Crying only made me feel worse, but I couldn't stop. Hot tears ran down my face and my vision was so blurry I could barely see. My eyes strayed once more to that empty cage, which only made me sob harder. Which is why that by the time I managed to focus on where I was driving again, my SUV was about two seconds from a confrontation with a rhododendron bush. "Shit!" A split second before impact, I jerked the wheel to the right and steered the car off the grass back on to the skinny dirt driveway. Twenty feet later I pulled up to my house, shoved the gear in park and shut the car off. Forcing myself to knock off the bawling wasn't easy, and it took me a good two minutes to get myself under control enough to grab the carrier and exit the vehicle. I was so lost in my misery it took me a bit to register that something was wrong. At first I couldn't figure out what, then it hit me. It was the absence of my dog, barking his fool head off, jumping around and acting like he'd been deserted for days.
