Dog Day Afternoon

This is the first chapter of a middle school aged book, written in first person by a dog. Adults may enjoy it, but kids should be 10 or older to understand parts of the story.

 

DOGDAY AFTERNOON

Hello. My name is Brandi Delilah, and I saw the whole thing from my kennel on High Falls Lake. I’m an Australian Shepherd dog, nothing more, nothing less. I am a pedigree (that just means I’m a pureblood Aussie), and I have papers, but we aren’t fancy pants like that Golden Retriever dog, Ginger, who lives here with us. She thinks she’s special because she’s AKC registered, but my alpha guardian says it don’t make no matter what your registration is; or even if you have one at all. It’s what’s in your heart and soul that matters.

Some say my nose is too pointed, and I’ve seen the pictures of all those boxy headed Aussie chicks (dog’s, I mean), with flowing shiny coats, but I ain’t looking to be no Pet House Centerfold, anyhow, so I don’t let it worry me none. My coat is coarse, and it doesn’t shine. I’m a red merle, and my coat is not long and flowing; I guess you could say it’s short and stubby. I’m not a fancy pants type, as I said before, but I’m loyal, and I don’t shed that much, but maybe I’m not being totally honest about the shedding part.

 Some say my grammar is bad, but I’m a dog, after all, and my grandma could produce some pretty puppies along with the best of em. They could sit, stay, and get down, if they took a notion to, so I don’t let it worry me none. Down here on High Falls Lake, my alpha male don’t care if my nose is pointed or not. We’ve produced more puppies than you could count, and pretty puppies, too. Just in case you’re a city slicker, and don’t know what an alpha male is, an alpha male is just a male animal, a dog, in this case, but all animals have different names for their boys and girls. It can be a horse or some other kind of boy animal, just so it’s not a girl. But my Alpha male boyfriend, Sambo, he’s why I am telling this story.

Some say Sambo is a bad dog, but I don’t believe it. He’s just a protective dog, and he loves me, and our alpha guardian. You’d best not say I have an owner, because I can bite, and my teeth are sharp.    But I was there that day, and I saw the whole thing that happened between Sambo, the old lady, and the poodle. He was wearing his Harley Davidson visor, and his Stud Muffin T-shirt, and out on that retractable leash. It should have held him, but it didn’t.

We were all hanging out in the kennels that day, barking every now and then, but not too much, so that our alpha guardian wouldn’t take us back inside. Our neighbors have called animal control if we get too loud, so my alpha guardian is kinda paranoid about us barking too much. My son, Pete Jr., was out there in the kennel with me, and Ginger was in the back kennel. 

Ginger was the whole problem. She needed to be spayed, but after what happened that day, my alpha guardian had us both fixed. Even Ms. Frances, the Himalayan Persian Cat got fixed this week, along with her last kitten. He got neutered, and there sure won’t be any more kitties now, or puppies either, for that matter.

It was a hot day, and we were drinking lots of water. Us dogs can’t sweat like people do, and panting is the only way we have to cool off, so we have to drink a lot of water when it’s hot, or we’ll have a heat stroke. The pails were full, and we were drinking water by the gallons. The food hadn’t been as good as it used to be, since my Alpha guardian’s business began going downhill. She had made pretty good money helping people in the city get off drugs. I never went along, but I’ve heard her talking about it to her human friends. 

Back then, we used to get rawhide bones, greenies for our teeth, all kinds of dog toys, and we took heartworm tabs, and got frontline treatments every month. But all that changed when the governor cut the budget for substance abuse treatment services by 24%. I didn’t notice much difference at first, except that our alpha guardian would raise her voice at us a lot more often, and several times she popped my snout for barking just a little bit. She always apologized later, but I could tell something was bad wrong. Australian Shepherds are very sensitive dogs, and we can often feel our guardian’s emotions. In fact, we can read other people just like a book, too.

Anyway, I guess that was why she was so distracted that day, and didn’t realize that leash was about to break. She was talking to some other two-legged creature, and kept talking to him for a long time with Sambo just hanging out waiting to come back to where the rest of us were standing around drinking water by the gallons.

I heard her tell the dude that her referrals were down, and she had taken on a second job, writing articles on-line, whatever that means. Us dogs don’t do computers, or at least none I’ve ever known have known how to use one. Some of those AKC types may, but most of them don’t hang out down here. Anyhow, she was saying that we were all eating cheap food (nothing I hadn’t already noticed), and that she was eating left over food provided by her sister across the street. Some of my relatives live over there.

She had already found a new home for Ginger’s alpha male boyfriend, Maximus, because she worried that we weren’t getting good enough care, and he was an outside dog. I hear he is living pretty well, now, but the problem is that Ginger has been flirting with my man ever since he got sent off. She hangs out in her kennel and tries to get Sambo’s attention.   This particular week, she was getting the attention of all the boy dogs in the neighborhood, including the old lady’s poodles. I guess lonely girls attract boys, and I’m not the jealous type, but Ginger really needed to be spayed if Max wasn’t going to be around any longer. I still don’t know why I had to be spayed just because of Ginger’s behavior. I guess some people think we should all be spayed, and our alpha guardian just didn’t want any more trouble, but if everybody was spayed, there wouldn’t be anymore doggie kids at all.

Our Alpha guardian kept either Ginger, or Sambo, in a crate for a long time, because Ginger seemed to stay that way longer when Maximus wasn’t here, and puppies weren’t coming. She seemed to stay that way for close to a month. My Alpha dog boyfriend was cranky, and he barked a lot more than usual. He was not in a good mood when she took him to the usual place to use the bathroom, and Ginger had already been out there where Sambo, the old lady, and the poodle were at, so he could smell her scent. 

Dogs can smell better than people can. We can tell if another dog has been around, whether it was a boy or a girl, and even who it was, just by smelling. That is why we sniff around when we are getting to know another dog. We also sniff around places where dogs have been. To a dog, it’s like reading the morning paper, and lets us know what is happening in our neighborhood. As dogs, we don’t much care what happens in the rest of the world, so sniffing the ground nearby, is enough to satisfy us.

But Sambo was sniffing too much, and I could tell he was not happy that the poodle had been flirting with Ginger earlier. Our rules are different from people rules. Only the alpha male dog is supposed to have a girlfriend, and that poodle was not even in our herd. Our Alpha guardian used to keep Sambo and Max separated all the time, so they could not challenge each other, but Sambo could see the poodle from where he was, and he could smell the scent of an un-neutered male dog. 

The poodle was way too short to be Ginger’s boyfriend, but Sambo didn’t care. It was a challenge to his position as alpha male dog to have a little poodle flirt with a member of his herd that way. And he knew he could let that poodle know who was the boss, and the alpha dog, if he could only break from that leash. I wish our alpha guardian had not been so distracted that day, because Sambo kept pulling on that leash, until it finally broke without warning. She didn’t even notice the leash had broken until he took off after the poodle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

This a middle school aged versian of a book I also plan to write for adults. Obviously, this versian will not have the off color jokes or plays on words the adult versian will have.

Reviews

[Sean M. Addams]

good character development in thhis and I really do like what you have ... can't wait to read more..

[Georgia Gypsy]

The story is coming along nicely brandi....keep up the good work!