For who-knows-how-long, it was just Loren and Lady. And he went nowhere without her. Yes. Even in the ER, the old Irish Setter was lying on the floor, gazing up lovingly at Loren with her brown puppy eyes.

I had been writing a piece for Literate Ape about how New Years resolutions are complete bullshit and my utter disdain for making promises to oneself that one will just forget in a month or so. But I tossed it. In the light of recent events, the piece is tacky and negative. I don’t care about much right now except my mom making it through surgery and my dad keeping it together.

In the ER, the trauma code was called for the hit-and-run boy. He was found by police after an unknown amount of time lying on the road in a pool of congealing blood. No witnesses, and the driver who ran him down was long gone.

Her eyes popped, her arms flapped and flailed like a person drowning. She was staring at me as her tongue began to bulge from between her lips, pleading with her eyes for rescue. All the while, making the worst grunting screams I’d ever heard.