Trigger

Our dog, Trigger, has a very bad habit of running away. This is his favorite time of year, and if he gets loose, he will be gone all day. He is almost impossible to catch and almost impossible to keep contained.

He escaped yesterday morning and was gone for a while. In the afternoon, I was doing history with the girls and Zack came in, quite breathless, and said, "Mom, I need Anna to help with Trigger." I said, "No Way. We need to finish school and if she is trying to catch him, it could take a while."

Zack then went on. "I think Trigger's dead." Well, there was no holding back Anna now. Zack went on to explain that they could see Trigger under the neighbor's house and he wasn't moving at all. Anna was smaller and they figured she could squeeze under and see what was going on.

A few minutes later, in comes Anna, red eyes and sniffling. "He's dead mom. He won't move and I can't reach him." Paul, Jr. came in and went out on the back porch, just pacing and breaking sticks. I thought to myself, "Please, God, don't let him be dead."

Anna was really crying by now and decided to go back out and see what she could do. All of the sudden I heard a commotion and they came running in the house.

"It wasn't him Mom! There was a stuffed dog under that house the same color as Trigger!" And in comes Trigger, trotting around, receiving all kinds of hugs and kisses.

Oh, did we laugh over that! We were all so relieved!