My essay is currently full of other people's stories.  I love stories but I think I need to add a few of my own into the paper.  That was some great advice I got from the workshopping this week.  I'll work on that.  In the meantime, this is another story that touched me.

On one bitterly cold and snowy night Karla was driving with her dog Bandit in the back seat when her car hit a patch of black ice.  Spinning and crunching her car was left a twisted mess and she was badly injured.  A passerby called 911 and she was soon in the hospital receiving emergency care.  When the worst of it was over and she roused from the painkiller haze she grabbed the arm of the nurse at her bedside and pleaded for news about her black lab.  Did he die in the backseat of the car? Is he still at the crash site wandering around? Did anyone find him?  The nurse did not know and frankly it was not her job to know. 

Karla slept fitfully that night worrying about Bandit.  But she was awakened the next morning by her night nurse standing at her bedside wearing normal clothes holding the hand of her five-year old daughter.  “We called the police department that responded to your 911 call last night,” the night nurse said.  “They found your dog in the back seat.  He was fine just a little scared and he’s at the pound right now.  Sophia and I,” she said looking down at her daughter, “visited him this morning.”  (I Wasn’t Strong Like This When I Started Out; Listening and Other Lifesaving Measures; Karla Theilen)