No sign of Ben

4/27/09 Monday




There’s been no sign of Ben. I rushed out this morning with the hope of finding him but I really didn’t have a lot of confidence he would show up. I know the odds are against it. He’s either dead or someone kept him. I got out early and made this sign which is posted in front of the house. Even if he’s dead we would like to know that, it would make things easier.







I managed to finish planting the roses and other stuff but my heart wasn’t into it. Today I’ll have to force myself to focus on work more than usual. Gretchen is depressed too. Ben was her life companion. I kept watching to see if she went off looking for Ben because I know she was with him when whatever happened. She never even crossed the road. Part of what’s hard is my imagination as I wonder what happened. Did a farmer shoot him? Was he run over? Is he lying somewhere injured and unable to get home? Gretchen is in heat, did Ben try to protect her from advances of other male dogs and get killed? Even coyotes respond to a dog in heat.

I just heard the dogs barking outside as I typed this so ran out hoping they were welcoming Ben home. No such luck. This will be a hard day. I plan on printing up some flyers with Ben’s picture on it and posting them at the grocery store and post office. Probably won’t write much.