Running Free

by Donald J. Bingle

This heart-warming tale of Juneau, Skagway, and the White Pass was inspired by the statue of Patsy Ann, a bull terrier, on the docks of Juneau, Alaska. A familiar sight to the thousands who arrive in Juneau on cruises and ferry-boats which ply the Inside Passage from the Pacific Northwest through the panhandle of southeastern Alaska, the statue commemorates the life of Patsy Ann (1929-1942), a free dog who became the official greeter to all ships docking in Juneau. This short story (approximately 3,800 words) by Donald J. Bingle (author of the award-winning short memoir, "Father's Day") is about one family on such a cruise and the strange and wonderful experience that their daughter, Julie, has with Patsy Ann.

17 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 28, 2012

About the author

Donald J. Bingle (sometimes credited as Don Bingle) is the author of Frame Shop, a mystery thriller set in a suburban writers' group, Net Impact, a spy thriller which incorporates real-world conspiracy theories, Wet Work, the follow-up adventure to Net Impact, GREENSWORD, a dark comedy about global warming, and Forced Conversion, a military science fiction novel set in the near future. He is also the co-author (with Jean Rabe) of The Love-Haight Case Files, an urban fantasy about the legal rights of supernatural creatures in a magical San Francisco. He has also written a variety of short fiction in the fantasy, science fiction, horror, and comedy genres, and also in gaming material, including stories in the Dragonlance and Transformers universes and in a variety of DAW themed anthologies. Many of his published stories have been collected by theme in his Writer on Demand TM series. He was the world's top-ranked player of RPGA Classic roleplaying game tournaments from 1985-2000.