On The Run – Stream of Consciousness Saturday #SoCS

Mitch was in the middle of his daily run, jogging along a path bounded by a creek on one side and trees and shrubbery on the other. It was a peaceful natural area, and he loved to jog there in the mornings because he felt more energized after being out in nature. In the evenings, he usually would come there to walk with his dog, Riley, to relax after a long day at work.

Mitch was approaching a large clump of shrubbery when he heard a small noise coming from the bushes. He stopped running and listened, not sure of what he’d heard. Then he heard it again – a short, high-pitched meow. Intrigued, he slowly approached and looked into the nearest bush. Peering at him from inside the bush was a pair of yellow cat eyes. As he watched, a small pink mouth opened and meowed again. Then a small, black kitten timidly crawled out, sat in front of him, and meowed up at him with its tiny voice.

Mitch stared at the kitten in surprise. He had certainly not expected to come across something like this on his daily run. The kitten wound itself around his legs and continued to let out tiny meows as he tried to decide what to do. The kitten didn’t look very old. It had probably been weened not long ago. But it was kind of dirty and looked slightly underweight. He didn’t think it belonged to anyone. He considered taking it home, but he wasn’t sure how Riley would react to it or how the kitten would react to the dog.

The kitten began climbing his leg, then made its way all the way up to his shoulder, where it crouched and began purring. Mitch instinctively reached up and petted it, and that was it. He was going take the kitten home.

Cutting his run short, Mitch returned to his car and headed home. When he opened front door, Riley greeted him enthusiastically, jumping at him and trying to lick his face. Mitch had to hold the kitten out to the way as he tried to calm the yellow Labrador down. 

Mitch ordered the dog to sit, then took the kitten into the living room. He put the kitten on the floor then called for Riley. The dog ran into the living room and stopped instantly when he saw the kitten. Mitch watched anxiously to see how the two would react. 

Riley crept up on the kitten slowly, curious to investigate the newcomer. The kitten hunched down and gave a short hiss, but didn’t attack immediately. Mitch took it as a good sign. 

Riley sniffed the kitten, and the kitten leaned back as the dog invaded its personal space, but it still didn’t attack. 

Riley finished sniffing, took a step back, and sat down. He panted and his tail wagged. Then he dropped to all fours and let out a short yip, wanting to the play with the kitten. The kitten stared at it with narrowed eyes, as if it considered the dog and its request beneath him. But Riley continued yipping, and the kitten finally gave in. It lunged at Riley with its claws sheathed, and the dog jumped and ran off. Riley paused at the entrance to the living room and looked back. The kitten was standing where Riley had been. It stared at the dog a moment, then ran after Riley. 

The two continued like that for a few minutes, with the kitten keeping Riley on the run throughout the house, playing chase. Mitch settled down on the couch with a sigh of relief. He would still keep an eye on the two for a few days, but he thought that them not immediately fighting and playing instead was a good sign and that they would become good friends.

 

---

This post is part of the Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, “run”:

https://lindaghill.com/2021/03/26/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-march-27-2021/

Advertisement

Vicious – Tuesday Use It In A Sentence #tuesdayuseitinasentence

She went into the animal shelter and asked to see the animals who had been there longest. A staff member led her to the back and showed her a few cats and dogs. The last dog was curled up in the back of its pen, and it growled and bared its teeth a little at them. The staff member explained that the dog did that to all the people who stopped in front of its cage, and it scared them from wanting to adopt it because they thought it was a vicious dog.

She looked at the dog and knew they were wrong. She could tell from its body language and the look in its eyes that it was scared, not vicious. She knelt and talked to the dog in a soft, friendly voice and exuded calm, peaceful energy. Slowly, the dog stopped growling. Its tail began to wag slightly.

She kept talking and putting out good energy. After a few minutes, the dog stood up, its tail wagging. Then it walked over and sat down in front of her. It sniffed her hand and gave it a gentle lick. She carefully reached out and petted the dog’s head while the shelter staffer watched in amazement. “See, you’re not a vicious dog at all, are you?” she said, then faced the staffer and told him, “I’ll take him.”

 

 

This post is part of the Tuesday Use It In A Sentence prompt, “vicious”:

https://stephaniecolpron.wordpress.com/2020/07/14/tuesdayuseitinasentence-vicious/

 

That Fuzzy Thing – Stream of Consciousness Saturday #SoCS

“Julius!” called Lisa as she came into the living room. “Come here, Julius! I have something for you!”

Down the hall, Julius was napping. His ears perked up at the sound of her voice and he got up from his bed. He ran into the living room excitedly, eager to see what Lisa had brought him.

When he got there, he saw Lisa standing in the middle of the room with something small and black in her hands. “What is that fuzzy thing?” he thought. “Is is a toy? It must be a toy. Yay! A new toy!”

Having decided that, his tail began to wag and he panted expectantly.

Lisa approached the fluffy white dog. “I’m glad you’re happy, Julius,” she said, holding the fuzzy thing towards him. “Here you go.”

Julius sniffed the black thing in her hand, and reared back slightly in shock. “That doesn’t smell like a toy!” he said to himself. “That smells like a…”

The fuzzy thing stirred in Lisa’s hand and two small yellow eyes popped opened and a small mouth opened wide in a yawn.

“…cat!” Julius finished his thought.

“Say hello to your new brother, Marcus, Julius!” Lisa said, setting the black kitten down in front of him.

“What?!” thought Julius, staring at the kitten.

Lisa stepped back to watch the two interact, hoping there wouldn’t be any fighting but ready to intervene if needed.

The kitten faced Julius and gave him a stern look. “Look here, dog,” he warned. “I may be new here, but let’s get one thing straight. I’m a cat and you’re just a dog. That means I’m in charge here. Got it?”

Julius crouched down on the floor and stared at the kitten. He could tell that it had tried to tell him something, but he didn’t understand what it’d said. He did pick up that the kitten seemed to have a bossy air about it, though. He decided he’d humor it, for now anyway.

Taking the dog’s silence and peaceful attitude as acceptance, Marcus simply said, “Good”, and wandered off to begin exploring his new domain.

 

From my Pinterest

 

 

This post is part of the Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, “zz”:

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS June 20/2020

Seat of the Pants – Stream of Consciousness Saturday #SoCS

The front door creaked open. The man in black slowly tiptoed inside, carefully peering around this way and that in the almost-pitch blackness, to try to get his bearing and make sure all was quiet. Not seeing anything, he released the breath he was holding and began making his way more boldly down the hall, heading for the bedrooms.

The man in black came upon the master bedroom first. Shining his flashlight around the room, he looked for the dresser so he could search it for jewelry and anything else valuable. As the beam of light shined across the bed, two bright yellow orbs reflected back at the man from a dark mass in the middle of the bed. A low growl and a hint of something white followed in the next instant.

The man let out a startled cry as the dark mass on the bed grew in size and quickly jumped at him. As it landed on the floor in front of him, the growling grew in intensity, and the man hurriedly backed out into the hallway. He ran back down the hallway, but only made it a few feet before the black mass, which had followed after him, jumped at his back. The man in black cried out in pain as something sharp struck him in the buttocks, and he fell heavily to the floor in a veritable faceplant, accompanied by the sound of tearing fabric. Something heavy suddenly sat on top of the man, and he found he couldn’t move.

An unknown number of minutes later, the homeowners arrived back home to find their door standing open. Panicked, they rushed inside and flipped on the light switch, not knowing what they would find. They gasped in shock at the scene that greeted them in the middle of the hallway: a man in black, lying face-down on the floor, with a big hole torn out of the butt of his pants, and their Bullmastiff dog, Trusty, sitting on top of him, holding him down and with a big piece of fabric hanging out of his mouth.

When he saw them, Trusty wagged his tail and panted happily, knowing he did good and that his owners would be pleased with how he’d protected their home.

The homeowners praised Trusty, then quickly called the police on their cell phone.

While they waited for the police, the man in black moaned from beneath Trusty and softly pleaded for help in getting the dog off him.

The homeowners, and Trusty, ignored him.

---

This short story is part of the Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, “pant”:

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Aug. 19/17

Bone – Tuesday Use It In A Sentence #tuesdayuseitinasentence

Edna stomped into the kitchen, livid, and said to Eric, who sat at the table and flinched when he saw his mother’s angry face, “I have a bone to pick with you, boy! How many times have I told you not to give bones to Buster! The dog’s outside digging up the garden again!”

 

This post is part of the Tuesday Use It In A Sentence prompt, “bone”:

https://stephaniecolpron.wordpress.com/2017/08/15/tuesdayuseitinasentence-bone/

 

This Tuesday’s Tale Is Your Story: Cinnamon & Shadow

My sweet angels Cinnamon and Shadow have their story featured today 🙂

Animals Are Feeling Beings Too

The tale of Cinnamon and Shadow told by Jeanne

CINNAMON

Cinnamon was technically my mother’s dog, but I was like the second mother to her. A lady I used to work for had a miniature poodle named Ginger, and when my mother saw her, she wanted one. When Ginger’s breeder had some more puppies, my mother got one. Amazingly, Cinnamon and Ginger had the exact same markings, only Cinnamon was a little bigger. I suppose that’s not all that surprising since their parents were the same, just from different litters (about 2 years apart).

View original post 862 more words

Hearts like dogs – One-liner Wednesday #1linerWeds #NationalPuppyDay

 

 

 

“What a beautiful world it would be if people had hearts like dogs.” – unknown

 

Happy National Puppy Day!

Be sure to give your pups lots of love and attention, and please remember…Adopt, don’t shop!

(quote image found on Pinterest)

 

This post is part of One-liner Wednesday:

One-Liner Wednesday – It’s Al’s Fault

Sanction – Tuesday Use It In A Sentence #tuesdayuseitinasentence

As she continued to see more and more news stories popping up in her newsfeed about animal abuse, Lacey glanced over at her two cats and dog sleeping peacefully together on the couch and wondered what could be done to increase and strengthen sanctions against horrible crimes being committed against such innocent creatures, and how some countries could apparently continue to sanction it with a blind eye.

 

 

This post is part of the Tuesday Use It In A Sentence prompt:

https://awordadventure.wordpress.com/2016/03/08/tuesday-use-it-in-a-sentence-sanction/

Pause for Paws – Stream of Consciousness Saturday #SoCS #JusJoJan

 

 

She knew better than to be out walking alone so late in the evening, especially through the woods. But Jen had lost track of the time and was running late, and cutting through the woods was quicker.

As she hurried along the path, she could hear her mother’s angry voice in her head, berating her for being out so late.

The sound of a twig snapping made Jen pause in her step and catch her breath. She listened carefully and peered into the trees, trying to make out in the growing darkness what had caused the sound. Had it been a small animal? A larger animal? A person?

Jen jumped suddenly at the sound of large paws padding along the path behind her, and she turned around quickly to see what was coming. Was it a wolf? She’d heard there might be some in the area. Or maybe it was a cougar? There were supposed to be some around, too.

She sighed and smiled when she saw it was only a yellow Labrador.”Oh, it’s only you, Cooper,” she said, and the dog wagged its tail and ran up to her. “Mom sent you out to fetch me, did she?” she asked as the dog stood looking up at her with a big, sloppy grin on its face. She gave his head a pat and grabbed his collar. “Good boy, Cooper. Let’s go home.”

She followed the dog along the path and out of the woods.

————————————————————-

This post is part of Stream of Consciousness Saturday:

http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/01/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-jan-216/

and is also part of Just Jot it January

 

 

Hugs – One-liner Wednesday #1linerWeds

 

 

“If all else fails, hug your dog – or kitty.” – anonymous

 

(Or even better, hug both 😀 )

(image found on Pinterest)

This post is part of One-liner Wednesday:

http://lindaghill.com/2015/12/16/one-liner-wednesday-on-taking-a-joke/