The Dog

• Alastair Herbert, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2018

It was a fresh winter day. Pretty ordinary! I woke up early as usual read my book and got up 20 minutes later hoping that I would be allowed to play Minecraft. I crept into my parents bedroom where I found my mum sitting and reading her book.

With a short glance I could tell what she was going to say. “It’s the big sultana day” she said. I quickly replied “then where are the sultanas, I thought we were out because I had too many on my breakfast.” Laughing she responded “good point, we are out”! In a flash I saw the moment and gathered my courage to say it. “Can I play Minecraft”. “Really” she responded.

Later I would be standing outside completely forgetting that I really wanted to play.

We walked in the shelter and heard all this barking. The first corridor of cages was almost empty and all that was left was a frightfully yapping little aggressive terrier of some sort! The second corridor was just as bad as the first, containing a full breed Rottweiler and a German Shepard.

On our way back we passed a volunteer who told us that there was another shelter called the Sydney Dog and Cat home. Straight away we set off!

We found a parking spot and walked to the Sydney Dog and Cat home. The building housing the animals looked like a house so it was a bit hard to find but we did it! Inside, we decided to have a look at the dogs. I saw a cute but scared terrier of some sort and instantly I said “I think we are likely to get a dog here, and well, we did!

Starting at the top we looked at the dogs slowly, but I ran ahead. I stopped when I saw this cute little shih tzu. I waited for a bit and then together we started walking on. We passed a half breed Rottweiler, a cute little staffy cross, a border collie cross, a malamute and an aggressive little terrier. I suddenly realised I was alone and went back to where Mummy and Elspeth were standing. It was that cute little brown staffy cross named Effie.

We took instant liking to this dog and as we left we put a preference paper in to the front desk and the lady said “come back with dad to see if she likes him”. In the car just about to leave we thought what if she gets taken? We called daddy we had found a dog. Then we told the front desk we wanted to get her now! The lady told us to wait and then for a trial walk. It went fine and it grew our friendship bond. We put in an adoption paper and paid for her and got her a bed, food, a collar, a harness and a lead.