Howie Embarks on His Journey

So I'm going to give you puppies a little bit of background information real quick. When Reece and Lindsey brought Tom home to join the family, I was about two years old, which is really fourteen years old in human years. Tom was three years old. I was a little hesitant about getting close to him, but I decided to give it a chance. We grew closer over that next year. Luis had officially turned one year old, and my owners decided to throw a huge party for him. The entire neighborhood was at our house, and it was miserable. I have never seen so many toddlers in one place. Tom wasn't a huge fan of the party either.

Tom and I had become the best of friends. We would explore outside in the backyard together, take long naps in the sun on the carpet together, and eat all of our meals together. As Luis grew older, Reece and Lindsey became more and more involved in his life. I mean it was their only real human kid, but Tom and I thought we were kids as well. I mean, after all, Lindsey always used to call us her furry children. They would go to his tee-ball games and almost every event Luis had at his school. Tom and I started to have a hard time. Yeah, we had each other, but we felt like there wasn't enough attention from our masters for the two of us.

One day, Tom came up to me as I was napping on the sofa. He said that he had a plan. He told me that I was better off leaving our home and going into the outside world and seeing what it had to offer. I didn't think it was a terrible idea. I mean, there are a lot of other families that might want a loyal dog like myself. When I asked Tom what he was going to do, he said that he thought it was best if he stayed and watched after Luis to make sure he was safe. Tom insisted that he would stay at home and suffer from a lack of attention from our owners and watch after Luis while I could go enjoy the pleasures of the outside world. At the time, I thought that was very thoughtful of him, and so I agreed to the plan. Tom would protect Luis, and I would leave for the outside world. Tom also made me take an oath that I would never return again, which I decided to agree to. We then made the plan of my escape, and I did just that the next day. When Reece let me outside, I dug under the fence and slipped through to the other side. I'll be honest. I was terrified.

The first couple of nights outside of my home and yard were rough. I remained in our neighborhood, but I did not find much outside of my house and ended up having to sleep behind a bush for many nights down the street from my house. I also heard from some stray cats who lived around the neighborhood that they used to know Tom. Tom used to be one of them and apparently, Tom's plan all along was to befriend me so he could trick me into leaving home. He wanted all of the attention for himself.

The outside world was rough. During the first week of being homeless, it rained a couple of nights. My fur was soaking wet, and my paws were so cold. I felt alone like I had nobody to go to. I wanted to go back home so bad, but I made an oath with Tom to never return and had always been a dog of my word. I was cold, miserable, and alone.

When I finally had enough energy to leave the bush that had been my home for a bit, I continued on my journey to find happiness.

One day, I stumbled on a few coyotes. I had begged them to let me hang around with them for a little bit, and they decided to be kind and let me be a part of their little gang. They let me eat their scraps and sleep in the den that they had in the nearby forest. They said I could only stick around if I held my weight hunting, and I quickly learned I could not keep up with them. One day, one of the coyotes had enough of me not being able to provide for the gang. He became angry and clawed me right above my eye. I was terrified and ran away as quickly as I could.

I eventually came across a family of raccoons. They agreed to let me live with them and would provide me with food as long as I protected them from outside predators. One night, I heard an exterminator approaching the nest where we all were living. I let out a bark to warn my new family of the approaching danger, and some of the raccoons ran right into a trap the exterminator had set.

I was so upset. It was my fault that some of them had been caught, and I felt terrible. I couldn't even protect my new family. I decided from that point forward I was going to have to fend for myself and stay away from other critters. I did just that for the next few weeks until an opportunity had popped up that was too good to pass up. I'll tell you all more about that during the next class.

"Tell us, tell us, tell us," said one of the puppies. "I can't wait until next class!" said another.

I guess you will just have to be patient, little ones. It's almost supper time, and you all need to be home before dark.

Next Story: A New Friend

Author's Note: I kept a lot of elements from the original story the same in my story. In the original story, there was a dog and cat that were really good friends. They lived together and shared food; however, when winter came, it became hard to find food. The cat couldn't handle it anymore and told the dog that it was time they go their separate ways. They could separate and find sufficient amounts of food for themselves individually. This was similar to my story. Howie and Tom started off as being very close friends. They did a ton of things together, but instead of food being the driving factor of them separating, it was the lack of attention from their owners. In the original story, the cat went to stay at a house and lived very comfortably whereas the dog had a very hard time. The dog was struggling to find food and shelter just like Howie was. In the original, the dog ran into different animals, some wolves, a monkey, and some sheep. In my version, Howie met two different animals, some coyotes and raccoons. His interactions with the animals were different than those in the original story. However, the dog was supposed to protect the sheep from a wolf just like Howie was supposed to protect the raccoons from any predators. Both Howie and the dog fail to do so. Not all of the original story's plot was used in the creation of my story.

Story Source: "The Quarrel of the Cat and Dog" from Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends by Aunt Naomi (pseud. Gertrude Landa), [1919]. Website: sacred-texts.com.