I am only 13 years old. It has always been a dream of mine to have a dog. We finally got a black lab puppy and named her Lexi. We had had her for about 2 years when we moved to a new house close to a busy road. People always speed and there are lots of drunk drivers on our road. I know this because there had been an accident recently close to our house with a drunk and possibly high driver crashed and severely injured a van load of people that I knew. Well anyway, One day early in the morning at about 6:00am, my stepmother put her outside because she had to go to the bathroom. She has never left far because we had an underground fence but it had broken a few weeks earlier. We have a hook to hook her up with but my stepmom figured she would be just fine which she usually is. But after about half an hour, she did not return when we called and called her. We let our neighbors know to look out for her and my stepmom came home throughout the day thinking she just might be there waiting on the porch when we came home. But she wasn't. So I rounded up a couple of friends to come over and help me look for her up in the woods. I called her name thousands of times and she did not answer. So then the next day, I stayed home with my stepmom instead of going to school to see if we could find her and put up lost pictures of her at stores and ride around and try and find her. I was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo worried about her and couldn't really sleep. This is just not like her at all. Well, the next day, we hiked up into the woods and came back down. My step mom said, "I pictured her on the side of the road, dead somewhere." and that made me feel even more excited to find her. When we walked back to our house to get in the car to drive up and down the raod and look for her in the feilds and stuff, my stepmom just wanted to look across the road right from our house in the ditch just in case but she was sure she wasn't there. But when we approached possitive she wouldn't be there, we saw her just laying there, completely still, not moving. I ran back across the street to get my dad. My stepmom followed behind me, crying. I have never seen her cry and she had never seen me cry. But Lexi was hit by a car that decided to just leave her there and not let anyone know that she was injured. RIGHT ACROSS THE ROAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We never noticed her there once at all. I feel like such a bad child not to have noticed her there, so close to our house. So then I got ready for school while she got ready for work, while my dad, trying to hide his feeleings, went to get Lexi and barry her. I tried school out but just couldn't keep it together. So I called my stepmom and she said it would be okay to just bring me home to my real moms house so I wouldn't have to see where she got hit and see all her pictureas and food and other stuff. So when I got home, my mom who had lost a pet, told me about this poem called the Rainbow Bridge and that I should read it. Now I'm going to print it out, frame it with a picture of Lexi in it, and then give it to her for Christmas. So thank you for this website. Anyone who can give me some type of joy or hope for the season coming up, please email me at emily514@together.net
Thank YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Emily Nonemacher