No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

   After I finished the book, I thought, "I still have a lot to do today, but since Lobo is leaving tonight I should take the dogs for a quick romp in the park." We headed up to my favorite park in the area, Antioch Park. As usual, I didn't have pockets in my running shorts, so I hooked the car key onto the leash with Lobo's harness, and we were off! 
   We jogged for about 30 minutes and hit every corner of the park at least once. Down the hill, across the far bridge, up the hill, past the huge playground (dragging Lobo because he LOVES kids & wanted to go visit with everyone), around the ranger station, down the hill, through the grass, around the lake, around the rose garden, across the street, over the bridge, through the woods... you get the idea. Lobo did his best to kill me, zig-zagging in front of me constantly and making me trip over him.
   We stopped at a drinking fountain for the dogs and as I was standing there holding the water button, I looked at Lobo's harness. No car key. It was gone! My heart stopped. It was impossible to know where it fell off. My phone was locked in the car with my purse. My spare key was safely at home. Home was too far to reach by foot, and the dogs were already too hot & tired. I have keyless entry; if someone found the key & wanted to steal my car, it would be so easy...
   I retraced my steps for about 20 minutes, hoping one of the dogs would figure out what we were looking for & find it. Ha! Trying not to get upset (it wouldn't help anyway!) I headed back to the ranger station. The door was locked. It was Sunday. Would anyone be there? I knocked & peered inside. Darkness. Then a tall silhouette appeared. His badge just said, "Reynolds."
   The friendly ranger agreed to walk with me and help me look for my keys. They shouldn't be hard to spot: the key is large & I have about a dozen colorful keytags from local retailers on the ring. I told him I was worried because my car has keyless entry... so if someone found the keys & wanted to steal my car, it wouldn't be hard to find it. We asked everyone we passed... no dice. He let me borrow his cell phone to call Kelly. I asked Kelly to go to my house, find my spare key, & meet me at the park.
   As we rounded the lake, he was getting ready to call Overland Park police to request an officer's help, just as 3 kids were approaching. The boys were on bikes, and a girl was walking with them. They must have read my expression, because one of the boys held up the keys and said, "Are you looking for these?" These were great kids. They were excited to pet the dogs, and said that they planned to talk to everyone in the park until they found the owner of the keys. I asked them to follow me to my car & gave them some cash to get slushy drinks at Sonic. They were appreciative & I was so relieved!
   I loaded the dogs in the car & thought, "Ranger Reynolds, you are my hero!" How nice of him to help me look. He was friendly & funny... I genuinely enjoyed talking to him.
   My "quick" trip to the park had now gone into extra innings. 2+ hours, to be exact. As I got into the car I noticed that sometime since finding my keys, I had lost my sunglasses. I left. Better to get home before I lose my mind.