The Adventures of Hercules

Monday the 27th of the year two-thousand-and-nine.
Hercules is reported missing at 3:00.

I come home and see dad frantically driving into the garage, claiming that Hercules had gone astray. Now normally, Hercules just gets out of the house and runs into the neighbors' garage to eat the neighbor-dog's food, but he was really gone. He was MIA. And clearly he missed his vet appt for his shots. After searching around the neighborhood for like an hour, Dad and I retire to nervously waiting at home for a phone call; Hercules' dog tag had our phone number on it (ah, the classic dogtag, all for utilitarian purposes, none of this fashion nonsense). It soon becomes 6:00 then 7:00 and still no signs of Hercules. Dad and I, having attempted to appear calm and collected, are slowly becoming more worried and nervous. It starts to turn dark and the storm clouds roll in. At this point, Mom has just found out and is speeding home from work. Before coming home she checked the entire back neighborhood and asked all of the families at home. Still no signs of Hercules. Mom comes in exhausted and distraught. We all begin to picture the worst, but Mom, after just a couple of minutes, runs out again to search for Hercules in the backyard. At this point (8:00), it's raining and she's helplessly just yelling his name, but someone from behind the fence, hearing our calls, said that she had found our missing pug. It was a miracle! Hercules, 9-10 years old, is very hard of hearing and can barely see. We were so grateful and relieved. We ran over and brought Hercules, who had been equally shocked and panic-y, back home. It was an amazing story and I'm so glad we found him.

It's sad, but you only truly realize the really important things in life when they're gone, or on a temporary exploration.


Lakers beat the Jazz 4-1 and move onto the 2nd round.