Run Away

Author dedications-
This book is dedicated to all our family pet dogs: Sleepy, Riffer, Ja, Rasta, Nya,
Kiri and Rover. They are now bright shining stars in the sky.-Shyamali

Illustrator dedications-
To my daughters Kiara & Diana, and to John Knee, the love & inspiration of my
life.

Audrey M.

Written by Shyamali Perera. Illustrated by Audrey McCain.

Copyright © 2020 by Shyamali Perera. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods.

Rover
Our pet dog Sleepy passed away a week ago. We were very sad to lose him. Mom said
he is now a shining star in the sky. We looked up in the night and saw a big star.
We were sure it was Sleepy smiling down at us. We missed him very much.

But Saturday was special for us, as Grandma promised to take us to the shelter to
pick out a new dog. We were very excited! Grandma drove silently to the pet shelter.
As we arrived at the shelter, we heard so many dogs barking, as if they were saying,
“Please take us home today.” The kind woman at the front desk took us to see the
dogs that were ready for adoption.
We saw puppies, large dogs & small dogs trying to get out of their cages. Suddenly
the kind woman stopped by a puppy and said, “This one has been here several times,
he’s a runaway.” We looked at him and saw he had sad brown eyes and a brown &
black coat.

Grandma chose a dog that was much smaller. She said small dogs are easier to take
care of and walk. But we wanted the runaway dog because he looked so sad & lost.
“He will be a medium size dog, and won’t grow more than 45 pounds,” they told us.
After much pleading with grandma, she agreed to adopt the runaway dog.

We were very happy and thanked Grandma for choosing the

runaway dog!
Grandma signed the paperwork and picked up the tags while we waited impatiently for
the attendant to bring him to the front office. We decided to name him Rover. Rover
seemed sad and did not want to get into the car to go home with us. A pet attendant
from the shelter helped us to get him in to Grandma’s car.

On our way home, we stopped at the pet store to buy him food, water bowls, a new
collar and a cushion to sleep on.

Surprisingly, Rover seemed very happy to be in our house.

He never slept on his bed, but liked to sleep under our bed instead. We didn’t mind
and felt safe with him there to protect us. Our Mom planned a party for our 7th
Birthday. It was a double birthday party since we are twins!

There were two cakes, lots of ice cream, games, family and friends. The day of the
birthday party, our cousin Ray kept the front door open for too long while he was trying
to bring his bicycle inside.

As bad luck would have it, Rover ran out the front door!
At first, no one noticed that Rover had run away. But when Dad went to take pictures for
our birthday, Rover was nowhere to be found. Every-one called his name, “Rover,Rover,
… Rover”. Sadly, he did not come running up to us as usual when we called his name. We
did not hear his bark either. We feared the worst: that Rover had run away.

We all scrambled to find Rover: Mom & dad ran along the street in opposite directions
looking for him, while our uncles Cha and Su drove around the neighborhood. Finally we
saw Dad bringing Rover back to the house. “He was running very fast…I thought he
would get run over by a car,” said Dad.
We took pictures and had lots of ice cream and cake. It was a happy day. We got our
picture with Rover! Two weeks later, Rover ran away again while we walked him. He saw
our neighbor’s black & white cat and chased after him. Rover’s collar came off and he
was gone.

We thought he was lost again, when Mr. Scott, our neighbor brought him over. We
were happy. Grandma said, “I didn’t want to bring this dog home. The lady at the
shelter said he is a runaway”.
But we promised Mom, Dad & Grandma we would take good care of him and make sure
that he would not run away again.
Rover ran away several times. Each time we were able to find him. We picked him
up from the shelter twice. The lady at the front desk would smile and shake her
head. “He’s a run-away, he won’t stay,” she would say each time.

We always promised her we would take care of him. Mom often questioned why he
tries to run away, and Dad would always say, “He's a fast runner,” with a look of
pride on his face. Grandma would say, “We should have picked another dog”. All of
our friends named him “Runaway Rover.” We loved him very much, even though he
loved to run away.
The last time Rover ran away, we could not find him. We looked everywhere. Our
friends and neighbors helped us to put up “Runaway dog” notices. Mom called
the shelter. The kind lady said, “No one has picked him up this time.” We were
very sad and disappointed. Maybe he is now a bright star in the sky like Sleepy,
we thought? Days, weeks & months went by, and there was no sign of Rover,
but we never gave up hope that he would return!

One afternoon, we were playing in the back yard while grandma was watering her
plants. We heard a familiar bark. “It sounds like Rover,” we said. “It sure does,” said
Grandma. Minutes later, we heard a rustling noise near the fence. So we opened the
back gate to see what was happening.
To our surprise, there was Rover. He jumped on us, barking and trying to lick us. He
was not alone! But was with another dog & seven little puppies. The puppies looked
like Rover and the other big dog.

We realized that Rover had a family of his own now. Mom and Dad were also very
happy to see Rover and his new family.

We gave Rover and his family food and water, and played with them until it was time
to go in for dinner. After that day, Rover and the family visited us many times. Each
time they visited, the puppies had grown a little bigger.
But as time went by, we got busy with our schoolwork and had no time to play in
the backyard. We never forgot to wait for Rover and his family: But we just did
not always have a chance. Maybe they came and went away because we were
not there. Grandma said that she heard them barking far away.

After many weeks & months had passed, the barking stopped. We always
wondered where Rover and his family were. Mom said, “He must be happy
running free and playing with his new family.” Dad said, “Families are special
even for animals.”
Grandma said, “Someday they will be bright shining stars in the sky”.
Grandma was right!

Many years later after seeing Rover again we searched the night sky for
Sleepy’s star. We soon found him smiling down at us. Suddenly a brilliant
shooting star streaked across the sky.

Grandma said, “Look! there goes Runaway Rover!”

Now every time we see a shooting star we know Rover is running free through
the night sky.
The End