Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Cat and Dog (09/04/14)
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TITLE: Top Dog | Previous Challenge Entry
By Lois Farrow
09/11/14 -
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Rosie is top dog here. Her twice-weekly visits are eagerly anticipated by the 40 long-term residents. She is welcome in every room.
First stop is Donald’s room. Rosie waits expectantly, and when he gives the word she leaps on to his lap. He laughs delightedly and his flailing arms somehow settle on her back without squashing her. Awkwardly he tries to trace the black spots on her smooth white coat, while exchanging news with Cindy.
Rosie pokes her head out from under his arms and looks straight up into his eyes. He giggles with delight. Reluctantly he lets her go when his time is up. Rosie has other residents to see.
In the next room Judith is in an armchair in the sun. Rosie comes close but Judith doesn’t like her jumping up. She puts her head up for a scratch and a sniff. Cindy shares her news and knows Judith understands, even though she doesn’t understand any of Judith’s grunts and exclamations.
They move on to Roger, to David, to Geoffrey. Rosie has a greeting for them all. She is also skilled at avoiding spinning wheelchairs and briskly pushed service trolleys vying for space in the corridors. Deftly she trots around each one.
But today there is a surprise in store. Cindy is told a new resident has arrived.
“Watch out for Dora, she’s a bit prickly,” she is told. “You have been warned.”
“We can handle prickly people, can’t we,” she tells Rosie, bending to scratch her head. “One look at your comical face and she will cheer up.” The little terrier isn’t handsome or cute, but her gentle personality quickly wins over diffident people.
They round the corner of the corridor and come face to face with a huge fluffy ball hissing and spitting with all its might. Rosie skids to a halt, but not quickly enough. The cat pounces and lands on top of the little dog who somehow manages to sidle out from under the smothering mass. Cindy scoops her up in her arms and retreats into the nearest room. The cat follows and jumps onto the bed still hissing while glaring at the dog.
“O dear,” chortles the woman in the bed. “I’m Katie and this is Dora the Adorable. I’ve heard about you, and I wondered how she would react, but I didn’t expect that. I’m so sorry.”
Rosie trembles in Cindy’s arms. In all her nine years of coming here she has never been ambushed like that.
“I think your cat has the wrong name,” Cindy says. “That wasn’t exactly adorable!”
“She’ll be fine when she settles,” Katie assures her. “Sometimes she reacts like that when she meets new animals. We’ve only been here two days, and already she thinks she owns the place and needs to protect me.”
When Cindy and Rosie recover they continue their rounds. Later I try not to laugh when Cindy tells me about the encounter.
“As if Rosie would be a threat to anyone, or to any cat for that matter,” I say. “They don’t know her, that’s for sure.”
“At least Katie is not the same personality as her cat,” says Cindy, “and we learnt something about not taking things for granted. We’ll have to go cautiously next time now that our status has changed.”
“For sure,” I say. “It will be different now that Rosie is no longer Top Dog.”
Note: Rosie is a real dog who goes twice-weekly to this place, but this story is fiction.
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Your story was pleasant to read.
Sweet story.
God bless~
Lovely story with a creative use of the topic. Well done.