This is my entry for the contest promoted by @fireguardian here
Brownie was the definition of a couch dog. If you look couch dog on Wikipedia, you'll probably find a photo of Brownie on it. He was the most lazy dog in the world, and would only get out of the couch for two reasons: Food and his yellow ball. Of course he would go outside when nature called, but besides that, only food and yellow ball. His owners would hide the yellow ball from him, because we was really addicted to it, but from time to time they would toss it around and make him run a little bit.
One day, while he was playing with the ball, his owner went outside to get the mail. On his frenzy for the ball, it slipped from his mouth and went right through the door. Brownie didn't think twice and went after it, running like a mad dog to catch his precious ball. Unfortunately, the ball went to the street, got hit by a car and was sent flying away to the end of the street, where another car hit it and sent it even further. Brownie was not going to give up and ran as fast as he could to catch it, but the sweet moment he bit the ball, the sour reality hit him: He was now lost, away from home and his couch! So the first thing he did was…
It was put the ball on the floor where he could be sure it would not run away again. The second was: Speak!!
Okay, not speaking, at least not in English, Portuguese, or other human languages, but in Barkin, no, not Barkin, Barkinish! he was also fluent in Gruntinese, but it was not the best language to use at the moment, so he used Barkinish!
“AUAUBAUABAAUAUAUA”, which translated into a human language would be something like: “Help, I'm lost, help”, I don't know, I'm not really a specialist in Barkinish.
The people who were on the street where he was speaking didn't even pay attention, after all, how would they know what he was talking about?
Humans have this tendency to not learn other languages, especially something like Barkinish.
He went on for a while, but nothing.
“And now?”, Brownie thought, what if I were to translate it into Barkinish, (something I won't always be doing because I don't want to rub my knowledge of Barkinish in people's faces, modesty is everything!) Would sound kind of like: “ AUBAUFhg? ”.
Brownie looked this way, looked the other way, tried to smell the air, but aside from the smells he usually feel from the city, he couldn't distinguish the smell of its guardians, the couch where he always slept, or any other smell that could help him come back home.
Brownie was a lazy dog, but reasonably intelligent and thought:
“Well, let me remember where I came from”, he look’s if the ball was still in place, closed his eyes and tried to remember.
"Well, I came down this street, so I'm going to have to go up, but I don't remember the rest, I think I'll go to the corner, maybe I remember when I get there.", Brownie decided what he was going to do, took the ball, which was very quiet in the place where he had left it and started walk up the street.
"Arf, arf, arf, but what a difficult climb, I knew I should have followed the advice of my vet and done some exercises from time to time, oh my San Francisco.", thought Brownie tiredly, but happy that this day is a breezy day with little sun and the ground is cold.
When Brownie arrived at the corner, he looked this way, looked the other way, sniffed, closed his eyes and nothing!! No smell, no memory of where he had come from! If he were a cat, maybe with all the Omega3 of the meals it would be different, but he didn't even like fish.
“Should I bark again? Should I try to go somewhere? What do I do?”, Brownie thought, looking around the corner without knowing where he had come from.
"Hello, young one, what are you doing here?", Brownie heard, in human language. Humans might not know how to speak Barkinish properly, but Brownie could understand them, after all, years of listening to his guardians talking to him, watching series, movies, newspapers, how could he not learn?
Brownie turned and saw a slightly old human calmly coming towards him. And he thought:
“What does this human want with me? What do I do now? I've always heard my humans telling their offspring that they shouldn't be talking to strangers. I don't know this human, he is a stranger!! I'm not going to talk to him!!”, Brownie turned and prepared to cross the street.
“But where are you going in such a hurry? Don't you respect the elderly, young man? I'm talking to you, hahahahaha”, the human said and laughed while getting closer.
Brownie was waiting for the traffic light, after all when he wasn’t in a hurry chasing a runaway ball he knew that he have to be careful, and he started to worry about the human’s approach.
“He wants to steal my ball, that's it!! I don't know him, he's getting closer, that's what he wants. Or is he one of the famous agents of that terrible organization, the Dog catchers? I'm going to cross anyway!”Thought Brownie, hurrying across the street.
But today was not even Brownie's day! Without looking both ways, he heard a loud noise out of nowhere followed by the sound of something cute being hit.
CRRRRURRRCCHIINNN PUFF!!
Brownie fell to the floor, and everything went out. He didn't understand what was going on, who turned off the lights?
And what was that strange light in the distance? So far, he was too lazy to go there!! Wait, the light is approaching, stranger, what will it be?
Out of nowhere, as Brownie looked at the light, he started to feel himself being lifted, then put down again, and something started poking him.
Wasn't Brownie enjoying this, first the darkness, then the light coming on, and now something lifted him up and was poking him? And where was the ball? It was gone! But what a terrible day !!
“Young one, young one! Wake up, the car just touched you! Did you get scared to death?”, Brownie heard a voice in the distance that he knew he had heard somewhere.
The approaching light flickered as Brownie tried to remember, but the nudges were not helping!
"Here, sir, use my bottle of water ", Brownie heard another voice, unknown.
"Thank you girl, let's see if it works", Brownie heard again that voice he knew he knew.
“What works? For what water? What are these voices... ”,Brownie was thinking when…
SPLASSH
“AUBAAUUBAUUCAINBRURUNFFBLERERLELELEGHUFFAUBABUABAUAU!!”, the light in the darkness went out and Brownie was pulled out of that darkness, waking up all wet surrounded by several people and complaining in Barkinish, Gruntnese and Cryngnese, which in English would be something like: “Nobody respects anyone any more, how they dare do it to me! This world is really lost, I am too old for these things!!”
"Ah, I knew he was alive, the car barely touched him", said the voice he had heard before, it was the voice of the human who wanted to catch his yellow ball!
“I'm glad I checked the car these days, well, the dog is alive, less badly, I like animals very much, I would be very sad if something had happened. Anyway, I think it's good to take him to a vet, do you live here? Do you know any place nearby?”, asked another voice, a woman's voice.
"Yes, yes, I can show you the way," said the man looking at Brownie as he removed his jacket.
“But what is this man doing? But what a nasty man taking is cloths off in public!! No, wait, get out, get out!!! Don't come close!”, said Brownie in Barkinish (obviously translated).
The man approached carefully, tossed his jacket on Brownie and lifted him up, being careful not to be bitten, but he didn't have to, Brownie just stood there.
“AAHHH, what is this? Wait, it's all dark again, look at the light over there”, Brownie said and thought.
"I think the dog passed out again", he heard the man's voice. "Is there more water in there?"
"Water? Again? No, wait, I have to wake up”, Brownie thought, opening his eyes and stepping out of the darkness again and away from the light, seeing himself inside a car, being held by the man he had seen before. “Ok, ok, I'm awake, forget about the water talk! Where are you taking me? And why are you running your hand over my head? It's very good, but it better to… No, okay, go on, this is nice!”, said Brownie(in Barkinish people, this is a real story, dogs don’t talk like humans, okay? right).
“Look who woke up. Hahahahahaha. You must have heard about the water. Well, you can turn around here, girl, it's up front. Yes, calm down, good boy”, said the man, laughing.
The car stopped in front of a petshop, the man got out carrying Brownie, the woman too.
"You can go girl, I know the vet, you can be calm". said the man.
"He is right? Are you sure?”. said the woman and the man nodded. "Okay, I have an appointment and I need to go, anything call me!", she said handing over a card. The woman got in the car and drove away.
The man entered the petshop with Brownie.
"What did you bring here, Roberto?". said a woman in a white coat coming near they.
"I brought a lazzy young one, Dr. Maria", said the man, placing Brownie on a counter. "He ran over a car."
“Lazzy? Come on old man, you are kidding me!”, Brownie muttered in Gruntnese.
“Let's see, um! Okay, okay! ”, dr. Maria started to touch Brownie, and saw that apparently everything was ok. “He's fine, but I'm going to do some tests. Are you going to wait?”
"Yes, I will wait, first let me take a picture of him and put in the FindDogs, the app of lost dogs, ready, okay!", Said Roberto as he took out a cell phone, took a photo and started making a notice of lost dog in the app.
After Roberto took the photo, dr. Maria took Brownie and took him to a room full of equipment, where she took an x-ray, checked again if he had any broken bones and had other tests done. When she returned with Brownie, Roberto was excited:
"Doctor, I received a message here from a person on the app FindDogs saying that they are the guardians of that puppy, his name is Brownie!", Said Roberto with a smile on his face.
Dr. Maria also smiled when she heard the message and said to Brownie:
“Brownie huh? Nice name, did you hear? We found you responsible!”, she said, stroking Brownie's head.
“Did they find me? Good, now, where's my ball?”,Said Brownie in Barkinish looking everywhere.
“Why are you barking, what do you want, Brownie? Is something wrong?”, said Dr. Maria worriedly.
“I think I know what he wants. You want it, right, young one?”, said Roberto, taking the yellow ball from his pocket. "Here, here it is, I got it when you passed out", said Roberto, handing the ball to Brownie.
"Oh, I knew you wanted to get my ball!", said Brownie with a suspicious face. "Hey, why you are giving it back? nhuminhumi," muttered Brownie in Gruntnese biting the ball with a confused face.
“Are you surprised? I didn't want your ball, young one, I was just worried about you”, said Roberto, looking at Brownie gently, and then looking out into the street. “Look, it looks like they’ve arrived,” said Roberto, seeing a car stopping in front of the petshop.
The car door opened and the guardian of Brownie got out.
"Brownie, you're here", said an woman, running towards Brownie.
Dr. Maria put Brownie on the floor, and watched him run unsteadily towards his owner, thrilled with that reunion provided by dedicated people and technology.
"Thank you for finding Brownie, my name is Flavia, I'm going to deposit the reward, Mr. Roberto, right?", said the person responsible for Brownie.
"Ah, it’s okay girl, you need not, just seeing this reunion is enough reward," said Roberto, also moved.
Brownie looked around, released the ball and started to bark, because he realized that more important than the ball, it was moments like this.
The humans kept talking, exchanging contacts, and Brownie gained two more friends, whom he saw whenever his guardians had time and went to that part of the city.
And so, thanks to technology, the FindDogs app and good people, everything turned out well !!
Note: This post was sponsored by FindDogs, the application for you to find dogs that are lost or that need to be adopted. The application does not yet exist, as far as I know, but when it does I will charge the sponsorship payment, you can be sure!!
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