Week 1 Story: Not Only A Man's Best Friend
Eat, birds, eat, and make no waste ;
I lie here and make no haste :
If my master chance to come,
You must fly, and I must run
~~~~
There once was a dog named Danny. He lived with a wonderful family, and was a friend to humans and all animals.
When the family isn't home, Danny usually roams around the house by himself. He is always patiently waiting for their return. "The humans are gone to work today," he said, "I guess I will go and bathe in the sun." Danny made his way outside to the backyard, and looking over to the yard next door, he saw the neighbor's dog, Sandy, was out today.
Danny and Sandy have been friends for years. They have been around each other since they were puppies. Danny and Sandy both were outside enjoying the beautiful spring day. Sandy began talking about her master, and how she had recently been given some amazing treats.
Listening to Sandy talk about all this food made Danny hungry. Danny told Sandy he would be back. Danny made his way back into the house, and into the laundry room. Here, the family kept all sorts of bags of treats, biscuits, and goodies that Danny was given on special occasions.
Looking for a way to get into the cabinet, Danny began to nudge the door of the cabinet with his nose. He was unable to open it.
Danny came around to the other side of the counter, and jumped onto it. He was able to reach the cabinet door, and prop it open quickly. Inside, there were several bags of treats. From dog biscuits, to pupperoni sticks, to doggy chews, it was filled with everything a dog could imagine.
Upon looking at all these treats, Danny decided to bring some for Sandy to share. With 4 different assortments of treats in his mouth, Danny brought out the bags of goodies. Sandy was jumping up and down with joy. With her tail wagging, and her mouth drooling, she was ready to enjoy the rest of the afternoon with Danny and the assortment of snacks.
Danny and Sandy ripped apart all the bags in the yard and began consuming the treats as fast as they could. When they finished and began to lie down in the sun, Sandy asked, "Danny, have you ever eaten human food?". Danny replied, "Well yeah, but I've only had some of the meat they eat, and crackers. Crackers are my favorite." Sandy responded with, "Must be nice. My master never lets me have anything. Is there anything that you could possibly bring out here so I can try it?". Danny replied, "Sure, I'll go see what I can find."
Making his way back inside, Danny began to think about what he could possibly find. The only accessible food he could see were fruits. There were grapes, apples, plums, and pears. Danny wondered if this was okay to eat. Without hesitating, Danny brought the entire fruit basket out for him and Sandy. Sandy proclaimed, "What is all this?!' Danny replied, "This is fruit. The humans eat it all the time. It smells so sweet, but they never give me any. So, this'll be the first time for you and me." Sandy, hesitant, said, "Well, are we allowed to eat it then?" Danny, also unsure, replied, "I have no idea, but I know the birds will like this."
Danny had always been kind to the birds in his neighborhood. Living on the countryside, it seemed harder for the birds to acquire any food. Danny and Sandy decided to leave the food aside, and see if there were any birds today in need of food. Danny barked, hoping the birds would arrive.
Three birds, Sally, Molly, and Jane came flying over the horizon. "Hi Danny!" said Jane, "We haven't seen you in forever." Danny did not really stay outside much during the Winter, and now that it was Spring, he knew it was a great day to enjoy the weather. "Yeah Jane, I've been inside a lot until this Winter weather passed through. I'm glad that's over with!" Molly replied, "We actually came back into the countryside about a week ago. We had flown to another area until the Winter weather passed through as well, but boy did we miss you."
Danny, with excitement said, "I've missed you all very much. I hope you guys are hungry, because I was able to bring out all of this food today and was hoping you guys would want some. Sandy and I are unsure if we can actually eat all of this, but we thought maybe you might want it." With joy, Sally replied, "Well of course! Thank you so much Danny. We have so many little ones this Spring, and we know that this food will be going to good use today. Thank you, for being such a great friend."
(Birds and Two Dogs
Source: Wikipedia)
Danny, with satisfaction that his friends were happy replied, "Take your time to eat. The humans are gone today, and won't be back for a while. Sandy and I will just be here sunbathing. But, you guys know the drill. If they get home before you finish, you gotta fly away, and I have to get back inside!"
Eat, birds, eat, and make no waste ;
I lie here and make no haste :
If my master chance to come,
You must fly, and I must run
The three birds began laughing, and replied, "Just like old times. It's good to be back!"
~~~
Author's Note: Eat, Birds, Eat is an old English rhyme. When I read the lines, "If my master chance to come, You must fly, and I must run", I thought of dogs helping birds. I especially thought of my dog, Danny, who loves to go play with the neighborhood dog and barks at the swans in our lake. So for my story, I decided to take a personal twist and talk about Danny, our neighborhood dog, and what the day might be like for him while we are away. He doesn't ever get into our food, but he does get into mischief. I have always wondered what dogs do while we are away, and making up this story made me think about animal movies like The Secret Life of Pets.
Bibliography: This story is based on the nursery rhyme "Eat, Birds, Eat" in The Nursery Rhyme Book, edited by Andrew Lang.
What a wonderful way to bring that little rhyme to life, Sonali! I love the idea of imagining what the animals do on their own time with their own lives. The idea of the dogs feasting and then feeding the birds too is so cute. I don't think our cats would ever be so nice as to go share any food with the birds or with the squirrels who cohabit their world, ha ha. And you even found the perfect picture to go with the story too! So pretty!
ReplyDeleteWhat is especially nice is that it is not such a famous rhyme like some of the others... yours might even be the first time someone has used that rhyme in the 21st century, which is a very cool thing to contemplate. Originally, the rhyme was the song of a bird-scarer which is probably why it is not a famous rhyme anymore: farmers don't pay "bird boys" to chase birds from their fields anymore like they once did. If you are curious, there's an old edition of the Folksong Society that has an actual song that is like this rhyme, and now your story is part of the centuries long tradition connected to this rhyme and its relations: Bird Starver's Cry. The way you imagined it as a story about dogs has much more of a happily-ever-after feeling at the end, that's for sure. :-)
Sonali, I really like how you chose to embody the text through the dogs. I immediately knew with your title that it would be about dogs, but what I didn't know was who else could have a dog as best friend. There is sort of a universal understanding that dogs are man's best friend. When I read the part of your story about the dog rummaging through the cabinet for his fellow doggy friend, it made me think how sometimes dogs leave messes when their owner's aren't home. Do you think that there could be stories like this that explain messes left by pets in real life?
ReplyDeleteHi Sonali. Wow, I really liked reading your story. As a child, I was a little scared of dogs, but the older I got the more I fell in love with them. I want to have my own little puppy one day in the future because they really are not just a man’s best friend, but also friends with everyone. I feel like you did a really great job in making this rhyme come to life. I pictured every detail in my head that you wrote, and I thought it was a very cute take on a concept we all love and know—a man’s best friend.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your story! I have watched Secret Life of Pets and I think your story is a lot like the movie.
ReplyDeleteI also liked that you started the story by having the dog in first person view it adds an interesting element to the story. Also, the picture that you chose fits perfectly with the story. Stories like these also make me think that things like this could be real?
The way you added the poem in the beginning and then the way you ended it with the poem is also a really great writing style.
Wow this story was really cool to read! When I did this assignment I found it really difficult to write something off of a small poem like that, but you did an amazing job! It is so neat that something that small inspired a short story! Your writing style is really good too, you have great dialogue between all of your animals!
ReplyDeleteHi!
ReplyDeleteI really like how you twisted the story about a dog instead a bird. I also think it is awesome how you still incorporated the birds so you didn't twist the plot too much. Your imagery and how the story flowed was really well written. Another aspect of your writing I like was how you got inside of a dogs mind and acted as if you were the dog alone by himself.