[The following piece is a found piece of art with modifications. -- jds]

  My Dog Stan
by Daniel Mann

A few years ago when I was about eight or nine years old I had a dog named Stan. Stan was a dobermanpincher and came to about my belly. My dad got him from a friend who went to A.A. meetings with him. At first I didn't like him because he looked mean but after a while I started to like him. My sister Dawn and I started to feed and walk him.

After about a month my sister and I would turn on the sprinklers in the backyard and play in the water with him. He loved the water! Sometimes we would bring him inside. He and our cats would fight, well mostly just the cats would fight. They would just pounce on him and hiss. After a while our cats got used to him and would hiss but not attack.

Soon about two more months rolled by and Stan started to try and jump the fence. One day I came home from school to play with him and he was gone. My mom had already gone out to look for him and didn't see a trace so my sister and I went to try and find him. We didn't see a trace of him either. Everyday after school for about two or three days I looked for him.

Finally my dad called animal control to see if they picked up any dogs in the last four days and they said you will have to come see so he did. When my dad got home he had Stan. Later on that night he wouldn't eat anything so my mom and dad got worried. Sam's belly started to swell. About midnight that night Stan's belly was so swollen he couldn't even walk. He died about fifteen minutes later.

I was so sad that night I cried myself to sleep. The next day my dad and I took Stan out in the desert and burried him on a cliff. After that we made a cross and put his name on it. Then we just sat there.