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lump lodged in my throat. I blinked back tears.
    â€œDaddy, there must be a place farther along the creek to get down to the shore,” I said.
    â€œI was thinking the same thing,” he said.
    We drove a ways up the road. Daddy climbed the guardrail and went off into the woods while I called Tam. Nothing.
    Then we drove down the road and did the same thing. I called, waited, and listened. The sun topped the trees. After a time, the sun stood straight over us. Maybe it was a good sign Daddy was gone so long. Mama lay down in the backseat. She didn’t look so good. I stayed beside the van, watching the spot where Daddy would surely appear—with Tam.
    But he didn’t. He walked out of the woods alone. “I’m sorry, honey,” he said.
    â€œBut Tam has to be somewhere ,” I said.
    Mama sat up. “Okay then, let’s head up to the Visitor Center and talk to the rangers.”
    I knew she was right, but I didn’t want to leave. Surely Tam would come back here, if he could.
    Putting his arm around my shoulders, Daddy said, “Come on, peanut. Let’s go.”
    I jerked away from Daddy’s arm and pushed off on my crutches. I got to going pretty fast, once I got the rhythm down.
    â€œAbigail Andrea Whistler, you stop right now!” Mama called.
    â€œI’ve got to find him, Mama,” I called back over my shoulder. “I just know he’s—”
    The tip of my left crutch missed the edge of the road. I pitched head over heels into the gravel. Daddy was pulling me into his big arms before I had time to blink.
    Mama brushed the rocks and dirt from my face. She grabbed the end of one of my braids and gave it a shake. “Honestly, Abby. When God handed out stubborn genes, you got the mother lode.”
    Daddy lifted me into his arms. “Come on, Abby honey. Tam’s not here.”

CHAPTER 6
Tam
    T am lapped water from the creek, eyes closed. His shoulder and hip still ached. His stomach grumbled. He had not eaten since the morning of the accident.
    Then he heard it. So faint at first, even Tam, with his keen hearing, wasn’t sure it was real. He threw his ears forward, water dripping from his muzzle.
    Silence.
    Just as he lowered his head, he heard it, stronger this time. Every muscle in his body tensed. Fainter than any human ear could possibly hear, Tam heard her voice. “Tam! Tam!”
    Tam barked once, twice, then listened again. Her call came from the north. He fixed on the direction, barkedagain, and picked his way along the creek bank. He did not know that between him and the girl lay miles of rhododendron and mountain laurel so thick a person couldn’t push through it. He could not know that it would take hours to work his way back upstream.
    All he knew was she was calling. For all the years he could remember, this voice was his world, his compass. And when the person he loves most in the world calls, a dog can do nothing but go.

CHAPTER 7
Abby
    â€œI heard about your accident,” the ranger at the Humpback rocks Visitor Center said after Mama explained who we were. “We get deer-related accidents up here all the time. you’d think they’d learn.”
    I wasn’t sure if he was talking about the deer or the drivers.
    I cleared my throat. “My dog was in a crate in the back of the truck. When we hit the guardrail, he was thrown out.”
    â€œWe just drove back to the spot where they went off the road,” Daddy said. “I looked all around. We even drove a half mile back up the road and went down to the creek there, and the other way too. I didn’t see any sign of him or the crate.”
    The ranger sighed. “Folks lose dogs up here a lot.”
    I thrust the flyers with Tam’s photo at the man. “This is Tam. He’s not just any dog. He’s a champion.” And my best friend .
    The ranger studied the picture and smiled. “A little Lassie.”
    â€œYou’re familiar