This is my family’s dog, Mackie.  He was killed by something in the backyard at my mother and stepfather’s house tonight, while I was there.  He didn’t come inside when he was called -- not even when three of us were calling and clapping and rattling around boxes of dog treats -- and then my mother found him in the bushes.  Mackie was a good dog when he wanted to be, an alpha male to his core, a great fetch player, and a loving companion to the late Rosie -- and to us.

This is not a place usually dedicated to the non-human mammal, but I come from a family of dog-owners (sorry, cats), and really, if even in only a small way, the lives of our pets are a part of the story of our lives.  Mackie was a larger than life figure in ours for the time we knew him and we will miss him.

McKinley “Mackie” Cornelius Fenning (1998-2009)

Photograph taken by the author, 2007.