The Dog Story

by Anne Wieser Cornell and Barbara McGavin

Once upon a time there was a child. This child longed for a companion to play with her, to run and jump and roll in the long grass. To snuggle up with on a cold winter’s evening. To tell secrets to. And she was lucky because one day, much to her delight, she was given a beautiful puppy with a shining coat and sparkling eyes and a big doggy grin on its face.

The child and the dog loved each other so much and they were very happy together. Then one day the dog peed on the carpet. The child’s parents were very angry and scolded the dog and told the child that she’d better keep that dog under better control or who knows what would happen!

The child did her best to make sure that the dog didn’t get into the good rooms but one day she forgot and left a  open into the living room. Imagine her fear when she came into the room and saw that the dog had chewed almost right through the leg of her mother’s favorite chair.

The dog was banished to the porch. If it ever came back into the house, it would have to go.

For hours the child would sit in the cold with the dog, snuggled into its soft warm coat until discovered and told to come into the house and leave that bad dog alone.

One day the door to the kitchen was left open and the dog was discovered with yet another precious possession in its mouth. This was the last straw. The child’s father took one look at the dog and went to grab it. The child screamed and yelled at the dog. She ran at it and chased it into the woods at the back of the house.

At first it would try to sneak back into the garden, but her parents would yell at it and yell at her too so she began to watch out for it, chasing it away before her parents would spot it. Eventually it stopped coming back.

At first the child missed her friend terribly, but as the weeks and months passed the memories of how wonderful she had felt as they played together began to fade. She even started to believe what her parents said about how bad that dog had been. Spring came again and other friends came to the house and asked her to come out and play. Gradually she began to forget about the dog altogether.

Several years passed and they moved to a different part of the city. One day the child (who was quite grown up by now) was walking beside the edge of a big wood. Suddenly a movement in the dark undergrowth by the edge of the path caught her eye. It was so slight that she wasn’t even sure that she had seen anything at all. But she was curious and although she was busy she thought that she could spare a couple of minutes standing there watching that place. So she stayed very still, watching where she thought the movement had been. Yes, there was something but she couldn’t make it out. Something just there, hidden behind some tall grasses, under the trees.

Part of her started to become a bit scared. What if it was a bear? Or a wolf? Or a dragon? (Part of her was still quite a small child sometimes.) Then she took a moment just to acknowledge that scared feeling in her and she became still inside again. She brought her attention back to that place where that something was. Now she could just make out two eyes gleaming in the dark, watching her intently. Very quietly she whispered a greeting to the creature: “Hello. I can see you’re there. I’m not going to hurt you. I’ll just stay over here.” And very slowly, so as not to frighten it, she sat on the ground.

The shadows lengthened and still she sat, motionless as a statue, just watching the spot where the two eyes gleamed. And then her patience was rewarded. A furry face emerged slowly. It was so dirty that it was hard to see what kind of an animal it was. The girl could see that it was scared, but also it was wanting to come closer to her. Gently she said, “I can sense that you’re scared and you’re wanting to come closer,” and she waited to see what the animal would do next. Creeping on its belly, the creature inched its way forward until its head was almost touching the girl. It was filthy. Its coat was all matted with mud and burrs. Part of her wanted to pull away from it, worried about getting her clothes and hands all dirty. But as she looked in its eyes she could sense how lonely it was, how much it was wanting her to accept it just the way it was. She tried to sense how it would like her to be with it. It looked as if it wanted her to stroke it. She tentatively put out her hand so that it could sniff her. It gave her hand a little lick and lowered its head into her lap. Gently she stroked its ears. Now that it had come out of the bushes she could see that it was a dog – a skinny, filthy, frightened, lonely dog.

As she sat with it she started to sense that there was something familiar about this dog. Something familiar about the way it looked into her eyes and laid its head in her lap. As she kept it company the feeling of familiarity grew and grew, like something out of an almost forgotten dream. It reminded her of… what was it?… Oh! It reminded her of her beautiful dog. The one that had been chased away in disgrace so long ago. But it couldn’t possibly be the same dog. That was such a long time ago. Tears came to her eyes as she remembered how close they had been, how much joy she had experienced as she played with her dear friend. She felt a desire to give this dog a hug but as she moved to embrace it, the dog jumped back and growled. It turned and fled into the dark. The girl was startled, but remembered that it was only doing something like that because it was frightened.

It was starting to get late, the sun was beginning to slip below the horizon. So she stood up – but before she turned away she said into the dark: “Thank you for coming. I’ll be back – so if you want to come and see me again, I’ll be here.”

Over the following months the girl returned to the edge of the woods many times. Sometimes the eyes were there waiting for her. Sometimes they came after she’d been there for a while. Sometimes other creatures came to the edge of the woods. She waited patiently, developing a relationship with all that came. The dog came out of the woods more and more confidently until there was a warm, strong bond between them. She brought food for it and a brush for its coat. Gently she untangled the burrs and brushed out the dirt until its coat began to softly shine again. And before her eyes, her own beloved friend emerged. Its doggy grin returned. It began to bounce and run and play. And one day it followed her home.