The Dog I Never Stopped Missing

In this deeply personal story, Hal remembers Shep, the little black-and-white Border Collie who became his childhood companion on a Kentucky farm. For two years, Shep was more than a dog; he was a friend, a playmate, and part of a boyhood world of creeks, fields, rocks, and long days that seemed endless. But when Shep grew old and sick with mange, Hal’s father made the hard decision to have him put down, a choice the seven-year-old boy saw only as cruelty. The sound of the shotgun haunted him for years, along with dreams of Shep running back from the woods. Only much later did Hal understand that his father may have been acting out of mercy, poverty, and the hard customs of that time and place.