It all started when I saw my family putting on their shoes and filling up their water bottles. I knew exactly what that meant. Next, Mama would grab her purse and say, “Good dog,” and they would all walk out the door. “Icey, they are going to leave us!” I whined to my old chihuahua sister as I nervously jumped up and down. “Calm down. They’ll come back Lucy. They always come back.”

    Sure enough, one by one, they walked out the door. I began panting

heavily, scratching the door, and licking my paws to try to calm myself down but nothing was working. “It feels like they are never going to come back. What if they are lost or missing?” I sobbed. “They probably just went out to dinner or to the grocery store,” Icey replied annoyed, “Ugh, Cavapoos!”    

 Icey, they're leaving!!!

Calm down...

    I sprung into action and decided the best way to handle this was to create a missing family flyer and hang it all around town. Afterall, it always works for missing dogs. I printed my flyer from the family computer and told Icey if she wasn’t going to help, I’d do it myself. She snarled at me with disgust, twirled around five times before laying comfortably in her bed to fall fast asleep. 

    The flyer said:

MISSING FAMILY with a picture of our family that we used on our  Christmas card. Please return to LUCY AND ICEY at 3524 puppy lane, GA. REWARD, ONE HUNDRED PUPPY KISSES!

 I'll do it myself!

    I made my way through the doggie door, into the backyard and dug under the fence with all the flyers in my mouth. The first flyer, I hung at the local grocery store window. Next, at my family’s favorite Mexican restaurant. The third flyer I hung at the donut shop and the next at the crosswalk by the traffic light. The last one, I hung at the dog store where they buy my food and toys. Surely, someone would see the flyers and return my family! I was tired after all that work, so I turned around and headed home. The pavement was cool under my feet and my heart was heavy with sadness and loneliness. I just wanted my family back.

Missing 

Family 

    When I made it back home, I went back under the fence, through the

doggie door, and inside the house to find Icey still asleep in the same place as when I had left. “That lazy chihuahua,” I thought to myself as I jumped on the couch and laid my head down on the soft pillow next to me. I kept waiting for someone to ring the doorbell and return my family to me but sadly, the doorbell never rang.

    I waited for what felt like 652 hours. Suddenly, I heard the sound of my mom’s voice coming from the television. I couldn’t believe when I looked up and saw my whole family on the news. They were being interviewed right next to the sign I had hung up at the Mexican restaurant. “Icey, wake up! My plan worked! The newsman found our family!” Icey barely lifted her head, rolled her eyes, and went back to sleep. I turned in circles repeatedly with excitement knowing that the newsman would surely bring my family back to me.