One day Spanky was sitting
on the back porch while Sassy watered the plants and swept the porch. Spanky liked to be
outside. He could sit for hours just looking and listening.
Sassy left the porch for a
minute and when she came back, Spanky was gone!
She looked
on the porch - no Spanky!
She called
his name - he didn't come.
Maybe he was sitting in
his favorite lawn chair. She looked in the chair - no Spanky!
Sassy walked all the way
around the house and could not find Spanky.
Spanky liked to walk to
the mail box, 
so Sassy walked to the mail box, hoping to find
Spanky.
The mail box was a long
way away from the house, and as she walked down the driveway, she looked everywhere for
Spanky. No Spanky!
When she got to the
mailbox - Spanky wasn't there!
Sassy walked home and got
in her car. Then she drove up and down the streets looking for Spanky.
She saw a mailman, and
asked him if he had seen a little black and white dog. He said he had not.
Finally,
Sassy went home and waited.
Later in the day, Sassy
found Spanky sitting on the porch, just like he had never run away.
Sassy wondered where he
had gone. What had he done? Maybe he had followed one of the cats. What kind of things had
he seen? He couldn't tell her, but she was very glad he had come back.