We had Kaleenia, a dog, and a friendship.

One summer my friend and I were riding our bikes in the rain getting covered in mud, when we thought we should have a secret hide-out. We lived close to lots of trees and bushes.

We were riding home when we discovered our spot. It was lots of bushes clumped together with pine trees over it. It was perfect. We dropped our bikes next to the bushes and made a hole in the bushes so we could crawl into it.

It was so cool. The ground was dry even though it was raining. The ground was flat and had hardly any rocks. My friend and I went outside to check it out. You couldn't see inside but from inside you could see out. It was thick too; lots of bushes. And the trees blocked out the rain.

We crawled back inside. My friend saw the bushes move and we were scared at first but then we thought it was just a squirrel. I screamed. It wasn't a squirrel it was a dog; a big dog. My friend went out to it and petted it. She put her hand in her pocket and took out some Trix cereal. She fed it to the dog.

I laughed and said, "I guess he can have some he's not a rabbit." We both laughed at my bad joke and pet the dog.

The next day we came back and saw the dog sleeping in our hide-out. We decided he could be our watch dog. My friend's dad cut up a log for us. We rolled three pieces of wood inside our hide-out and put them on the ground. We sat on the logs.

My friend spoke next. "I think this place should have a real name. So instead of writing notes in class that say, 'Meet you at our hide-out at 4:00p.m.' It should have a cool name." I agreed.

We sat there and thought until we had to go home. We picked a name "Kaleenia". We called ourselves the Kaleenians. During science class I wrote a note to my friend saying, "Hey, I'll meet you at Kaleenia. We have to name the dog. P.S. Bring snacks."

We met after school at Kaleenia. But something was wrong. The dog wasn't there. He wasn't sleeping or running around. He was no where to be seen. We both cried and cried in Kaleenia.

I took out my pocket knife and carved words in the pine tree, "Kaleenians Best Friends Forever. In memory of Koleen" (we were going to name the dog that).