I’m the girl who reads the end of the book first. My apologies if that upsets you, but it’s the truth. So, I’m going to start this post with the end of the story: We found Molly.

Molly is my little shadow, my sidekick, my bffl. I’m quite certain she’s more human than dog and everyone who has ever met her would agree. No one expects to like Molly. But, they all do. They might even love her.

She’s a special little human dog. She survived college, guys. College. It’s no exaggeration that she’s obsessed with pizza and will climb over you to steal a sip of your beer. (Sorry, Grandma – it’s the truth.) She’s just sort of awesome.

So, Sunday. It’s raining. Pouring, actually.  I can see the end of my Homeland binge, and T decides to take Molly out.  She slips out of her collar. Disappears.

He returned to the house with an empty leash and collar.

It’s not his fault. She’s hates the rain and hates being in trouble even more. She was hiding.

This is when everything gets fuzzy. You see, T’s house is on a really, really busy four-lane road. She weighs a little less than seven pounds. My mind went there. Could she cross the road?

For three hours we searched. We were basically in the scene from Forrest Gump where rain is coming in all directions. One neighbor sends a mass email to the ‘hood watch. (we have that??), a teenager mass texts friends Molly’s picture, another went door to door. Poor T. I, overwhelmed with fear and worry, was not an easy girl to deal with.

I called shelters, vets, checked craigslists, met every single neighbor in Meyers Park. Every single one.

I held back tears for a solid 30 minutes. I’ve only heard T’s serious voice twice. So when he said, “Brooke, it’s not time to break down yet. She’s fine.” I sucked it up for all of 4 seconds.

I tweeted.

If anyone in Charlotte wants to help findMolly – I’ll be extremely grateful. Went missing on Providence. twitter.com/brookeclay/sta…

— brooke clay (@brookeclay) April 28, 2013

So did the rest of Charlotte.

#CLT folks: Lost dog help for a friend, please RT @brookeclay: Molly went missing on Providence. bit.ly/12EYF28

— Bill Voth (@billvoth) April 28, 2013

RT @billvoth: #CLT folks: Lost dog help for a friend, please RT @brookeclay: Molly went missing on Providence. bit.ly/12EYF28

— Bryan Meredith (@bryanmeredith) April 28, 2013

I returned to the house one last time for a jacket and dry socks. I was walking back down the driveway when I saw the crowd. This is straight outta a Hallmark movie, guys. She was wrapped in a towel and a herd of neighbors was walking down the sidewalk with smiles as large as Michael Jordon’s when the Looney Tunes beat the Monstars. She was found!

T was still walking the neighborhood. He hasn’t said it but he was probably weighing the various scenarios if a happy ending wasn’t in the cards. Me and the little runaway hung out in the sunroom until he returned. His smile was as big as Texas. I think he has a soft spot for this little ball of fur.

As for her adventures we’ll never know all the details. However, from what I can gather she ran away to avoid getting in trouble for slipping her collar, sniffed out the food at the neighborhood pub, chased a squirrel into a backyard and was invited into a little old lady’s house where she fed her and gave her a towel.

“@billvoth: Lost dog back home. Thanks for all your RTs RT @brookeclay: FOUND! bit.ly/Zub6hG” good work Charlotte!

— JJ Jansen (@JJJansen44) April 28, 2013

Good work, Charlotte, indeed. Molly is a Panthers fan incase anyone was curious.

She spent the rest of the evening and the next day following T around like it was her job.

After the excitement calmed T said, “this is probably what it’s like to have kids.” Probably not. I’m sure it’s worse. They just can’t run as fast.

Fair warning – I’m about to be “that” girl who posts about her dog because she’s been a steady source of entertainment recently.

Since the weather has cooled off, Molly has been staying outside for hours upon hours. The other day, when the sun was on it’s way to warm up the other side of the earth, I decided it was time for me to bring in the little farm dog.

I opened the back door. Usually, upon hearing the opening of the hinges Molly is already through the back door and into the living room. I called her name – nothing.

So I ventured outside to see a fierce stand off between Molly and her worst enemy.

They were so involved in their game of “don’t blink,” I had time to walk inside, slam the door, walk back outside and snap this photo.

This – I’m assuming – is the same squirrel who sits on the front porch taunting her most days of the week.

On a cold winter day in central Indiana, when I was still an only child, I was waiting for the school bus.

There was snow on the ground and ice on the gravel driveway.

I fell. My jeans were soaked due to melted snow and the school bus was approaching.

I marched my kindergarden self back into the house, only to find my mom trying to rush out the door for work. She was late for work that day.{obviously}

Flash forward to ’11.

Each morning I wake up, put Molly in the backyard, give Remington his first wake-up call {he’s like a 15 year-old boy}, and hop in the shower.

After a few more Remington wake-up calls, a few layers of mascara and only a couple of wardrobe changes later, I let Molly back inside and head out the door for work. There’s really not any spare moments when you sleep until 7:30.

But, this morning. It was raining.

Dallyn let Molly in, and after a few laps around the house, I noticed a trail of teeny-tiny paw prints.

I laughed. Then huffed. & gave her a bath.

I love taking pictures. However, I’m not really the greatest. After loaning my beloved camera to a friend a few years ago, it was returned in a “more expensive to fix than replace,” existance.

Since then, I’ve been saving for a new camera. I’ve heard that grown-ups have baby envy. You know, they see a baby – they want one. I’ve never had this. Nothing about seeing a slobbery baby makes my uterous jump for joy.

But – I do have a mad case of Camera Envy.

However, my camera account was hit hard with a pair of New Years Eve shoes and a few shirts at the outlet mall.

One day last week, the stars aligned as the words, “new,” and “camera,” were in the same sentence at work. Yeah, that’s right work-camera.

So of course I took it home. You know, to figure out the settings. And, when there wasn’t room on the couch for me – out came the camera.

It’s hard to imagine why I refer to them as little monsters.

The slobber is payback for the hideous deep v-neck shirt manfriend is wearing. Isn’t this great? Sure, the ISO was set a little high – but even with that scrunched face he’s still kind of cute.

Notice the wardrobe change. I stomped my foot, clenched my fist and declared, “you will not wear that sicko [deeeeepppp v-neck] shirt in any picture I take. You will not!”

He came back with this. Ha. That’s what I get for thinking he ever takes me seriously. Hey dude, college called – said you’re not cool enough to wear those glasses anymore.

Nice, form guys. Good footwork. This has the makings for a solid 8.

Oh, this could have been an 8. You lost a few points in wardrobe. 7.453 combined score.

I know of one manfriend and 3 little monsters who are probably wishing I didn’t have a fancy new camera [EOS 60D Digital SLR] to play with.

See – we wore cute okstate dresses. That means 1 of three things: a) we ran out of clean clothes and we have more orange in our house that you can imagine b) it was gameday or c)it was hot, they were cotton, and none of your business!