That night when my daughter Megan didn’t come home, I worried that she was laying in the gutter somewhere without anyone to help her, that no one was there to help her, and I could picture it in my mind, my beautiful red-headed daughter whom I loved more than life itself, my baby girl, had hung out with shady, seedy people who didn’t care about her, who would toss her off or count her for dead with no problem at all, and all I had was a little white dog named Sydney with a sock in her mouth to comfort me, the little dog Megan had brought back from Washington where she stayed with my best friend Heidi and went through 31 days of rehab for teenagers because Megan told me one night that she had a drug problem and needed help, and I was in a total state of shock over all this, didn’t want to hear about this, but of course I listened, and I took her out of high school where apparently this happened and made her fly to Washington, to a different environment, so I could figure out what to do and because I knew Heidi was a lot stricter than me and wouldn’t put up with anything, even though I tried to be strict, but Heidi was stricter, and she also had a whole pack of cute little Havanese dogs that looked more like stuffed animals than dogs, and how could Megan not heal surrounded by all the cute dogs, although Megan said that they were loud and yappy at times, but she still loved them because Megan loves all animals, and I knew that would happen, and that Heidi would get on her case about wearing skimpy clothing too, and Megan wouldn’t like that, but there was one dog in particular who Megan became attached to and the dog became attached to Megan, the dog Megan and I had rescued from its so called forever home here in Sunnyvale, California, and then we met halfway in Grants Pass, Oregon, and just in that short period of time with Sydney in the car with us, we kind of fell in love with her and she with us, but I was not ready to commit to a dog and I already had a cat named Guinness and wasn’t sure if they would even get along, plus dogs are cute, but they’re a lot of work, and even though Megan begged me, I said not now, maybe sometime later, but Sydney the cute white havanese dog got attached to Megan up in Washington, and Heidi found an excellent teenage rehab place, and we had to work it all out financially because it cost $10,000, and I cried and wondered why it costs so much because of course a lot of people could never afford that, so how would they get help for their teenagers who need it, but then I found out my insurance would cover part of it, but I’d still have to pay a lot, but Heidi’s husband Richard, who is nice, but too quiet, and he used to be in the ATF for over 30 years which is kind of scary, had good insurance that would cover pretty much all of it, so we had to show paperwork that Richard and Heidi were her legal guardians, and I didn’t worry about it becuse I knew they’d never try to take Megan away from me, and who wants a rebellious teenage girl anyway, but they really loved Megan, so I agreed because I wanted my daughter to get help, and I’m glad I did and I’m not sure who learned more from that rehab experience, me or Megan, because I took an entire week off work and drove to Washington so that I could attend this family week, with a bunch of other parents whose kids were going through similar things, but maybe different drugs, and I cried along with the mom who said her son was anorexic until he started smoking pot and then he started eating again, and I wondered like I always do if pot is really that bad because my older kids smoked pot, and they never touched any of the scary stuff like meth, and they hated those drugs as much as I did, and hated that Megan had an issue as much as I do because we all love Megan, but I had to learn about the signs, about what really happens when Megan stays out, that she would relapse even if she ultimately quits, so there I was stuck with a dog with a sock in her mouth, wondering if my daughter was okay, knowing what she was probably doing, and I’d die if anything happened.