“I’m home,” I called to nobody except for my dog. She usually meets me at the door when I come home from school, but it’s not unusual for her to be doing something else instead. Sometime's she's sleeping, digging at that one spot in the carpet, or perhaps she’s sunbathing in the patch of sunlight that appeared under the living room window this time of day. But today, she wasn’t doing any of those things. In fact, she wasn’t in any of those places. I walked into the living room and called her name, expecting to hear the jingle of her dog tag and the light taps of her paws on the hardwood floor coming towards me.

“Mia,” I called again.

When there was no response, I sighed. This could only mean one thing. She is up to trouble. I slipped off my tennis shoes and walked upstairs. Our upstairs wasn’t much of an upstairs, really. It was more of a hallway lined with our four bedrooms and a closet which we used for bed sheets, over-the-counter medicine, and old elementary school art projects. I checked in there first, because, surprisingly, it wouldn’t be her first time getting herself stuck there. Nothing. I checked all the bedrooms and even the bathrooms, with no sign of her. My heart picked up the pace a little.

“Mom,” I yelled, “Do you have Mia?”

“No, I don’t,” she yelled back, “Why, is she missing?”

“Yeah, I can’t find her anywhere.”

“You keep checking the upstairs, I’ll check down here.”

I made the rounds of the upstairs again, checking even more thoroughly this time. I looked in all the closets, under all the beds, and even in some of the cabinets in our bathroom vanities. I was about to make the rounds for a third time when my mom called me downstairs.

“Honey, come here,” My mom said, her voice soft and concerned.

My heart sped up at the words. I don’t know if it was the concern in her voice, her lack of elaboration, or the fact that if she said anything other than announcing she found Mia was no doubt a bad thing, but I could tell it wasn’t good. I walked down the steps and into the laundry room that I heard my mom’s voice come from. My mom had one hand on the wall as she stood next to the glass door that led outside into the backyard.

“What’s wrong?”

Her eyes glanced down to the ground and she shifted her weight from one leg to another, remaining silent. After a couple more seconds of uncomfortable silence with no other sound than the whir or the washing machine, I saw it. The door was cracked open, just a little to the point where 5-pound Mia could have easily slipped through.

“How do you know she’s not outside?” I asked.

“She could be in the backyard, running around. She loves to run. Or maybe she’s hiding near the plants, or on the side of the house,” I suggested.

My my mom shook her head slowly.

“Well how do you know for sure? We have to check!”

I ran outside and my mom ran after me.

 “Honey, wait,”

By the time she said that, I was already scouring the backyard. The sides of the house, by the open fence. By the open fence. I stopped in my tracks when I noticed that the fence, too, was cracked open. My vision began to blur as tears welled up in my eyes. My cheeks burned as I slowly walked back into the house in defeat. I just wanted Mia back.

Where are they? I have to go to the bathroom! I paced around the house, looking for a good spot in case they weren’t home in time. The carpet’s always a good option. I walked into the room they always let me out from. It made lots of noise and there were always those things that they called “clothes” everywhere. I saw a pile of clothes in the corner. It smelled clean too. Another good option. I was sniffing it out when I saw that the door to go outside was cracked open just a little bit. Cool! Maybe I can open it myself. I took my noise as started pushing it as hard as I could. I got it open a little more, and wiggled myself through. Good going, Mia! I did my business and heard the lock on the fence jingle. Stacy! She’s home! She must have come in this way because she knew I was out here! She’s so smart. I started wagging my tail. When she pushed the fence open, I realized that it wasn’t Stacy at all. In fact, I don’t even know if it was a person at all. It was a tall thing, all black, with cut outs for its eyes and mouth, which looked remarkably similar to those of a human. I was a little skeptical of this thing, but it Brough out a bone! It smelled so delicious and I ran towards it, but got scooped up instead. I tried to squirm for the bone, but the thing was strong. It brought me to its car, and I got excited again. I love car rides! I wanted to stick my head out the window but it didn’t bring me to the actual car. Instead, it took me to this white box thing hooked to the back of the car. It didn’t have any windows. The man slid open the back of it and revealed tons of other dogs! They were all in crates, and they were all occupied except for one. That’s the one it stuck me in. The thing took off what I thought was the skin on it’s head and revealed himself to be a human boy. I got excited, but that excitement was quickly interrupted when he slammed the door down. It was super dark and cold in there. The man started the engine, and the trailer started to move. I started barking. Some of the other dogs joined, and some of them just laid their heads down. They all looked really upset. I was upset too. I just wanted Stacy back. Eventually, I got used to riding in the crate in the trailer.

Suddenly, we came to another stop. I heard the man slam the car door shut. I assumed that he would open the trailer door again to let us out, but he never did. All of a sudden, I saw one of the bigger dogs messing with the latch on his crate. I thought nothing of it, until he got out. How did he do that? He ran around the trailer wagging his tail. The rest of us tried too, and eventually we were all out. The bigger dog who got out first ran towards the trailer door. There was a little handle on the inside of the door that he used his nose to push upwards on. All of a sudden, I saw the sun! We all hopped out of the trailer, and started running. It was nice to run again! Suddenly, I was scooped up again, but this time it was by an older woman. She pet me and took me inside to her house, where she looked at my collar. She set me down on the couch and went to grab the telephone.

I strategically avoided my mom’s glance as I walked back inside. My mom sighed and I felt her glance linger on me for a while longer as I walked upstairs. I fell back onto my bed and sighed, which quickly turned into me crying as I thought about Mia. I woke up a few hours later, unsure of what time and day it was. Oh, I fell asleep. I turned to my right and saw a pile of fliers on my nightstand. They read “LOST DOG-$1,000 REWARD IF FOUND. RESPONDS TO Mia”. My mom must have made them while I was sleeping. I smiled. I grabbed the fliers and walked downstairs and into the laundry room.

“Thanks, mom.”

“Anytime,” she smiled at me and took half the stack of fliers from my hand.

I smiled back and slid on my shoes. We walked around the neighborhood taping the fliers to street lamps and utility poles. Less than a few hours later, we got a call.

“Hello?”

“Hello?”

It sounded like an elderly woman. I was immediately hopeful that it was a call about Mia.

“I think I have your dog.”
“Really? Oh my goodness, thank you so much! What does she look like?”
“She’s small, her colors are tan and black…”

“That’s her! What’s your address? We’ll come pick her up right away.”

The lady called someone and a little while later, I heard a car pull up in the driveway. I jumped off the couch, but I was too short to see out the window. The lady scooped me up again and held me in her arms. She opened the door to reveal none other than Stacy! I wriggled around to get to her and she scooped me up into her arms, crying. I missed you! I thought.

We drove up to the small red brick house. It had a few potted plants and flowers in the front. I jumped out of the car and ran up to the front door. Before I could even knock the front door opened, and there was Mia! I scooped her up into my arms and immediately felt the tears start to stream down my face.

“Thank you so much,” I cried as my mom walked up next to me.

“I missed you,” I told Mia.