Paw Prints

Tail 1: How Our Friendship Formed

My name is Callie, I guess you could say that I'm a retriever/shepherd mix. I some how I got talked into writing this, "this" being the story of how we formed are little pack.

But we do I start? That's always a key question when writing something, where is the best place in the story to start the tale. In my case, I'd have to say that the best place would probably be when we all met, during that summer vacation.

Now, I'd known several of them before we were all left at the boarding kennel, but there were a few who I'd never met before.

The Dalmatian staying next to me was a girl named Dallas, she's a pretty cheerful, up-beat dog most of the time. The dog across the ally from me was a Saint Bernard named Hercules. Next to him was a wire-haired Jack Russel terrier. His full name was Marco Polo, so his call name was Markie, but what most of us who new him called him was Little Terror. Beside him was a Border collie named Hero. He's a handsome dog, but he tends to be full of himself. I knew all of them from obedience school (although some of them, particularly Markie, were the opposite of obedience).

Now, I know you're probably completely lost by now with all of that information, but hang in there, I'll be clarifying it as I go, I just wanted to set up in your mind every-one who was there.

Also there, was a pretty beagle whose name I didn't know. She seemed friendly, even if a bit shy.

"Say, Dallas, do you have any idea who that beagle is?" I asked.

"That gal, I believe I heard the humans say her name was Sandy. She seemed nice enough during yesterday’s walk, although she was a bit preoccupied with all them smells. Course that's pretty normal for them scent hound types."

"Oh man... when are they gonna bring us out again!?" said Markie, "I'm gonna go completely crazy if I don't do something soon!"

"I know how you feel," said Hero, rubbing himself against the metal caging.

"Oh be patient you two, it's not even near the time that they took us yesterday." Hercules told them.

That gives you an idea of just how boring it can get sitting around there. We had a small outdoor run, and a small room inside. We had a pad on a wooden pallet for a bed. It actually wasn't as uncomfortable as one might have thought, but it still wasn't any-thing like at home. And I missed my boy, Zack. Anywhere could have been luxurious if my Zack had been there.

But we survived that day, and got our walk. The next day at about late morning, a man came in carrying a cat carrier and holding a leash. At the end of that leash was a handsome skipperkie, those are short tailed medium sized black dogs. The girl who worked here, Jenny, opened the empty "room" next to me. The man walked in, hugged the dog and unleashed him. He then set the carrier down and opened the door. He reached inside; patted who-ever was inside, and then left the "slot". Jenny closed the door and walked out with the man. The new dog stood by the door watching the human leave.

"Well, I guess it's good by for now," said the black dog. He turned to me and cocked his head, "Hey, my name's Skip, how about yours?"

"I'm Callie."

"Nice to meet you Callie. Did you know you're also pretty?"

"You're flattering me."

"Now come now, there's no reason to accuse me, I'm just bein honest."

Markie snorted, "Well would you look at that. Hey Hero, I think those two have a thing for each other, wouldn't you say?"

"Don't be absurd." snapped Hero.

Skip turned to them. "So who's the match maker?"

Markie seemed a bit startled at being called that. "I'm Markie, but you can call me Terror."

"Alright, Terror it is than. And how about the rest of you? If we're goin to be neighbors than we might as well get to know each other."

"I'm Hero."

"My name's Dallas."

"I am Hercules."

"I'm Sandy."

"Well I'm pleased to meet you all."

I have to admit I was rather taken with him.

A Siamese cat came out of the carrier and sat down. She licked her paw and started washing her face.

"I guess you must have heard the introductions. Every body, this my friend Melanie."

"Greetings."

"Hello" I said, going over to the fence to get a better scent level.

And so the day passed, are walk was quite the thing, with two humans walking seven dogs.

Two days later the "big event" happened. We were on our daily after-noon walk and were quite enjoying ourselves. It's funny how things can happen when you least expect them. What happened really didn't seem that big at first.

We were walking along when Sandy caught the scent of a rabbit, let out a howl and started pulling on her leash. Being a beagle she really didn't have an advantage over Chris, who was walking her.

A startled squirrel ran in front of us. Dallas barked and lunged after it pulling on her leash. Chris struggled to hold onto four pulling leashes. Sandy, Dallas, and Markie were straining to run after the squirrel.

Jenny had do hold on tight as well, for Hero was straining as well. Suddenly Hero turned around and grabbed his leash in his mouth. He shook his head and pulled on it. Jenny pulled back, but then Skip charged forward, jerking his leash out of her hand. When she tried to grab for it he pulled his leash a way and made a dash for the woods.

The sight of Her running was all it took for Hercules to start pulling. Chris lost his hold on Hercules and Dallas as they made a lunge at the same time. Markie leapt up at Chris grabbing his lead and pulling on it.

Skip jumped on Chris causing him to lose his balance and his grip on Markie and Sandy. Those two took off.

All right I admit it, I wanted to go chase the squirrel as well, or at least run. I was pulling on my leash as well. I couldn't quite get lose though. Skip ran over and jumped on Jenny, grabbed my leash and pulled. She lost hold ant the tow of us got out of there.

After we were a safe distance from Chris and Jenny who where calling for us, we worked together to get the leashes off of each other.

"So now what" asked Dallas looking around.

"Now we enjoy a nice run." said Skip and he started running. The rest of us followed.

We found this strange road, and decided to follow it. We came to a bridge over a large ravine. Skip stopped and sniffed around.

"Let's cross to the other side," said Markie

"But we won't be able to get out of the way if whatever travels here comes along." said Dallas.

"We've been traveling beside this road for while now and no body's came. Maybe it's been abandoned or something."

"I would like to find out what's over there..." Said Dallas, "alright, let's cross."

Markie streaked across followed by Dallas and Hero. Skip followed easily. Sandy was a little hesitant, but she got across fine. Hercules and I looked at each other.

"I'm not sure how safe that is." I said.

"I know, there's too many holes in it for me to feel comfortable crossing it," said Hercules, but he started across anyway.

"Oh well, here goes nothing." I said as I started to cross, placing my feet very carefully. I was about half way across when I paused. I could hear a strange rumbling noise. I looked around but I couldn't see what was causing it.

I looked forward and saw that every one else was across by now. The rumbling noise seemed to be coming from that direction.

"Hey gal, are you coming of not?" called Dallas.

"Do you hear that?" I called back. The rumbling noise was coming nearer.

"I sure do!" she called back.

Around the bend in the path came a huge black car like thing. It was moving on the path that we had been following. The noise increased.

It blew a loud screaming blast that was nearly deafening. The others scattered off of the path. I looked down and saw a river far below. I could only go backwards or forwards.

"Callie!" shouted Hero, "Move!"

I looked behind me, then forward again, not sure which way to go. By now the thunder from that thing was nearly deafening. I started to try to turn around but slipped. I righted myself and looked at the monster.

It was now almost to the edge of the bridge. Suddenly a black streak ran in front of it. It was Skip. He was running in front of the noisy monster.

"Callie! You have to jump!" called Skip.

I looked down. That river was just so far away. I looked back up and saw Skip running as hard as he could, with the black monster just behind him.

Skip jumped to the edge of the bridge and leapt at me. He collided with me, sending us both tumbling off the bridge as the black monster roared by.

We hit the water hard, and I felt the breath knocked out off me. Stunned, I sank further under water. Skip swam over and dive beneath me. He grabbed my leg in his mouth and pulled me to the surface. I gasped for air.

"You all right?" he asked me.

"Yes. I'm fine" I gasped.

He let go of me and swam towards the shore. I tried to reach to shore, but I was having trouble with the current. Skip reached the shore and turned to look for me.

The current brought me around a bend in ravine. I could hear a rushing sound and another rumbling sound. I looked down stream and was horrified to find that after a certain ways I couldn't see the river. I was being pulled towards a waterfall!

Skip was running along side the river. "Callie!" Skip ran ahead of me and jumped into the river. He fought the current, even as it carried me towards him.

"Callie, go diagonally against the current towards the shore. Other wise we might not make it to the shore before the fall."

He swam next to me pushing me against the current. We swam heard and were able to make it to the shore. We crawled up the bank and collapsed on solid ground, panting.

Skip got up and turned to me, "Are you alright?"

I stood up, "Yeah, I'm fine. Thank you."

"Hey no problem, I'm glad to help."

"CALLIE!"

I looked up to see Hero and the others looking down at us.

"Callie, are you all right?!" called Hero.

"I'm fine! We'll have to go further to find a way up."

"I'd say that fella likes you."

"What?" I asked turning to Skip.

"Hero. He likes you."

"Don't be absurd, he's one of the most annoying dogs I know."

"I didn't say how you felt. I just think he likes you."

"What-ever."

We followed the bank up stream and found a way up to the others.

Hero rushed over to us, followed closely by the others.

"So glad you're alright gal."

Markie shook himself, "That's more adventure then I'd had in mind."

Sandy turned to Skip, "That was awesome rescue. Are you alright?"

"Oh I'm fine. I'm used to swimming."

Hercules asked, "And running in front of trains?"

"Well no, I'm not so used to that, but I'm fine now that no body's in danger."

"What's a train?" I asked.

"That's what that thing that nearly hit the two of you was."

"So what do we do now?" asked Hero.

"Perhaps we should head back to the kennel, after all, I know I don't want to miss supper."

"Supper!" exclaimed Markie, "Oh man you're right, we don't want to miss that, let's get going!"

I decided it was time I spoke up, "Not over that bridge, I hope."

"Oh man, No Way! We'll just have to find a different way back."

We actually did manage to find a way back to the kennel, and we didn't miss supper either.

After that Jenny and Chris put us together in a large out-door pen, and only walked us two at a time.

"Listen guys, I was thinking that it'd be cool if we formed sort of a pack away from our family packs." said Hero.

"Sure, that'd be fun," said Skip

"And we could write about our adventures as well." suggested Dallas.

"Yeah! That'd be great. But what do we call it?" asked Markie.

"How about Dog Tales?" said Sandy.

"But it's not just about are tails." said Dallas.

"Some of us don't even have much for a tail," said Markie.

"I can emphasize with that one," said Skip.

"No, I meant tale as in a tale of something, not someone's tail."

"Oh."

"How about Paw Prints?" said Hercules.

Every one stared at him.

"Paw Prints?" Markie cocked his head.

"I like it," declared Hero. "It suits us as dogs, and it suggests the idea of where some ones been."

"Alright" we agreed to the name Paw Prints for our story.

"But I'm not sure how much we'll be able to stay together once we're out of here." said Sandy. "After all I live across town from most of you."

"That's all right, we'll just have to get together when we can." said Markie.

"Yes, besides," said Skip, "I don't even live in the same town."

"Then it's settled," said Dallas, "As many of us get together when we can."

About a week after Skip came here, his human showed up.

"Well, good by to all of you. I hope we meet again some day, but in the mean time try to have fun. And I'd advise you to stay away from train tracks."

"Indeed." said Hercules.

Skip's human picked up the cat carrier and lead Skip out side. I ran out into my outdoor run.

"Skip!" I called.

Skip looked back. He pulled his leash out of his human's hand and ran over to me.

"Skip!" called his human.

I stuck my nose through the chain link fence. "Do you think we'll ever see each other again?"

"Who knows? But it's possible; my owner does travel a lot. Maybe we'll come back this way sometime."

"Skip! Come on, it's time to go."

"Well, I have to go. But listen, I'll see you later, alright?"

"Yeah, later."

"Oh cheer up."

Skip licked my cheek. Startled I sat back and stared at him. He grinned.

"Later!" and with that he ran over to his human and jumped in their car.

"Good by." I managed to say.

As the car drove off, Skip looked out the window and barked once.

I barked in return. After they were out of sight I went lay down and sighed.

The others tried to cheer me up, and they actually did a fairly good job of it. Over the next few days we discussed our plans and I ended up with the job of writing the first story.

We were out in the fenced yard when we heard a car pull up.

"That's Jessie!" said Markie, listening to the people out side. He started barking like crazy.

"Markie!" Jessie called. She came running in and grabbed Markie as he jumped at her. She came very close to strangling him while hugging.

And so one by one our owners came and brought us home. Zack came, hugged me and got me in the car. WE were going home.