Buster

• Hope Marsh, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2016

Hi, I’m Buster. I’m a black staffy. This is my story…
I was only 18 months old when I met Hope. She rescued me. Well her parents did. Anyway, she was my age and we bonded like glue. I was supposed to go to Hope’s Aunty but they got impatient and got another dog. So I stayed with Hope and her parents.
Kelly, Hope’s Mum was doing washing one day and she placed Hope on the ground as she bent down to pick up the washing. When she turned around Hope was gone! She had crawled over to me. I laid down and watched her carefully. She picked up my bowl and started feeding me one biscuit at a time. I didn’t care. Then all of a sudden Kelly comes around the corner looking scared. She saw Hope and me and smiled. I watched as she took out her phone to ring Michael, Hope’s Dad. When he answered she said “Michael, we’re keeping Buster.”
It was a very sad time when Michael left, something called a divorce. Then Jay came, I didn’t like him much but I dealt with it. We all moved to a bigger house and that’s when Jay bought Tippi, a brindle staffy. She was the love of my life but I won’t get into that too much. About a year or so later Kelly couldn’t afford Tippi. She was pregnant too! But the nice man at the AWL told us that because she was brindle she would find a good home. By this time Kelly had another child, Ali, a boy, but Hope still played with me.
After a while we all moved to a place my humans called Boundary Street. I hated it there. I tried so hard to be nice to the pug next door but he wouldn’t answer me. The second day we were there the pug got under the fence and I lost it. I tore him apart and I didn’t know why I did it either. Kelly dragged me away screaming. I’m so glad Hope couldn’t see how much of a bad dog I was.
Kelly was scared that I would do that to Hope or Ali or even her so she took me to the vet and the vet lady took us into a room and said she would come back later. I looked at Hope, confused, I whined. I told her I was sorry and said please don’t leave me. She slowly took my collar off and kissed my head. She walked out crying, saying goodbye. It was then I realized I would never see her again. Good bye my friend, I cried.
I’m in the afterlife now and to this day I watch my girl very closely. She has promised me she will never forget me even if she got another dog. I am sitting next to her right now, watching her write this story. I love her very much.