standing at the driveway with a bag of dog treats in hand. We were wondering what was going on. As we stopped to ask them before we pulled in we discovered that my dog of nearly 12 years was nowhere to be found.
The kids let both dogs out when they went to play assuming they would stick close by them and for the most part they usually do.
My dog, Navy Boy, has recently taken to wandering off and on Sunday he did just that. Being he is blind in one eye and pretty old, we think he gets turned around fairly easily and likely was looking for Kim and I.
We think he made it down the road a ways and then was picked up and later dumped off near Highway 2, which is about five miles from Kim's house. At about 7 p.m. someone picked him up. Apparently he was sitting in the middle of the road with traffic whizzing by him at 65 m.p.h.!
They dropped him off at a rescue in Solway, MN. about 9 miles west of Bemidji.
The kids, mom and I all spent the afternoon going door to door looking for clues on his whereabouts and even put up a poster at a local gas station near by.
We called the police and as the daylight fleeted away, we began to really get worried. Many tears were shed by us all, each of us feeling somewhat responsible. Kim and I felt like we should have told the kids not let him out no matter what and the kids felt terrible for letting him out and having him go missing.
I said to myself and then to the rest of them, "It was none of our faults. We do not know what he was thinking." A lot of hugging still did not make sleeping any easier. We struggled through the night and I had to leave to come back to Rainy River early Monday, without my long time companion. Kim decided to make more "lost dog" posters and was planning to plaster them everywhere when a phone call came from a place far away from the scene; International Falls.
Rainy River Veterinary Clinic in International Falls, called. Apparently the good souls at Whipstaff Rescue in Solway called them because of his rabies tag. "We are calling to tell you that a rescue near Bemidji has found your dog Navy."
I was ecstatic! In an instant that sick to my stomach feeling dissipated and I quickly called the rescue and then Kim. Within an hour a very scared little dog was in his Momma's arms and licking her face. Not long after I talked to him on the cell phone and he lit up like a Christmas tree.
I will have to spend the week without him, but he is in good hands.
WE all are very grateful to the person who found Navy, to Whipstaff for comforting him for a night and for calling long distance to International Falls and for the Vet Clinic, going out of their way to look up his tag number and get in touch with me.
I know they say cats have nine lives, but Navy is truly fortunate to be alive especially after the Hwy. 2 experience and definitely has nine lives as well!
–Until then,
Ken