June 20, 2008 by Melanie Alberts.

It has been two weeks since Penny went missing. She wasn’t missing for long…shortly after I heard the mockingbirds whine I found her body by the side of the road, a bed sheet draped over her broken body. Her head was lolled back, her leg bone exposed, and I couldn’t keep my composure. Two women stopped to help me, one even sent her husband to pick up the body and take it to our house. I had to pick up our son at karate and called my husband on the way there as he was out of town. Crying, somehow I made it to karate. It had been a blustery day; the wind blew down the gate we used to keep the dogs on our deck and that is how Penny got loose. As I opened the car door to get out, a gust carried a document out of the door pocket and I raced to get it. Seeing me, one of the other karate kid’s moms called out, “Find a lucky penny?” Crying harder, I explained how our Penny just died. She said she saw her lying there as she drove home earlier and was sorry.

After I told my husband this story he agreed that our dog had been lucky. She was a rescue pup, a shepherd mix, and lived the first few months of her life outdoors before coming to us, adorable but worm ridden. She was afraid of thunderstorms, loud noises, and men in general for certain secret reasons. But she spoke with us constantly with her powerfully wagging tail and growly vocalizations, her expressive face and loving energy. We called her Penny because of the large, copper circles on her back and over the four years she lived with us we often commented on how healthy she was, how fast, how strong, how exuberant. We were the lucky ones to know and love such an animal, always poised to chase after anything that caught her eye, carried by a sudden breeze.

under the sheet
her unbuckled collar—
the longest day

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June 5, 2008 by Melanie Alberts.

the whining
of the mockingbirds–
lost dog

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