A LOST DOG
Up ahead, I see a red wagon and a young child pulling it. He has blond hair with a sweet face and is wearing shorts and a striped shirt. He is walking his neighborhood looking for his dog that is lost, and when he finds him, he will put him in the wagon and carry him home. His dog has been missing for several days, and everyone else in the family has given up hope. They don’t believe he will ever come back. They think he is dead or maybe some other family has taken him. But the little boy knows the dog is out there somewhere and is scared and hungry and wants to be back home.
So he walks up and down every street, pulling his wagon, and trying a new part of town every day. He stops and talks to many people along the way and asks if anyone has seen his dog. Almost everyone is nice and friendly to him, and many are also worried about the dog. Some have lost a dog themselves before so they know how hard this is for the boy. So they give him ideas of other places he could look, and they take down his name and number in case they see the dog. A few people even start to cry when he describes how cute his dog was, and they say that once they had a dog exactly like that. Some even had a dog with the exact same name.
But a few people that the boy meets won’t even stop long enough for him to tell them what’s wrong. They don’t try to listen at all, and they just keep walking. Others just say “sorry”, but he can tell they don’t really care. Maybe they like cats instead or maybe they never had a pet before and don’t know what it is like to lose someone you love. They don’t know that a pet is part of the family and that NOTHING at home seems the same after the pet is gone.
The little boy has tried telling his family how he feels, but they are all busy and don’t have time for him. His Dad and Mom both work all day, and his brother and sister have their own friends. But the dog was always so happy to see him when he came home from school and always wanted to play. He would dress him up sometimes and take him all over in his wagon. What will happen if the dog never comes home? Who will be his best friend now, and who will love the little boy MORE than anyone else?
Copyright © 2013 (Michelle Parsons, Getting Back on Your Path). All Rights Reserved.
