6:30 A.M. on a Saturday morning and Spencer is running down an empty street, concentrating on only her feet hitting the pavement and the song ringing through her ears. She is wearing her favorite running sneakers, a pair of black under armor tights with a light blue fleece to protect to her from the cold November air. She cherishes her early mourning run, when the world feels so quiet and peaceful. This is the only time she can really clear her mind of its endless loop and think of absolutely nothing. She doesn’t worry about her job, her family, her love life; it’s only her, the road and her current music choice blasting on her iPod. Today, she is listening to Kings of Leon, running steadily, oblivious to the world around her.

As Spencer rounds a bend in the street, only about 4 blocks from her house now, she catches something in her peripheral vision. She turns her head to she a beautiful chocolate Labrador retriever, that reminds her very much of Hershey, her dog when she was growing up in Ohio. She tugs her head phones out of her ears, and realizes that there seems to be no one with the dog. It is freely wondering from yard to yard, sniffing the ground, paying no attention to Spencer. Since it is quite uncommon for a dog just to being let lose in this type of suburban neighborhood, she assumes the dog much be lost or have run away from its owner. She decides to see if she can get close to the dog, hoping that it would be wearing a tag. She approached the dog cautiously, while trying to appear unafraid at the same time. After all, this dog was not her old dog Hershey and was large enough to be very intimidating, especially to her because of her small size. When she got about ten feet about from the dog, it looked up at her from the spot it had been intently sniffing. There was a split second where Spencer and the dog just looked each other in the eyes, and all Spencer could do was hope this was a friendly animal.

The dog then quickly jogged toward Spencer, and she froze not sure of what she should do. Before she could decided the dog had jumped up on its hind legs, with its big paws on her chest attempting to lick her face. She breathed a sigh of relief and began to pet this extremely friendly and playful dog. Once the dog had gotten back on all fours she reached out to read the dog tags, hoping she would be able to find the dog’s owner.