It's another day. These are the dog days. No pun intended, since I'm clearly a dog. Sure, everyone regards me as stupid, but it takes a bright dog to play a stupid façade, right? Right. Anyway, I've always wondered where my master goes every day, along with his human companion. So, today, I'm gonna find out.
"Ok Kiwi! Be a good boy and lay low!" my master advises, closing the door. My first obstacle. I quickly wedge myself between the door and its clicking device. Aha. I'd survived the door! Now for trailing my master. Nose to ground, I tell myself, nose to ground.
I, Kiwi Della Robbia, was to trail Odd Della Robbia throughout the school day, no matter what! Even if he figured it out, surely he'd be pleased! After all, he thinks I'm smart. He just doesn't KNOW.
Ok. I begin to take in Odd's scent, my master's scent. It was potent, strong, hard to miss. In fact, I had fallen into step with him. But a shadow looms over me. I look up with a whine to see that fat man I so longingly hated.
"Aha! You mutt, you're not escaping me this time!" "Yikes!" I yelp, and dash away, leading this man on a wild chase through inside and outside. Finally I run into a classroom as a bell rings.
I lumber over to a familiar pair of shoes and lie down near their feet, waiting for the feet to start moving. I wait for a very, very long time, occasionally yawning. Suddenly this tinny noise, a beep of sorts, wakes me up. The feet start moving. "Excuse me ma'am, but can I go to the infirmary?" asks a voice. "Me too!" calls out two more, one of them my beloved master's voice.
"Ok, but hurry and get well." I dash off after the moving feet, panting, tongue hanging out of mouth. "Huh? Is that Kiwi?" asks one of the boys my master was with. I dart behind a pillar and pant, my heart fluttering, sides heaving in and out. "Nah, must've been your imagination." "I don't imagine things for my own amusement!" yells the voice.
Aha. I remembered who they were now. 'Jerimie,' and 'Ulrik.' At least, that's what I thought. Jerimie turns my way. "I could've sworn..." With a whine, I sit on my haunches and wait for them to be off.
Nose to ground, ok? Nose to ground. I take in Odd's scent. He went this way, and that way. Left to right. I nearly hit a tree and look up.
A gigantic woods surrounds me. I shiver, remembering that wolves could live here. But I brush that thought aside and lower my nose to the ground. Geez, I was getting too distracted these days. But what's a dog to do when he's bored? He gets distracted, that's what.
As I think about these thoughts, I nearly stumble into an open manhole. There's my next challenge: getting down that hellhole where Odd's stench wafted freely from. "If this kills me, at least I'll die trying to find my master," I tell myself.
My paws scrabble to the edge of the manhole as I look down. The blackness encompasses my field of vision. Not that dogs were ever good at seeing, but I can see pretty good-for a dog, that is.
Aha. Saying a silent prayer that I wouldn't die, I, Kiwi, get a running start and jump into the hole. Water is suddenly playing up my sensitive nose, stinging me and revolting me and my poor nose and tongue. My four paws kicking madly, I struggle to the side of the makeshift river and heave myself out, dog-tired. Again, no pun intended.
Nose to ground. It was hard to smell anything with all this stench of sewage on me, but I press on. Another challenge, this one I couldn't possibly hope to conquer:
A ladder.