Once there were a lady named Mommy and a dog named Tristi. They lived in a nice log cabin by a big bayou with lots of trees and not a lot of people.
It was pristine and beautiful but also sometimes lonely. One night the lady and Tristi came home late and were so tired they went straight to bed.
The weather soon turned angry and woke them up. Rain came down hard and wind blew in fast.
Mommy and Tristi were a little scared, but at least they had each other. The storm rocked their house, their world.
Then lighting and wind knocked down the largest oak which came crashing through the cabin, right between Tristi and Mommy.
They could see each other, but they couldn't get to each other. Floodwaters surrounded them and flowed through the broken house.
The half that Tristi was in began to drift apart, into the swollen bayou. Mommy screamed.
She wanted to help, but the storm just beat her. Tristi was very scared.
Her woody ice floe sailed away on dark rushing river. Mommy cried a long time as she tried to gather the pieces of her life and try to make everything right again....
Two days later she moved what was left into her parents' home, hundreds of miles away. Tristi lay on a dry bed dirt circled by trees, waiting for Mommy, to go home again.
Rescue efforts had been underway. Thousands were saved.
Tristi ventured to the top of the bank and walked upstream by day
....