"Are you watching us from up in a place high in the stars that we can't follow you to? Or," he looked at the statue, "did you come back as someone new?" He looked back up at the sky, seeing a shooting star. "I wish I knew." He said softly as his eyes followed the path of the star as it made it's round across the sky.

The star passed over the city as it fell, it's glow becoming brighter until it began to fade. The last of it's light expelling over an un-moving pup in an alleyway. A moment later, it coughed as it's eyes shot open.

"W- where am I?" It asked, it's voice was feminine. The female pup looked into a puddle and saw that it had a white star on it's dirty brown chest through it's reflection, and that it was a Rhodesian Ridgeback. "Who am I?" She asked, looking into her brown eyes from her reflection. She eventually fell asleep beside the puddle, waking up to sirens and people screaming.

"What's going on?" She walked out of the alley to see people were standing there, murmuring in horror. "Excuse me, sir.." The man didn't seem to hear her, so she pushed her way through the crowd, saying "excuse me ma'am.", "pardon me sir.", "Awe, cute dolly." Until she saw a building in pieces and a red haired boy with dogs helping officials clean it up. There were pups nearby too, helping out. She moved closer to them to listen in.

"-don't understand why we weren't called in earlier." The Shepard pup said to the older Shepard pair.

"Sorry Copper, we thought we had this handled. We'll make sure our handlers call you guys next time." A male Shepard said, before it turned to her. "Can we help you?"

The rest of the pups turned to see the dirty Ridgeback, curious as to how she had snuck past them.

"I- Uh.."

The Shepard pup pulled a bone from it's vest and tossed it to her. "Here, take it. You look starved."

The Ridgeback picked up the bone, tilting her head. She backed up when the older Shepard growled at her. "There, we've fed you. Now scram!" He snarled, making the pup run away with the bone in her mouth.

Two days later, the pup found a newspaper that said Lives Lost In Latest Bombing. PAW Patrol Is Struck Dumb. She didn't see the amount of lives lost, because that part of the paper was torn off.

Bombing.. She thought.

Was that what that was? She had to do something! She couldn't just sit on the sidelines while people suffered! It wasn't right. She found another paper, a slightly older one, that said Patrol Leader Ryder Lost To Bomber. City Grieves.

"Ryder.." She said, looking at a picture of the boy. That name, it felt right. "I hope you don't mind sharing," she said, "but I don't have a name."

She now had a name, albeit a boy's name. And a purpose. She spent hours, days, practicing her scent tracking and biting after she found out that's what made bombs explode. She walked the streets, avoiding the local dog catcher and animal control officers, just waiting for her chance to prove herself.

It was coming one day, she knew it. She could feel it.

Okay, I know this is late. But it's the best I could do and I reworked it for weeks during the time I had to fix it between dealing with the holidays, the new puppy and helping plan for the New Years-Seattle trip we had.