Short Story -Marcella Hoffman

On a bright, happy summer day I was in my back yard with my dog. Oh, hi i’m Brooklyn Cassidy. Everyone calls me Brook for short. I live in New York with my family. I have a mom, a dad, a young brother, and an older sister. My moms name is Addison, my dad's name is Ethan, my sisters name is Paris, and my brothers name is Logan. My mom named my sister and I after cities that they went to multiple times. I also have a dog named Shurley. She is a Labrador Retriever. We adopted her from the animal shelter. That dog is my EVERYTHING. I would do anything for Shurley. But anyways, Shurley and I were playing fetch in the backyard. It was time for lunch so Shurley and I went inside to make macaroni and cheese. After I would have an ice cream sandwich. I would heat up the cookies so it was warm, soft, and chewy. After that, Shurley and I went back outside. We continued playing fetch. I wasn’t paying attention to where I was throwing the ball and next thing I know Shurley is hoping over the fence to go get the ball. I run after Shurley but there is no use. She runs as fast as a bullet, I couldn’t keep up. I am trying run and also call my dad on the phone. I stopped running. Crash! There was a crash in the intersection that I was running towards. My heartbeat stop. I was so scared I could have dropped dead right there. I faint and the next thing I know, I am in my bed laying down. I can’t move anything. It takes me a hour to get out of bed. I go halfway down the stairs until I hear something. The tv was on and it was talking about the crash in my neighborhood. It said it was caused by an animal. I kept thinking that it was my fault that Shurley ran away. I went back upstairs to cry in my bed. It turns out that I cried myself to sleep. When I wake up I can smell cookies baking in the oven. I go downstairs and see that there was still no sign of Shurley. My mom had made cookies because she knew I was upset. I eat my cookies and went in the basement. My computer and printer is in the basement. I go on my computer and make flyers for Shurley. The flyer says, “Missing Dog!! (Picture of Shurley) Reward is $200. If found, please call 1800-find-dog.” I printed it out and started walking around the neighborhood. I started taping the flyers to street lights, stop signs, and on store windows. One day while I was doing homework, I get a call.

Hello?

“Yes, My name is Evelyn and I saw your flyer for the lost dog”.

“Have you seen my dog?” I said

“Yes, I have” Evelyn says.

“Just to make sure that it’s my dog, is the dog's fur golden with a spot of brown around his right eye?” I said.

“No, this dog is a golden retriever with no spot around it’s eye” she said.

“I’m sorry that is not my dog, does the dog have a collar with a tag?” I said.

“Yeah it does” Evelyn said.

“Call the owner and say that you have the dog” I said.

“Okay, bye” Evelyn said.

For a second I had thought that she might actually have Shurley. I got my hopes up. My parents surprised me, they said that we were going to the Animal Shelter to get another dog. I said that I would go but no dog will be like Shurley. My family goes to the Animal Shelter and we look around for a bit. We walk into the back room and there was a dog that my entire family loved. It was a 4 month old German Shepherd and it said that his name was Rufus. We got a person that worked there to get the dog out of the cage. We all decided that we loved him, so we adopted him. We took him to Pet Supplies Plus to get him toys, a bed, a crate, food, bowls, and more. As soon as we walked in the door, Rufus ran all around the house. Later in the evening, I took him outside to go to the bathroom. He goes to Shurley’s dog house. I walk over there and there she is. Shurley is in the dog house! There was food left over in her bowl from the day I lost her. I brought Shurley and Rufus back in the house. My family was in the family room. I go to the family room and there faces were shocked. Everyone was speechless. Shurley goes up to everyone and greets them once again. I asked my mom if we could still keep Rufus and she said yes. The next day, my dad builds a higher fence, so neither Shurley or Rufus could jump over it. For now on, I keep my eyes on Rufus and Shurley all the time.