When Emily and I first discussed my maybe writing a little story for the newsletter, I think we both had the concept of something short and sweet just to fill in some space.

For those of you who have already guessed who I am, you know that I tend to get a little long winded when I write.

I sat down at my desk to think about something to pen and the idea of a lost Min Pin came to mind so I started making some notes and by the next morning when I had finished my notes, I had a saga that would have taken 8 or 9 hundred pages to print.

In the interest of time and space, I condensed the story down to 8 episodes and even that was too long so I condensed it farther into 5 with two parts each.

Moonbeam's adventures could have gone on for many episodes in one format, or in another, each of the episode titles were actually sections of the whole story each containing 8 to 10 chapters within each section of George, Mandy and Jake, Butkis, Charlie and Sam.

In condensing this story down so much, I realize there are a lot of unanswered questions and open ended areas so in this final part, I will give you all an overview of the whole story.

I was watching a special on the tube when I started this and had no idea of a name for our little heroine. The special was on Frank Sinatra and was nararated by his daughter Nancy and she stated that her father always called her Moonbeam. There was my name and it worked out good to have Regina's sisters Min Pin named Sunbeam.

The first two episode end themselves with George dying and Mandy and Jake returning to Texas to get their lives in order.

I made Mandy and Jake the second episode for a reason, this would acclimate Moonbeam with trains because the final part, no matter how many parts were in between was always going to be her getting on the circus train looking for signs of them and being found by Sam Tinker Everett.

Sam as you read, joined the military right out of high school. The missing parts on him are, he married before he went to Viet Nam and had a daughter. Sam was taken prisoner and during that interim, his wife divorced him and when he came home, he spent the next twenty years looking for them, roaming around the country working at odd jobs and learning all the things he knew like magic and management.

Charlie came out of the offices and found Moonbeam (her Shamrock) gone and looked for her for hours with no luck. She had to make the delivery and time was already at a premium so she made sure the people working around there knew about her dog and if she showed up, keep her and she would be back in about 5 days to get her. Charlie's rig barely made it to her delivery and even though she made the contract and got paid, there was not enough money to get the rig fixed and it was finally repossessed for lack of payments on it.

She caught a ride to Cheyenne, Wyoming and went to work at a truck stop close to the fairgrounds where the circus always set up in conjunction with the Truck Rodeo held there every year.

Her and Moonbeam were reunited when the circus train came in that year and finding out she was a big rig driver, Sam offered her a job driving for the circus which she jumped at. Remember, the circus was on a long train but the equipment and so forth were packed in semis on flatbeds to get the show to the applicable fairgrounds of each city they made a stop in.

As it turns out, Charlie's father whom she spent most of her life with driving the trucks was in actuality her step father, her last name was Everett and she was Sam's long lost daughter. Sam discovered her full name was Charlene Denise Everett when she filled out her employment record for the blood sucking Internal Revenue Service.

Sam of course took her with him to Thanksgiving that year of 2000 when he unknowingly took Moonbeam home.

Now we only have a couple of open ended areas here, Butkis and Moonbeam's home in Tennessee versus her home with Sam, Charlie and the circus.

The problem was very easily solved, Moonbeam stayed in Telford for the winter and spring with the Settle's and when the circus came to town on July 4th for Bend Over Day, she would travel the circuit with Sam and Charlie until returning home with the Thanksgiving Day annual stop.

Butkis went wandering after the hurricane and ended up in Sarasota where he picked up Moonbeam's scent at the rail yard where the train was wintered.

He just hung around there being basically adopted by the winter crew and went with them when they started the next year's tour.

He and Moonbeam were reunited at the Telford stop which left everybody wondering at the excitement and comradeship displayed by the two animals at their meeting.

So much for the Tale of Moonbeam.