Puppy

A Puppy's Wish.

Once upon a time, there was a stray puppy named Buster. Buster was a lonely puppy for he had no memory of his parents and none of the other stray dogs he met would ever spend time with him. All Buster ever wanted was someone to run around with him and be his best friend. Buster dreamed of having someone to talk to and roam the alley he lived in. 

One day when Buster was making his usual rounds through the trash cans in the alley, he came across something he had never seen before. He found a stuffed dog with a dog collar that read “Penny.” Buster thought that Penny was a beautiful name. He also thought she was absolutely breath-taking because she was in perfect condition. He made this new find the best friend that he always dreamed about.

He would snuggle up with Penny at night to sleep. 

He would run around with Penny pretending to play a game of “chase.”

He would offer some of the food he took from the trash to Penny. 

He would talk to Penny about everything and anything. 

He would even give Penny baths by licking her clean.

After a few weeks of spending all his time with his best friend he had dreamed about, he realized he had fallen head over paws for Penny. 

One day Buster found a fortune cookie in the exact same trash can that he found Penny in. He ripped the package of the fortune cookie open immediately with his two paws. Buster was so eager that he didn’t even care about the cookie but instead he cared about the fortune message inside the cookie. 

Buster crushed the cookie into a million pieces to read the note inside. 

The fortune read: “Make a wish, reader, but beware!” 

Buster without even hesitating barked, “I wish my best friend was alive!” 

Immediately he ran over to his best friend as if he hadn’t seen her in months to check and see if she had come to life. She wasn’t alive yet, so he gave her a lick on her head as gentle as could be.

Penny began to come to life before his eyes.

She began to have real fur.

She began to move her eyes. 

She began to breathe.

Finally, Buster’s best friend was alive and he barked with all of his puppy heart, “You’re alive! Penny, we can spend all our days going through the trash and loving each other.” 

With a sad look in her eyes she exclaimed, “Buster, I’m extremely thankful for everything you have done for me but I must confess I am not in love with you.” 

He sat there with a blank face about to cry as if the world was ending.

“I’m sorry but I must find my true owner for she lost me and that is who I love,” she said to Buster. 

Penny then took off running away from the puppy and they never saw each other again. 

Buster, as sad and shocked as he was, realized that that things can leave your life just as quickly as they can come in. He learned from that day on how important details can be especially when it comes to love. 

Sad Puppy from Maxpixel 

Author’s Note: 

This story is based upon Ovid’s Metamorphoses in which the character Pygmalion falls in love with a statue of a woman made of ivory. Pygamalion normally despised the women he encountered due to what he had seen from the daughters of Propoetus, but for him this statue was different. One day at Venus’ festival he was making an offering where he then carefully made the wish of having a bride like his ivory statue. Venus appreciated Pygmalion and decided to grant his wish. The statue whom Pygmalion loved then becomes his wife where they love each other and even have a son. This recreated version of the story uses a dog named Buster to symbolize Pygmalion and a stuffed female dog named Penny to represent the statue. However, the story ends differently than Ovid’s because sometimes love doesn’t always work out no matter how hard one tries. The story was intended to be more innocent and directed towards a younger audience. Despite being such an innocent story, however, the ending is abrupt to demonstrate the harshness in details. The puppy should have realized from the fortune cookie’s note to be specific in what he was to wish for. If the puppy hadn’t have been so eager, he could have carefully worded his wish just as Pygmalion did for his statue and then things might have turned out the way Buster wanted.

Bibliography: Pygmalion from Ovid's Metamorphoses, translated by Tony Kline (2000)