13. What happens when a rape becomes the defining moment of a life? What happens when a young & innocently naïve young Catholic woman is knocked silly into a world that makes no sense? With no experience nor education in dealing with such an assault, Mary Michael was left to deal with this trauma all on her own. The dysfunction in her family kept her isolated & alone as she did her best. BROWN DOG details the confusion, the anguish, the many emotions that this woman experienced as she tried to come to terms with the rape & the rapist. She was determined to learn the lesson in all of it while clinging to God’s Hand to help her get to wherever He wanted her to be. And so, the lessons of her life spill to paper when Mary’s understanding begins to make sense as she allows the natural healing to come in God’s time. Though her thoughts seem random, they all fall into place as she records them to find that they tell the story of one woman’s journey through a fire that burned for over forty years.