He began his ritual sniffing along the floor, out to the steps and around the garbage out back. He blew out through his nose several times and made the dust puff up. Then he began to trot across the yard and on to the road. The road was not a busy road. There was a rustling through the trees, the evergreens and the maples. A rustling of branches and leaves. He listened for other animals. He listened to the voices of the forest. He did not want to be surprised and he wanted to chase little squirrels and mice. He would like to come across a dog to smell, to touch noses with.
The sky was field of blue. Black birds flue across it as if they had been thrown by a giant hand. The yellow dog ran barking, with his head turned up, his eyes rolled back and his tongue flapping wildly around his mouth. Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof! Across the sky the birds paid him no mind. They were wild. The dog ran and ran until the birds were gone and he had nothing to do but flop down on the ground. His big head on the cool earth with his breathing hard.
On his way home, he came upon garbage strewn about. Two hot dogs and a hamburger and some chips. He seemed to inhale them, as hungry as he was and returned to his home. A good day in the life of the dog. The next day his life would change. He spent time digging holes, which he loved doing. He would push his nose deep in the ground and then dig madly, push his nose in the ground, then dig madly. He then sat calmly on the porch and looked over the pine trees and the mountains in the distance and listened to the crickets and the frogs and he heard other dogs, too, barking to one another. But he was spent, done for the day, and he watched the sun sinking down over the trees.
The next morning life was the same. He woke up, crunched his breakfast and drank his water and headed out the door to poop and piss. He wandered along the road but came to a car filled with a family of a mother, father, boy and little girl. The back door was open and the dog crawled in the back seat. "Couldn't he go with us?" she asked. She clung to the dog who was bigger than she was.
The car door slammed and the big yellow dog was all locked in and off he went with his new family. A new adventure awaited him and his head lopped out the window as the car started taking in the miles. Down, down the winding mountain. The air was hot and sunny with the summer. These were kind people who liked just being alive and awaiting the next adventure. The little girl cried herself to sleep as she felt that she was leaving the beautiful green mountain but the dog, the big yellow dog, felt the air against his fir and his eyes stayed forward and alert.
After a while, an unknown amount of time, home was a little house in the desert. There were flowers and a small gate, not really meant to keep anyone or anything out. The little girl started school and forgot the forest. She liked the warm ground, the stars that filled the sky at night and her new school. The school was across the street from the house where she lived and her dog walked her to school every morning. In the afternoon when she would stay after to play on the slide and the merry-go-round and jump rope with her little girl friends, the dog would wander over to the play ground, for he waited all day for the little girl and for school to be out. He was a very odd dog. He knew how to climb up the slide and sit up as he slid down. No one suggested that he do this. He would just do this over and over again. The children were made to be very happy at this and he was thought to be the most wonderful dog.
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