Maya was Missing!!

I have had family here visiting for the majority of the past two and a half weeks, which has been so much fun (although not very good for my spanish)!!  With the exception of Joe and Kellie who braved a weekend in downtown PV (and I think they enjoyed it!), the rest of my family stayed in an all-inclusive hotel in Nueva Vallarta, about 20 kilometers north of Puerto Vallarta.  It took me about 90 minutes on the bus to get to the hotel from my house, so for the weekend of Easter when I didn't have classes, I wanted to stay in Nueva Vallarta, closer to the hotel.  Of course, the Rui Palace did not allow dogs, but one of my Mexican friends here lives in an apartment in Nueva Vallarta and invited Maya and I to stay at his house for the weekend.  This was perfect, as the apartment was only a 15 minute bus ride to the hotel, and I could still spend the nights with Maya to give her her medicine. 

Little did I know that there was going to be about 8 other people staying in the apartment as well, mostly visiting Puerto Vallarta from Guadalajara for the Easter holiday.  Maya and I did have the bedroom (with the only bed) to ourselves, which actually worked out fine for everyone since it seemed like I was the only one who actually wanted to sleep at night!!  Even Maya wanted to be out partying in the livingroom on Friday night, but her mean mother wouldn't let her!

On Saturday night, everyone (except Maya and I, of course) went out somewhere, and didn't get home until 6 am!!  I am definitely too old for that kind of partying these days!  When I left for the hotel at 8 am, there were literally 7 or 8 people passed out on the livingroom TILE floor!  I woke up my friend to let him know that I was leaving, and that my family and I would be by around 5 in the afternoon to pick up Maya, since my family was actually going to leaving their all-inclusive hotel for a few hours to check out my apartment and have dinner downtown.

When we arrived at my friends apartment on Sunday afternoon and walked in, it seemed like everyone was acting a little weird...and I didn't see Maya.  I finally asked my friend's roommate where my dog was, and he just shrugged his shoulders and said that he didn't know!!  Apparently when he woke up (at about 1pm) she was already gone!! 

My family and I immediately headed out into the neighborhood to look for her, but I have to admit that I was not feeling very hopeful since it was already after 5 pm and she had been missing for at least 4 hours, probably more.  As we cruised around the neighborhood, it seemed as though everyone had seen her at some point during the day.  She really must have been making the rounds!  My mom and sister talked to a police officer that said he had seen a dog earlier that afternoon, but when he tried to pick her up, she bit him!  Well, we knew we were on the right track then.  After enlisting the help of 4 little neighborhood boys and almost 2 hours of searching, we finally found her outside one of the neighbors houses.  The neighbor had put out food and water for her during the day. 

I was beyond relieved, and Maya also seemed very happy to be found, although she was definitely no worse for the wear and it seems like she had a really fun adventure!!  It was an Easter miracle!!! :)

Maya...happy to be back in her own bed!