Not so long ago, I woke up one morning to water all around my little bed under the table. It was the middle of the coldest winter we ever had. Everything outside was covered with ice and snow, and it seemed everything inside was soppy wet. What a horrid muddle to wake up to. Before I got out, I realized Mrs Thistle was on the phone getting someone to come out and see our problem, so I knew the mess would not last forever.
Pretty soon, I got up the courage to leave my warm nest, and ran through the water to the open slider door and hopped out. It would be a whole other story to tell you what happened when I got outside to the “land of ice and snow”, and what happened when I came back in the house to let the piles of snow melt off my feet. I will just tell you, that day did not start out as one of our ordinary days, and it was a little strange all day long.
After breakfast, and morning wash up, a big tall man named Fred came to our door to see the problem. He looked around inside, and soon I could hear him under the house shouting “ Mrs Thistle, I found the problem”. I bet you can guess what was under the house, but if you can’t I shall tell you. One of our pipes had burst.
Fred worked for a little while under the house, and outside in the yard, and then came in and said he would have to go away for a while to get another tool, so he did.
Mrs Thistle was busy mopping the floor so I thought I would snoop around outside and see where Fred had worked. Pretty soon, he was back, so for a while I followed him until he went back under the house. I wandered my lovely yard until I noticed the front gate to the street was wide open. I had never seen that before.
In a flash, I was outside in the driveway and a lady appeared, patted my head and scratched my ears. It was lovely. She was saying she had to keep going on her walk, and said I could come along if I wanted to. I thought to myself, ‘why not, everyone else is too busy to play with me, and I love to walk’. A new adventure began for me, one I will not forget for a long time.
We began our walk going up my street which I had done hundreds of times, but I did not have a leash on. I did not have to walk at the side of the road, I could run anywhere. It was great fun, no cars came, and I could sniff all kinds of new things. When we turned on to the big main road, it was the same thing. The lady did not seem to mind where I ran, but it was not so much fun for me. I didn’t know where I was, and there were CARS. Cars just zooming back and forth and I had to play “jump out of the way” each time a car came because I was never sure if they could see me. This was fun for a little while, but soon I was just plain scared. The lady did not stop or pay much attention to me, so I decided it was best just to follow behind her big clunky shoes. I did, never letting the big shoes out of my sight. After what seemed like ages and ages and ages, she turned into a driveway and went into a house. This is where trouble began.
A big grumpy man met us just inside of the door. He asked the lady –“What on earth is that you have brought home?” He bent down and began to look me over, while the lady explained I was just some little mutt who had followed her for miles. I was insulted, as I am not some little mutt, I am Mrs Thistle’s best pet even if I am a small Scottie, and SHE asked me to come for a walk! Lucky for me, the man began to search my collar, found my name tag, and I heard him pick up the phone calling Mrs T. He told her what had happened and he and the lady would put me in their car and bring me home. Thank goodness for my bright red name tag, I was going home. The man was VERY cross with the lady.
After what seemed like a long ride on the floor in the back of the car, I was lifted out and Mrs Thistle was waiting in the driveway with Fred the working man. Both of them appeared to be overjoyed to see me and I will tell you I was the happiest dog on earth. The lady, who I now think of as a dangerous stranger, was telling her story of how I was a silly dog who just followed her and certainly did not know how to behave on the main road. Mrs Thistle just held me tight and thanked the man very much for reading the red tag and bringing me home.
When we got settled in the house Mrs T. told me what had happened while I was away. She had been cleaning up when Fred came running in the door shouting—“I left the gate open, I forgot, and I CAN’T FIND CHARLIE ROSE”. They had both rushed out to our street, Mrs Thistle on her walker, and Fred running up and down the street calling “Charlie Rose come, come for a biscuit”. The phone rang, so they rushed in the house and found out I was being brought home. Mrs T. said she was so happy, she cried. She patted my head and asked me please never to do such a thing again as she had been very scared. I so wished I could talk and tell her that I had been very frightened too, and I promised myself not to take off with a stranger again and have to deal with cars on the main busy road. I could have been “squished Charlie”!
Maybe when you have read my story, you will remember a time when a stranger asked you to go somewhere. I hope you were smarter than me and did not go. If this has not happened to you, I hope you will always remember my story, and NOT GO WITH STRANGERS. Something could happen to you that might be very very scary and just not fun for you or your family.
My story could have had a sad ending, but did you guess what saved me? I bet you did----my little red _ _ _ . It told my name, where I lived, my phone number, and who my family was. I hope all of you know this important information about yourself, and know to tell it if you get into an uncomfortable place.
Love, Charlie Rose.
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In the below picture you can see the log boom that ended up on our beach after the storm. In the other photo you can see a new boom being made in the sea to take the logs away. This all took about 3 days and Mrs. T. ,
This little family sometimes has dinner in my front garden, then they go for a wander down the middle of my street. They just hope cars and trucks will see them, and so do I!
I am grown-up now, but when I was a small puppy my Mum taught me that I was to pay attention to what I was doing.
I remember the day. I was in the barn jumping over the prickly straw. I was sort of where I was not supposed to be, but I had seen a rat! I was following him. In and out of the straw, under a door, and then SPLAT! I fell into a big puddle of horse poop in one of the stalls. Was I a mess!! Did I stink! Can you imagine; I bet I looked awful. It seemed like ages that I sat stuck, but probably it was only moments until Mum found me.
By the scruff of my neck,she dragged me to the barn door and sat and barked and barked. Soon the farmer came and I was taken to the farmhouse, given a warm bath, dried off and went back to Mum and our nest .
Mum was glad to see me but I could tell – she was not happy. My brothers and sister were not in the nest, they were out doing show dog exercises. We were alone together.
As she always does, Mum wanted to talk to me. She said things like,
“I’m not very happy. What were you thinking? What could have happened to you, my little one?” She was not cranky. She was just quietly talking. She told me I must pay attention to where I was going and what I was thinking about.
This talk came back to me just a while ago, when I was out for a walk with a young man named Jetly as my dog-walker lady friend was away. We walked the usual way down the road, past the resort, and then, instead of turning around, we just kept going. I was getting tired. I looked up at him. He seemed to be paying no attention to me. We walked more, in fact he sort of danced. I began to whimper. No stopping. I sang “Howee, howee!” No stopping. I stopped and sat and looked at him. Do you know what I saw? He had wires coming from his ears to a yellow box on his belt. I soon decided he was listening to music as he feet were doing dance steps. No wonder he could not hear me, and didn’t seem to have noticed I had stopped. He dragged me up and I bumbled along, but my paws were getting pretty sore. I figured out that I had to be alert, watchful about what was going on.
We passed the golf course and I could hear the sound of a train. I had never walked this far before. Would we see the train? Would my dancing walker hear it? I had been over this road in the car with Girlie. I remembered the train went right on the road in a few places.
I started to walk as slowly as I could. I looked around. I listened. Were we near the train tracks? Then I heard a loud whistle. It seemed nearby. I sat down again. I could feel the earth rumbling through my body. Jetly started to tug me up again. Yikes! This was not good. This time I jumped on his leg and sat on his foot. He finally stopped and bent down and looked at me. I put my saddest face on, hung my tongue out, quivered and panted. I think he finally got my idea. He took the plugs out of his ears and bent down to me asking,
“What’s the matter? You tired?” Just then the train whistle blew again. Jetly jumped. Whoopee! He had heard it. Down the hill we saw the train speeding over the crossing. Red lights flashed, bells clanged. What would have happened if I had not got his attention? I think it startled Jetly. He bent down beside me. He saw that I was quivering and scooped me into his arms.
At last he decided we had come too far from home. Holding on to me, he put out his thumb to see if he could get a ride. I was so happy. I don’t think I could have walked much longer.
A red car sped past us. A silver car was slowly coming to us. It looked like it might stop. It didn’t. The lady driving was on her phone and I don’t think she even saw us.
Jetly kept walking.
A big white car came nearer and stopped. Inside was a Grandpa kind of man. He asked where we were going and so on. He agreed to take us. I quickly wagged my tail and gave a little “yippee!”.
Jetly jumped into the front seat and put me on his lap. Mr Grandpa didn’t seem to be pleased as he said in a stern voice,
“The little dog must go in the back”, and explained that if for some reason, the air bag came out it could hurt such a small dog. So I got settled into a great big space of my own. I snoozed and half listened to Mr. Grandpa and Jetly tell stories. Mr. Grandpa told a lot of dog stories which maybe is why he picked us up. We would be another dog story for him to tell.
In what seemed like no time, we were home. As Jetly and I got out of the car, Mr.Grandpa said,
“Jetly, I hope you do something for me. After today, can you give more attention to the world around you? Do you know if you had kept going you would have walked right into the train? You and the scruffy little one would have been squished!
Wasn’t this the same idea Mum had given me so long ago?
Perhaps you little ones who are hearing this story could really try as I did and help those around you to pay attention to the world.
Could you be a big help to those creatures and people who do not pay any attention?
Where I live lots of deer get hit on the road. I never have known who is not paying attention. Sometimes I get yelled at for barking. Nobody seems to get the idea that I am yelling at the deer who wander down our street without a care.
Love, Charlie Rose.
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CH:12 is the last chapter of this story and tells the best lesson of what happened to me when I took a stroll with a stranger who had no thought of taking me home!
Read "Stranger, Danger" next week!
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On Friday, April 2, 2010 we had a huge storm at our house. The wind 