Stories for the Grands

“CHARLEY, THE DOG.” This begins a set of very short stories about our dog, Charley, I’m writing for our grandkids. The first will be just CHARLEY, THE DOG. The next will be, CHARLEY, THE DOG, TAKES A WALK. Then CHARLEY, THE DOG, GETS A BATH.  You can see the pattern. And here’s the reason for these stories.

The other day, we picked up Nelson & Lilly for a couple of hours while their mother was showing houses. The kids had to climb over a bag of my books to get to their car seats. Thus ensued a conversation about my writing and that my books were just for adults. I told them, “When you’re grown up you can read them.”

Nelson, the kindergartener said, “Why don’t you write a story we can read now.” Well, I actually did write him a story several years ago before I was published and before his sister and cousin were born. Initially, I didn’t have pictures. I’ve added those for this post. Here’s that story.

                             Penguin and His Friend Nelson

                 By Gram (Prior to being known as “Mimi”)

                               AKA Marsha R. West

     One day Penguin wanted to eat some oatmeal. It had been snowing all day, and it was a very cold. He could see his breath when he breathed out.

     But Penguin could not find his spoon, and he didn’t know what to do.

     He cried because he really loved oatmeal.

     His good friend Nelson came along. “What’s the matter, Penguin?”

    “I can’t find my spoon, and I’m hungry and cold. I want to eat my oatmeal, but I can’t without my spoon.” Tears slid down Penguins chin and froze in little icicles. It was very cold.

    “Don’t cry. We can go search. I’ll help you.” Nelson

patted Penguin on the back.

    “Thanks, Nelson. You’re a good friend.”

     So the two friends set out to look for Penguin’s spoon. They looked in the car. It wasn’t there. They looked behind the toy box. It wasn’t there. They looked under the bed. They couldn’t find the spoon anywhere.  

     “What will I do if we never find my spoon?  I’ll never get to eat oatmeal again.” At that more tears filled Penguin’s eyes, and Nelson’s heart hurt for his friend. But Nelson was an optimistic boy, and he always believed things would be okay if you worked hard enough.

    “We’ll find it, Penguin. Don’t give up. Let’s look in the dishwasher. We’ve looked everywhere else, but there.”

    “That’s a good idea.” Penguin nodded and wiped his eyes.

    Nelson pulled open the door and there in the basket was Penguin’s spoon.

    “Mom must have washed it.” Penguin said. “Oh, I’m so glad to find it. Thanks for helping me look, Nelson.”

   “You’re welcome, Penguin.”

    “Oh, look, Nelson, there’s a second spoon. Would you like to eat some oatmeal with me, since you helped me find the spoon?”

    “Yumm. I’d love to, Penguin. Oatmeal’s my favorite, too.”

    And that’s what the two friends did. They ate two bowls of oatmeal using the two spoons they’d found.                      

                                   The End.

Charley is off duty.

So my intent Wednesday morning was to write the first CHARLEY, THE DOG story for this post. Here’s my problem. I can’t figure out what point of view to use. The obvious POV is Charley’s, but remember Charley doesn’t hear, which means no writing about the rustling sounds the leaves make or the birds chirping. That decision limits the visceral impact of the writing. So I’m leaning toward omnipotent or author POV as the story above is written, which actually has little visceral writing because I didn’t know about that then.  What do you think? Charley’s POV or author POV? Charley & Grandad walking in the snow.

Charley goes to his last class tonight to see if he can graduate. I’m a bit stressed by it all. I just assumed if you attended class you’d pass. No such thing. at PetSmart they have standards. There are certain proficiencies Charley has to demonstrate. The behaviors are:

Look at me

Sit

Stay

Shake

Down

Greeting another dog 

Leave it.

He’s got all of them but Leave it. I’m so proud of him. He’s really made progress. Of course, just like with kids’ behavior, so much of it hinges on what the parent does. At first, Charley’s parent didn’t spend enough time on homework between classes!  As soon as I realized he really had to show the behaviors, we got crackin’! I’m a competitive person. I don’t have to be first, but I don’t want him to fail either!

Have you taken a pet to training class before? How did it work out for you and your pet? I’ll keep you posted on how Charley does. If he does fail, we can take the class again for free, but I’d sure like not to have to do that.  Love to hear from you.

Weight Update:  An up and down week, hitting 25 lb loss twice and bouncing back up. Now I’m at 25.5 loss. Very exciting!Nutrisystem works!