Harold is a dogcatcher. For forty-three years Harold has caught dogs and enjoyed it very much. He drives a gray metal truck with an open-air cage in the back. He lives in Greens, Texas, a small town near the Mexican border. The city pays Harold for his work, and he catches, on average, twenty to thirty dogs each week. He drives the dogs to the border of the town and releases them. The dogs usually find their way back to town in a few days. Harold figures he has captured the twenty or so stray dogs that call Greens home at least a hundred times over the years.

For the past two weeks Harold has not caught or even seen a dog in town. He did not remember a day he failed to catch at least one dog. Harold asked around town but nobody had seen any dogs.

Harold is friendly with the people in town. They could hear him approaching from blocks away because of the barking.

The cage is empty. Even though Harold has driven around the town for the past two weeks, he has not seen or caught a dog. This is very strange.