Ahhh good old "Pebbles"

Neat and sad story associated with this pic :
I was(still am) good friends with the people that owned the mother of this dog. It came time for her to have her puppies and after 4 she was too tired to deliver the last so we (at 4 am...are babies of ANY kind born at a decent hour? lol) rushed her to the vet to induce labor. The Doctor had to give her a shot while I comforted her and *presto*...out popped this beautiful creature. I saw her born and when offered my pick of the litter it was a no brainer. THE smartest, most loyal dog I've ever had. She learned "sit", "shake a paw" and "STAY" all in the same weekend at about 8 weeks (my first weekend after taking her from her mother). And one time, when I was out of town for a few days, she got lonely for me and walked across town to the people's house she thought I was at. She had to cross major roads and go about 4 miles to get there.

Now the sad part : I was babysitting one night and the kids I sat liked to wrestle so I had to put her outside because she would go ape-shit if ANYONE threatened me. At one point she barked to come in and I said "Just a minute Pebbles" and wrestled about 3 more minutes. In those 3 minutes she decided to chase a cat across the road and was hit by a car. I'll never forget that knock on the door " does anyone own a small brown puppy? ...she's just been hit by a car" It happened about 20 years ago and I still feel some guilt over it. Not so much a "oh what did I do/still tormenting me" guilt or anything because she would have been long gone by now anyways, but I still miss her. I'm kinda strange in that I get over the loss of people but losing pets seems to affect me more deeply and for longer periods of time.