Tiberious, The life of a dog

The life of a dog, told by a dog, about a dog. Based on a true story

Hi. My name is Tiberius. Why do I write today? I need help. It seems simple enough, but my owners aren’t walking me. They are of the older generation, and don’t have very good health. I am about 15 human years old. I am a Papillion, French for “butterfly.” I am a puppy.

            My parents’ names are Jo and Wes. Wes is a massage therapist, and is very good at his work. Jo is a retired Almay/Revlon worker. They are happily living in Arkansas, “The Natural State.”

They live in a town of 15,000 people called Siloam Springs. Siloam is at the border of Oklahoma and Arkansas, and is in the Benton County. It is about 45 minutes from Rogers, and about the same to Fayetteville, Arkansas.

My parents had a dog before me named Tabitha. Her death was so hard on them, so they don’t talk much about her. All I know about her is that she was a border collie/terrier mix, her age was 7 ½, and that she died of liver cancer. 

They had two daughters, Nora and Jerry Ann. Jerry Ann died in 2006; they still haven’t gotten over her death. Nora has one daughter named Elizabeth. Elizabeth is almost 11 and loves to ride her kick scooter, and won’t ride a bike.

Now, enough on that information. Enough on background info. Here’s my story. This is how it all began. The first time I ever met Jo, Wes, and Elizabeth. Nora was in Houston where she lived. This is when I got my home:

More than a decade ago, in Oklahoma in a small city called Tahlequah, was a breeder named Morentein bred me and my brother, Ryan. Ryan was shorter than me and had a complete circle around his nose, a perfect show dog. I, on the other hand had a broken circle around my nose, and was taller than the preferred height, making me an “unwanted” Papillion show dog. But that never stopped Jo from picking me. She loved the “ink well dipped” nose, and my huge ears. She also loved that I was taller than Ryan and didn’t care what anyone said.

Finally, the day came to take me home. I was about nine weeks old, not very well behaved, and still slept too much, but at my new home with a new loving family. I thought my life couldn’t get any better, but then something better happened! Daddy wanted a dog too! So they went back to Tahlequah and brought home Peggy Sue, an injured, three human years old rat terrier. Peggy Sue at first didn’t really like me much, but then got used to my presence at her new home.

Everything was great. Elizabeth enjoyed me, her friends loved me, and Mom loved me. But then disaster struck! Elizabeth had to leave for Houston so she could go to school! Mommy, Daddy, Peggy Sue, Elizabeth and me went to Houston to drop Elizabeth off at Nora’s house. That’s when I met Ruby, Elizabeth’s dog. Ruby is an Australian Shepherd. She had blue eyes, the color of Brownsville’s sea view, a black stripe going across her from one side to the other about the size of a candle. Her fur is called Blue Merle, even though it’s not very blue at all. She was mostly blue-grey with white and black fur moving in places. She had a white belly, and was about two feet in height. Her face was a little larger than Elizabeth’s hand. Ruby is a very active girl dog. She loves Nora and Elizabeth.

When Ruby first saw me, her eyes filled with joy and happiness like nothing else. Of course it was probably because of Elizabeth, but I choose to believe it was because of me. She was cute enough, but I was only a few weeks old. Once she was done saying, “Welcome back, Elizabeth! I missed you so much!” She came to me saying, “Who are you? What are you doing here? Where’s Tabitha? Not that I’m complaining, but where is she?” She loaded me with so many questions that I suddenly felt dizzy. And a puppy doesn’t like that feeling. Especially not this puppy.

I told her that I didn’t know what she was talking about. I mean, who’s Tabitha? I was young and dumb then, but what can I say? I was about 2 months old! How can anyone know who the previous dog was at the age of 2 months and having a new home? I mean, really?! I then told her that I was Tiberius.

She then filled me in on the sad story of the previous dog, and how she knew that dog. From confronting Ruby, I had almost zero respect for Tabitha. I mean who would be cowardly enough to NOT talk to Ruby? Ruby could be big (and okay, beautiful and cute) but at least try talking to her. Then again, I’m just a puppy, what do I know?

Ruby had a lot of energy, she came over to me and asked me if I wanted to play. Most of the times I said yes, but this one time I said no. I really wanted to sleep, Mom was out doing something, Elizabeth was in school, (whatever school is) and Daddy was working on some things around this huge 2 story house. Nora was working, (again, whatever work is) so Ruby was bored, Peggy Sue was with Daddy, (she wouldn’t let me near Daddy) so I was stuck here trying to sleep while Mommy was away, being a good puppy.

Saying no was a big mistake, Ruby kept annoying me, so I got up, grumpy, saying “Fine! What do you want?!” Apparently, all she wanted was to play. Ruby got tired after a while, thank goodness, so I finally got to sleep. About 10 minutes had passed and Mommy, Elizabeth, and Nora came back in, waking me up. Nora has short, wavy, black hair. She was about 5 foot 4, and kind of big in the waist. She wore glasses and looked very tired from a long day at work.

Elizabeth didn’t look so good either. She had brown curly hair, shoulder length and wore big plastic pink glasses. I didn’t like that pair, and neither did Elizabeth. She was tall for her age. She also had bags under her eyes. Apparently it was because of a kid named Bucky. What kind of name is Bucky? Anyway, whoever Bucky was, she didn’t like him, so neither did I. That was the end of the day.

Once night rolled around like a boulder down the Rocky Mountains, things went quickly hectic.  Mommy and Daddy started fighting. Nora tried to settle it, but quickly failed and gave up. Elizabeth had already taken Ruby up stairs to go to sleep. Too bad I wasn’t there with her; I would have just kept sleeping. Oh well. To get away from the screeming and fighting, I went upstairs to Elizabeth’s bedroom and scratched the door. She, thankfully, heard the noise, and opened up, letting me in. I licked her my thanks, then crawled up on the floor, presumably to fall asleep. That’s when I heard feet stomping up the stairs. I, for once, didn’t care. I was going to stay here with Elizabeth, no matter what.

Another mistake. They soon came up to Elizabeth’s room, knocking, then opened the door and asked, “Is Tiberius here? We can’t find him.” When she said yes, they, then asked her where I was, which was replied, “He didn’t want to be with you people screaming and fighting, so he came up and scratched at my door! Now if you will excuse me, could you please leave?” Oh, great, I thought, I thought that if I went in here, the fighting would cease to exist! So I left my hiding/sleeping place and moved to another room.

Morning came rolling around; they all left the house, leaving me and the other dogs. Ruby annoyed me to start playing, and the same things happened. When they all got back home, they took me and Ruby for a walk. Oh, everything was great! So many smells, so long for a walk. They even let me run! Oh, just thinking about that walk is great. Just remembering the smells, tasting the pristine summer Houston air, letting it breeze through my furry coat. It was great.

When we got back, they started packing. They, meaning Mom and Dad. We were leaving Houston. I was very sad. Sad that I would leave Ruby, Elizabeth, and Nora. Well leaving Houston in general. The next day we would go pile back into the van for a long ride up through the Red River, Oklahoma, into Arkansas. Back to the old boring house. Without Elizabeth. As I said bye, I remembered it was only her who took me for walks, and that was one of the last walks I took until she came back for more summers to come.

One summer, in 2008, she came and took me walks 3 times a day! Oh, it was great! She took me on her scooter which went faster so I could run faster without pulling her onto the rocky pavement, scraping her knees, making them look bloodier than ever. Dog, I bet it hurt! A couple of times she would “accidently” run me over with the scooter, but I moved over quickly so she wouldn’t hurt me that badly. I loved Elizabeth; she was my best friend. I will always remember her.

Then, one day, Elizabeth, Nora and Mom got into an argument. Nora made sure that Mom would never see Elizabeth again; I will miss her greatly. That’s the moment that I’d begun hating Nora. Elizabeth wasn’t bad; she was only 13 at that time, so she didn’t have any authority over the fight. I was sad because that would mean that I would never see Elizabeth again.

So much for that, I saw her about 3 years after that. Nora and Mom made up, Elizabeth can come visit us anytime she wanted to. Not that she really wanted to, you see, she was 16. Almost into college, whatever college is. I was about 5 years old then.

Apparently, she skipped a grade, the 10^th, so she was in her senior year of high school. She would be going into college the next year in the fall. What is the fall? I don’t get some of these terms. Anyway, she doesn’t really care about coming to Arkansas. Her friends moved, so that wouldn’t be a good reason to come. That was most of the reasons why she comes to Arkansas.

So she didn’t come that summer. I was sad because I didn’t get to see her, walk with her, play with her. Or anything else I wanted to do. But as time passed, I missed more and more each day.  Finally, when her freshman year of college was complete, I saw her! She looked at me and smiled, saying, “Oh! Hi! Ti Ti! Oh, I missed you! I missed you so much!” And I missed her badly as well. It was great! Our reunion was finally here! I missed so much, I licked her until my tongue was dry, then I licked her more. And all she did was laughed!

We looked in each other’s eye and I knew we were thinking the same thing. We were remembering how we used to be friends. How we first met. How I would sleep too much, how I would pull her on her scooter so much, that it would flip her and make her have bloody knees. It all came back; it came back so fast, that I was knocked over laughing. Rolling on my back with my dry tongue slaping each side of my face, hitting my eyes so uncomfortably, yet I didn’t care. It was great to see her again. Back in the same house as we met. It was great. I missed her so much, I prayed she would come back. And here she was, back in the house, all grown, all mature, much older than that eleven year old girl I met when I was adopted. Oh, this was so great! So many years apart, yet we still remember! 

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

A very good story. I like the view through the eyes of a animal. Dogs can feel emotion good or bad. It was a strong chapter. It would be amazing to know how the animals communicate and think. I like the complete story. Thank you for the story.
Coyote

[Jessi Berlasty]

A change of point of view is amazing. Not many people write from an animals point of view. However, you need to work on the flow of your story, it's very choppy. You have commas where they don't belong. Words should flow like water, nice and smooth. Combine your sentences, don't be afraid to use semicolons! Also, "my dry tongue slapping each side of my face," You are really good at describing people and the animals. But there is more than that sense. We have touch, smell, taste. Describe those, you can describe how you licked her salty hand in gratification. Describe how the house smells, how it feels when Elizabeth pets you. You have so much potential here. You need to hit every corner of every detail.

[Short.Nerd]

So sweet! The point of view was great:) You did an excellent job writing this! The whole time I imagined this was the way a dog sounded like lol