I had a dog and her name was Flower. We got her from a friend who lives in Woonsocket. She was the best dog. She was a pitbull and black lab mix. She was black with white paws and a white patch on her chest. We got her when I was 3 years old and I had her until I was nine. She was very protective of me and would not leave my side. We got along very well. Sometimes when my mom and dad and I went to our friend’s house up the street , Flower would somehow follow us. We would sometimes leave her outside when the weather was nice. We were confused about how she got out of the back yard. She learned to jump a 6 foot high fence in a month. She would know we were there because we brought her everywhere so she had been there a lot of times. She would always go to our friends house and if we were not there she would stay there and wait for us because she thought that was where we were. When this happened our friends would call us and say “Your dog is at are house”. We said “OK be right there” Sometimes we had to leave and get her.

My other neighbor on the left had a dog and her name was Molly. She was a big golden retriever. Molly and Flower would play outside and chase each other. They were friends. Our neighbors on the right of us were not nice people. They would sometimes yell at people to get off their property. One time when me and Flower were sitting in the front yard she was tied to a chair swing that I was on. An adult friend came over and he was under the influence and when he came near me, Flower pulled on the swing, so she could reach him and started to circle him. When he got too close she started to bark and get mad. We put Flower in the backyard and my mom and dad and me brought the friend back to the neighbor's house because that’s where he was supposed to be.

After we left to go to the neighbor’s house Flower jumped the fence. She wanted to follow us. Our mean neighbors saw her and called Animal Control. When we left to walk home we saw Animal Control at our house. They took Flower and brought her into the pound and they said we could not get her back because she hopped the fence too many times. There were too many complaints about her from neighbors. When I found this out I was really upset and angry. I did not think Flower was being treated fairly. My other neighbors had dogs who barked and we never complained. One of them was not nice. I was yelling at my parents that they should not take her and that we should have a chance to get her back. My parents agreed but they knew that if we got her back she would be taken away again. They did not want her to keep going back there so they decided not try to get her back.

This impacted my life because I never got to say goodbye to her.”I said to animal control why can't we have her back.They said this has happened to many time and we do not want it to happen again.” After a while I understood why my parents did not want go through the trouble of getting her and having it happen again. But if I ever have a dog like that again I will make sure I have an 8 foot fence so it can’t get out.