Exclusive Excerpt from Lost and Found

by Rick R. Reed

In the excerpt below, we see that when someone does something bad, it doesn’t necessarily make him a bad person, especially if the selfish act was done out of love—and there’s a willingness to put things right. No matter how much it hurts….

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Hamburger had come into Mac’s life eight months ago in the middle of a downpour, in the very park where he’d just now met the guy he was sure was Hamburger’s original owner. Hamburger had been emaciated, with his ribs and backbone sticking out through his drenched fur. He had a cut, scabby, above one eye. No collar. He was whimpering and looked as though he was on his last legs. Mac shook his head, forcing the image out of his mind. It was just too painful to remember Hamburger like that. He had originally intended to simply drop him off at the Green Lake Animal Hospital, close to the park, over on Woodlawn Avenue. But the dog wouldn’t, or couldn’t, move. He’d plopped down at Mac’s feet that gray, wintry day and refused to get up. Mac perceived it as the dog seeing something within him that he needed or wanted.

Or maybe it was the half-eaten hamburger from Red Mill in Mac’s hand. He’d held out a morsel of meat for the dog, and he gobbled it up, then went right back to sitting where he was at Mac’s feet, staring at him with those big brown eyes that just about broke Mac’s heart. Mac gave him the rest of the burger, minus the pickles and the bun, and even in his sorry state, the dog begged for more.

It was then a name was born. Continue reading →