My Life As A Dog
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Harry Yu, Grade 3, Knox Grammar Preparatory School -
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Short Story
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2018
Excellence Award in the 'Horizon of Dreams 2018' competition
Being a dog is wonderful! It’s the best job in the world! Especially the part where your owner gives you dog treats for doing tricks. But for me it’s a different story…
I am a wild bulldog and I lived in a garbage dump. I do have a few friends, who are also wild dogs. They call me Brown because of the colour of my fur. I’m happy to be called Brown but however my actual name is Harry.
My life was even more distressing than you can ever possibly ever imagine. I survived on a miniscule amount of food and water. I dug holes in the ground so that when it rains the holes will save up some water for me to drink. Even though this water was extremely muddy, I still survived from it. I would prefer to drink crisp fresh water, but I didn’t have a choice.
For food I found cans of dog food from the local bins. Sometimes if I was lucky, I discovered a bag of dog treats in the rubbish dump, but usually the food was all rotten.
I was very bony and weak because I just didn’t have sufficient food to grow robust and tough.
At night, the sound of crickets always vexed me greatly. Sleeping outside is cold and miserable, I hate it.
One sunny morning, I saw a pakapoo ticket. I was very curious in what it said so I decided to follow it. Just then, a zephyr blew and I kept following the ticket as it was being blown away by the wind. Eventually I caught the ticket. It said, ‘Dear Thomas, I hope you have a splendid year in Grade 2’.
A few minutes later, I heard a sobbing boy. The noise was deafening! It was as loud as a screeching alarm. I could see tears slowly rolling down his delicate face so I leaped over to him and my wondrous friends also rushed over to help. Then they all started to bark ferociously!
Woof! Woof! Woof! They all barked. The little boy screamed in disbelief! We ran away but I turned back; he picked me up, then my friends returned too. The boy put me down carefully then walked away. We followed him to a sidewalk bustling with busy people trying to get to their destinations. Then we continued following him down many narrow streets and eventually reached wondrous house that was five stories tall! It had huge bronze gates, golden ornaments, several beautiful fountains, an enormous garden, lots of fruit trees and vegetable patches and a Lamborghini and Ferrari.
I entered the imposing gates but my friends hadn’t been welcomed in yet. I trotted into the enormous house and discovered that there was a cinema, living room, lots of bedrooms and bathrooms and so much more!
I trotted outside and told my friends that we had an owner! We all rushed into the house. The boy said that we could wilfully do whatever we wanted so we lived a luxurious life. We even learnt some tricks and regularly received wonderful dog treats.
Now we’re part of the family. We guard the house, play with the children and we travel together sometimes. I love my life as a dog.