Friday, January 08, 2010

Entry #53

My Stupid Dog
by Sandra L. Tauber


I awoke from a sleep I'd thought would never come. Princess hadn't come home last night. I opened the door hoping that my dog was waiting for me. She was nowhere to be seen. I trudged to the tip of my peninsula and warily gazed over the melting lake ice hoping I would find nothing. I was rewarded with finding nothing. The cool spring day held a deep foreboding that chilled me. A lone bird soared overhead and I eyed it uneasily. Was it a buzzard? It soared out of sight and I breathed a sigh of relief that it had not sensed carrion. My throat tightened and I found it hard to swallow; tears welled in my eyes. I emailed friends and terror glistened through my words. The phone shrilled and I answered with a disembodied voice I did not recognize as my own.

"Has Princess come home yet? Have you called neighbors?" my friend asked.

"No...I didn't think I could talk" I croaked.

She promised to check. A moment later the phone rang again "Princess was guarding Carla's bird feeder! She's on her way home! "

Thanking her, I ran to the door to be met by a dog that evidentially had no clue what she had put me through. Her whole body wagged enthusiastically. I didn't know whether to scold her or love her so I did both. I'd always known I loved my stupid dog. I just never knew how much I loved my stupid dog.

22 comments:

Sarah Laurenson said...

They do work their way into our hearts. Very well done.

Bernita said...

Awww....awww.
Thank you for bringing her home alive.I cannot abide dead pet stories for effect.

Meghan said...

Yay! A happy ending! Very cute. :)

PJD said...

Cute vignette. Is the repetitive sentence structure in the first paragraph intentional (you need a comma before most of the ands there, btw).

Rachel Green said...

aww!

Unknown said...

I can't imagine losing my baby. Nice to see the happy ending.

JaneyV said...

As I write this my dog is asleep at my feet on the end of my bed. I would be distraught beyond words if she disappeared so I totally empathise with the Narrator here. I'm so pleased she came back safely. I'm getting a bit dragged down by all the death I've been reading about. Glad to find a happy waggy-tailed dog at the end of this one.

Aimee Laine said...

Such happiness! Animals really don't know what they do to us, do they?

Craig said...

I've been through that more than once.

Kartik said...

cute.. I liked the repetition in the last sentences.

Lena said...

So sweet. I am really glad you opted for a happy end here, considering how many tragic stories are there in this contest.

laughingwolf said...

wuffy wuvs it! :)

Aniket Thakkar said...

Yay! I love happy endings (or Shakespeare style 'kill-em-all' endings :P)

Liked this a lot.

catvibe said...

We gotta LOVE our animals. I can feel the happiness. I do not know what I would do if I lost my cat. I'd be beyond heartbroken. Lovely piece.

kashers said...

Aww, a woofy, waggy tale... and tail.

Chris Eldin said...

Always love me a good doggy tale. :-) Endearing vignette!

Laurel said...

This is precious. I do love my furry beasties and have had one disappear on me only to return after much sobbing and canvassing the neighborhood. They look at you like, "What, Mom?"

Karen said...

Nice one! This has a ring of truth to it. (??)

Your Neighbor said...

Sandy, I feel a part of your story. I wonder why? Very good! Carla

Deb Smythe said...

Darn kids...I mean dogs

james r tomlinson said...

Please excuse my initial reaction: Get an electric fence. With that said, the portrayal of your narrator's concerns shines through.

Anonymous said...

Dear Entrants #1-105,

I have read your pieces so that I can fairly participate in the Readers' Choice vote. (I read all of them through last week, before I started commenting.) I will be coming back around to offer my keep/tweak comment, but I didn't want anyone to snark.

Cheers,
Aerin (#236)

BTW, it's perfectly fine if you still want to snark, but this way you can choose a more appropriate subject, like Sarah Palin's hair or the enigmatic career of Justin Timberlake.