Maureen posted this as a comment: 'This is another angle on "Lost" which I thought about on the way home last night. Doing a lost dog as a "dog narrative" just didn't work at all.'

LOST

I was so jealous of Joan. She was making her first communion and was all done up in a beautiful white dress and a net veil. I went to the church with her family and afterwards to the Royal Hotel for lunch. My mammy and daddy came to the Royal too. Then an awful thing happened, my mammy gave Joan half a crown. Wealth beyond belief! And for what? Mammy told me that wee girls and boys were always given money when they went to church to make their first communion. OK.
The following year it was Joan's sister Geraldine's turn. Same scenario, but a nice new dress for Geraldine. Another half crown handed over! Mammy told me that I would be fourteen before I got a lovely white dress and veil (and half a crown too??). When you are seven, fourteen is a long wait to become a full member of the church and to be able to commune with God
Ah well.
Well the great time came at last. After we had special classes at Sunday school, mammy took me to Belfast to buy the white dress and veil. But I didn't want it!! I have never felt so ridiculous before or since. I now had a bosom and this dress exposed me in all my adolescent awkwardness. However I had to go through with it. There was no big magic moment. There were no friends, just the folk at Sunday school. There was a lunch but I felt silly in my ever tightening white dress and people looking at me. And there was no half crown. I know from that day that religion started to be lost for me.