I pull dresses and pants, jackets and blouses from the closet and stuff them into plastic trash bags. Given the pandemic, I couldn’t find a charity to take Pearl’s clothes even though, for all the COVID patients she treated, she… Continue Reading
Honey, I’m going vegan. That’s right, I’m turning over a new leaf. (Even my puns are plant-based, now.) You cringe. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? Especially now?” Don’t worry, you don’t have to “go” with me. And why… Continue Reading
One Husky puppy wears a charcoal mask and has a tail like a question mark covered in frost. He patrols the yard’s perimeter barking at passing planes and searching for escape routes under the fence, every bit the wolf I… Continue Reading
The fire had been burning for eight hours, but the earth was still not soft enough. Just as Harold predicted. It had been an unforgiving winter: sub-zero temperatures for months, ice storms, and buckets of snow. It had taken Harold… Continue Reading
I confronted Mr Creepings on the stairs. “Have you seen my dog?” His thin lips twisted into a smile. “Did you lose your Pomeranian?” “She’s vanished,” I said. “I think she was killed…” Mr Creepings scratched dirt from under his… Continue Reading
I took up smoking at fifteen, and quit at twenty, thirty-two, and, finally, again at forty-one. A week after that, I bought a dog from a guy living illegally in a run-down house over the interstate. I’d gone over there… Continue Reading
I first saw it on my way to work, shivering in a corner between my building and the next. It tracked me with big brown mournful eyes as I passed. I hesitated, but there was nothing I could do and… Continue Reading
My dog caught a fish once. We were at a pond out by the ravine. I was on the bank looking for frogs and turtles, tip-toeing over the soft ground so as not to muddy my new tennis shoes. She… Continue Reading
Ben walked faster. The earthy scent of chamomile combined with heat and blinding sunshine gave him sensory overload. He upended his water bottle, drained it and shook his head. Focus. Round the bend in the dusty road, weatherboard houses came… Continue Reading
We scrabble over river rocks and gray pocked stones in the dry creek bed. I pick up a pine branch and throw it. Jessie races off, scoops it up and prances back. She pauses a yard from me, just out… Continue Reading