Saying "Goodbye" to Pepe'

Last wk. we had a very surprising and disappointing event take place in our household. After 7 months of housing/raising Pepe' (our Chihuahua) as our own...Patrick surprisingly found his owners last wk. Pepe' "adopted" himself into our family back in May after literally jumping into my car one evening while I was strapping Kennedy into her car seat (a/b to attend a church youth member's jr. high band concert). Afraid that he would get killed b/c of his tiny size and little visibility, we kept him and immed. contacted the pound do any owner could get in touch w/ us. Well, needless to say...nothing ever came from our communication w/ the pound those first 2-3 weeks. And he became "ours"...or so we thought.
Lancer (our much larger Chesapeake Bay Retriever) and Pepe' were best buds! They did everything together! No joke! Pepe' just followed in Lancer's tracks in the yard and even slept right next to him to feel the warmth of his fur.
After receiving the call from Patrick last Wed. morning (from the bus barn) @ 6:45 am, we decided to ask the owner if we could spend one more day/night with Pepe' b/f returning him the following day. We had fun taking sweet pictures w/ him and of him and Kennedy together. And we also gave him a bath to get clean and smell good b/f returning to his original owners. Lancer stood @ the back door for the LONGEST time after he left, just holding Pepe's tiny food bowl in his mouth. : (
The following morning after P's route...Pepe' was driven 2 streets away in our same neighborhood to his owners' house. It was a very sad day and I was WAY more emotional than I expected to be. But, you know...you just don't assume that you would ever have to give him up after SEVEN FULL MONTHS of not being claimed or even contacted.
Here are some of the pictures we took that night b/f Kennedy headed to bed.










...HOWEVER, Pepe' has decided to make his way BACK to our house FOUR (yes...FOUR) times since last Thursday when we returned him to his other home! Ha, ha!
HMMM...guess her knows who REALLY loves him and took good care of him, huh? It was a little surprising the first time (on Sat.-2 days later), hilarious the second time (on Wed.), and truly unbelievable the third & fourth times (this past Sun.)! We loved him, and he LOVED his playmate Lancer to death! I'm sure he misses Lancer's warmth as well, b/c he always wrapped himself up in b/w his fur.
We're not sure if the family can't quite fix the hole properly in their backyard? Or, if he's getting out when they're letting him out to go to the bathroom in the front yard? BTW, his original name was "Nemo", so everyone's been getting a HUGE kick out of the fact that this family..."found Nemo"! (From the movie, you know?!) : )
We'll see how many more times it happens??? Two streets away is NOT far for a determined little dog!

I'll post more pictures from some of his returns/homecomings once we figure out this BLOGGER/PICASSA WEB ALBUMS problem! UGH!