It is very cold under this old log. It is raining and I am so very wet. I can't seem to stop shaking and I am so very hungry. It seems like only a few days ago that I was nuzzling at my Mother's breast with my littermates, all warm and comfy. Sleep was a wonderful thing to fall into but now sleep brings so many nightmares and terrible dreams.

My leg hurts terribly and I am trying my best to keep it clean with many licks, but with all this dampness and cold around me, it is a very hard thing to do. It is difficult to walk very far before my leg starts to hurt so bad that I have to stop and rest it.

I shouldn't have been laying on the road surface but it was warm from the daytime sunshine and when the car came roaring out of the night mist, I barely had time to move a little before the car tire caught me on my left rear leg, in the same area that the fire had scorched it a few days ago, and sent me spinning off into a field of tall hay and grass.

I am only a year and a half old and am so confused as to where my people are and why I am alone out in this wooded place. I don't like being alone. I have so many fond memories of playing in the yard, chasing the ball and running and jumping with my people, the little ones and the big ones.

My belly was always full and I never thirsted as I do now. There is water around me here but it smells bad and leaves a funny taste in my mouth. I can't seem to place everything in order but I remember being out in the yard and the nice man came with the treats in his hand and after I had warned him with barks that I was guarding the place, he just smiled and held the treats out to me. They were really yummy and as I was eating them, suddenly there was a darkness all around me as I was scooped up in a large bag. The bag was very smelly and it was hard to breathe and I was in it for a long, long time.

There was motion, so I knew I was being taken somewhere. The motion finally stopped and the bag was lifted and opened. I could smell danger, it was all around me so I tried to stay in the back of the bag but a large hand reached in and grabbed me behind the neck and lifted me out. The hand dropped me into a very small enclosure and the front was snapped shut. It was a small cage with nothing for a floor except some strands of wire. The whole cage was made of this wire and it was very small, even for me.

I needed water but there was none and I was very hungry but there was no food and finally I had to relieve myself and everything fell through the bottom of the cage. I finally slept.

The days dragged on and on, sometimes there was water and sometimes there was a little food but most of the time there was nothing. When I cried, the man would come and hit the cage with something and yell at me to shut up. Sometimes he would reach in and grab me by the scruff of my neck and hit me many times before violently throwing me back in the cage and stomping out.

I could see many cages like mine stacked five or six high all in this large building. There was a stench of despair on all sides of me and sometimes the man would come and take something out of one of the cages and it would not come back.

One night the man came and grabbed me behind the neck again. He took me to a large cage on the ground and put me in it with another dog just like me, only different. I was so happy to see another dog but this one knocked me down to the ground and forced me to stay down. I didn't understand anything that was happening but I knew I wanted to stay with this companion but the next morning, I was taken back to my small cage.

The endless string of days and nights went on but now I was getting water on a regular basis and even the food was better and more often.

I woke one morning in pain and when the pain ended, there were two little pink somethings nestled up against me, and they smelled like me.

My two little boys grew rapidly, getting their fur and getting their eyes open. They were a wonderful joy to me and we had been moved to a somewhat larger cage and there was at least room to lie down and stretch out in.

Then one day the man came and took my babies and I never saw them again. I was moved back to my little cage and the endless days and nights returned.

Then one night the man came into the building in a very agitated state. I could smell fear and anger on him, and he was yelling at some other men to burn everything, the Sheriff was on his way.

Smoke began to billow out of different places. Thick, black smoke and it was getting hard to breathe. Dogs were screaming in pain, fear and hopelessness and throwing themselves against the doors of their cages trying to get away from the suffocating smoke.

I tried to bite my way through the wire but my teeth were not strong enough and then a fiery beam fell from overhead and knocked my cage to the floor, when it did, the front snapped open and I was free.

I could smell fresh air so I ran in that direction and had almost made it to where the air was coming from when another fiery brand fell and scorched my left rear leg. The pain was shocking but I kept running as fast and as far as I could.

Now here I was in this wooded place, my leg hurting and hungry and thirsty and no idea what to do next.

I would sleep a little if I could.

Bob and Regina Settle lived in a small Tennessee town by the name of Telford. Bob was the personnel manager for a large marketing firm and Regina worked in the library of a small private college. Their two boys, Brian and Jason were 11 and 7 respectively.

They had been contemplating adding a pet to the family for a couple of years. Now that they had bought their own house with a nice fenced back yard, they figured the time was right. Although there really was not much doubt in what kind of dog they were going to get, they researched a lot of breeds for comparison.

What they wanted was a small, shorthaired dog, one with a lot of play and energy in it and one that could also act as a watchdog of some sort.

Regina's sister, Linda, lived in Maryland and she had a five-year-old female Miniature Pinscher named Sunbeam.

On visits to her sister's house during vacations and holiday events, sunshine would always be at the door yapping furiously when they arrived and as soon as they stepped into the house, her whole demeanor would change and she would spend hours going from one to the other giving welcome kisses and hello tail wags. The boys always had a great time in the yard playing with Sunbeam so they had pretty much decided on a Miniature Pinscher anyway.

Linda gave them the number of the American Kennel Club and they had called to inquire as to a reputable breeder in their area and had found one only twenty minutes away.

They went to see the breeder as she had a bitch about to have puppies and the breeder wanted to know all about them, their work, their family life, their experience with household pets and so forth. The questioning was almost like an inquisition but the breeder explained that the Miniature Pinscher was not a dog suitable to all people.

She explained about their high energy level output, their unawareness of their diminutive size and that they must never be left to run unfettered in the neighborhood.

The contract also included a promise that the dog they choose would be spayed or neutered within the first year of their taking it, and if for any reason they lost interest in the puppy, it would be returned to her and not taken to a shelter or just let go to run free in the woods.

The breeder also explained to them the horror of puppy mills, those being the first step in the chain of supply for pet stores.

The puppies were born on January 7th, two boys and two girls. As the weeks drug on while the puppies grew, Bob and Regina would periodically stop by the breeders to look at them and try to decide which one they wanted. This decision was taken out of their hands when the puppies were eight weeks old, one of the little females came over to each of them with licks and tail wags just like Linda's Sunbeam, and they knew this was the one.

They named her Moonbeam and took her home when she was 14 weeks old and completely weaned. Watching her grow was a real joy to the whole family. It only took a day or less for Moonbeam to attach herself to all of them very deeply.

Moonbeam would play in the back yard for hours, digging holes and chasing anything that moved. It was a very gentle summer that year and they decided to wait until early spring to have her spayed because of the coming winter and the fact that she would be a little sick after the surgery and being outside for her business would be a bother to her.

Each night, Moonbeam would make the rounds of the bedrooms, checking on everyone in bed and sometimes she would sleep with Bob and Regina, and sometimes with one of the boys. She showed no favoritism to the family members, she loved them all and wanted them all to know it.

It was in early December when Moonbeam disappeared, some seven months ago, and their life seemed somewhat empty because of it.

Neither had any idea of what had happened to her and no one wanted to start over with a new puppy, especially while they still held hope that she would someday return.

The heartache of the loss hung heavy on all of them, and even now, seven months later, it was hard to talk about it.

They had plastered their area and the surrounding areas with flyers offering a reward for the return of their little dog, but there had not been even one call, not one lead to follow, no trace and as time wore on, hope seemed to fade a little also.

Moonbeam had been out in the back yard playing and barking like usual one instant, and the next she was gone. The gate was open so it was assumed that she just went exploring after someone had left the gate open or hadn't latched it securely and the wind blew it open.

Both had vacation time coming and they had pretty well decided to take a couple of weeks in late June and stay at a resort area called "Big Bass Lake Resort" where they could relax, fish and do some boating and try to get a perspective on their life, their loss and their future plans.