Otis’ short story…1st page.

Me, a couple of weeks ago. I hear her say puppy but that can't be right.

My name is Otis. Some of you know who I am because you have read a bit of Lissa’s blog. Lissa is my human. She has way too much on her mind these days, so I’m filling in for her. Bless her heart…she needs someone to relieve some of the pressure she is putting on herself. Her mood ring is constantly changing colors…she is so conflicted.

My friend Duke lives with her son. Duke looks a lot like me, black and shiny, but he is a bit sturdier so, when he greets me as I jump out of the car, it’s more of a body slam. Lissa is doing this thing where she tells me to sit and wait before I go in the house, leave the car, go out the door…it’s never ending and really a pain. It also makes me a sitting duck when I go over to see Duke.  He likes to grab me by the collar and twist my neck until I flip. Lissa has been taking my collar off when I visit him but when Duke and I ran out into the woods after some hogs, the other day, she quit taking it off. She said it’s for my own safety. That of course doesn’t make any sense but she is human after all.

When I was still with my brothers and sisters and my mom, back at my first home, I remember my dad wore a collar that was wide, thick and had spikes on it. He hunted hogs for his human and I heard that collar was for his safety too.

Today, Lissa took me with her into the city. I have to ride in my crate but I like it. It has my bed in it and I just nap while I’m in there. She kept stopping and getting out, then coming back and driving again. I don’t know what she was doing but a couple of times she told me to get out and we ran around out in the grass. I’m supposed to go to the bathroom when we do that. I know, because she always tells me what a smart guy I am when I do it right. Doesn’t take much to make her happy.

I looked out of the window while we were stopped and saw a big human dressed in red. He had a lot of white hair and was talking to other humans as they walked by. He looked scary to me and I barked at him and told him to stay away from our car. He looked at me and showed his teeth. I barked at him again as we drove away until Lissa told me to hush. I guess she knows what she is doing. I got a cookie when we got back to the river. I must have done a pretty good job.