Ozzie

We've been waiting for him for years.

Wondering when he'd come home to us.

There is a hole in our hearts where he should be.

~

"Mommy, where is Ozzie?"

"He's out right now, sweetie."

"When's he gonna come home?"

"I don't know, honey."

~

Come home, Ozzie, I beg, hoping he'll hear me. We need you. She needs you.

A knock at the door interrupts my makeshift prayer.

I answer the door only to find an empty doorstep. I started to close the door when I looked down to find one blue and one green eye staring into my hazel ones.

My daughter came up behind me with more "Missing" flyers in hand only to drop them when seeing my discovery with her own eyes.

"Ozzie!" she exclaimed.

At the sound of his name he ran up to her small frame and licked her face while she pet his black velvet coat.

Our puppy finally came home.