broken

Sampson has disappeared. He's been gone for over a week. At first, he was only absent during day hours, but still came around, very late at night, to get his food from the guards. We attributed this to flagrant namorar-ing (anthropomorphically translated to womanizing). But its been too many days now that he hasn't come home at all. Not once in nearly a week. We fear he is lost.

Today Rebekah and I were walking back from a late afternoon stroll, across a wide, open, red-dusty field near our house, and the setting was such - mountains in the distance, sinking sun, so Africa - that I stopped for a moment, spread out my arms, looked up at the giant blue sky and whirled in loose desperate circles, beseeching the universe on Sampson's behalf: "WHERE IS OUR DOG??!"

There was no answer in reply. There still is not. And not knowing is worst of all.