Part 2: Visions of Rawhide

Dear Invisible Friends,

I know I beseech you for comments on a daily basis, but I need comments. Let me know what you think! My fragile ego is crumbling in tears at the silence!

Pathetically yours,

The Blonde Duck

Continued from Part 1

Unfortunately, the damage was done. The younger children stared up at their mother and father tearfully.

“You fill the stockings?” on little boy whispered. “Santa doesn’t come after all? So I’ve been good for no reason! This is horrible. This Christmas is the worst Christmas ever! Mom, you ruined Christmas!”

The other children agreed and threw down their stockings, most bursting into tears.

The mother, now even more angry, brandished the bone at her crying children and shouted, “I didn’t ruin Christmas! Rex ruined Christmas! Your father ruined Christmas because he bought this stupid bone because he’s never been totally committed to the vegan lifestyle. Richard, this is all your fault!”

“No it’s not,” the boy argued. “You took Rex’s bone away and caused this trouble. Now Santa will never come back. Oh that’s right, you’re Santa. So Christmas doesn’t mean anything after all!”

“Shut up!” Mrs. Sandson screamed, completely out of control now. “Richard, this is your fault!”

“This isn’t positive energy!” one child shrieked. “Bad Christmas karma!”

Soon, the entire family was screaming, crying and shouting all at once. Rex, utterly distressed his bone was now in the trash, went to retrieve it quietly. Just as he was pulling it out of the trashcan, Mrs. Sandson saw him.

“You!” she shouted. “You ruined everything with your stupid bone! Bad dog!” Taking him by the corner, she dragged him out of the house by the collar and pushed him outside, locking the door behind her. Rex could hear her dropping the bone in the trash can. When he heard the plastic crinkle, his heart sank even further.

Depressed and almost sick over the loss of his bone, Rex sank into the grass and laid his head down on the ground. After a few minutes of feeling sorry for himself, he raised his head and stood up on his feet.

“I’m done with these vegetarians,” Rex said to himself as he shook the grass off his coat. “I’m going to find a newer, nicer family. I’m going to find a family that will feed me steak everynight, brush my coat, and give me bones the size of small dinosaurs!”

“It’s still Christmas after all,” Rex said excitedly to himself, as he trotted down the street. “I’m sure there’s someone who wants a Christmas present of a dog!”

Cheered and drooling over the anticipation of another bone, Rex walked for hours. He stopped to snack on some left over hamburgers in a dumpster, which just made him even hungrier for juicy bone. He walked until after dusk had fallen, and he walked until his paws would walk no more. Exhausted, he dropped down on a long wooden porch. He was in the country now, way outside of town, and this was the first house he had seen in a few hours. Rex planned to sleep for the night, then to keep walking the next morning.

Right as he was about to doze off, a robust older woman banged out the screen door. Rex jumped and flew down the steps, afraid she would yell at him for being on her porch.

All the woman saw was the movement of a shadow. “Who’s there?” she yelled. “I can’t see without my glasses.” She pulled her glasses from her hair and put them on. Once her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she saw Rex hiding behind a truck in her front yard. “Come here, buddy,” she called, slapping her thigh and clicking her tounge. “Come here so I can see you doggy.”

Rex crept forward slowly, and stared suspiciously at the woman in the front yard. This woman looked a little batty to him.

“Well hi there!” the woman called cheerfully. “Aren’t you a beautiful puppy? Merry Christmas to you!”

Rex barked back in reply.

“I bet you’re just starving. Are you lost from your family?”

Rex growled in response.

“No family then? Well, if you’re just passing through, you’re welcome to stay with me for awhile. I just have a small lap dog, and I’d dearly love to have some more company. It’s just the two of us rattling around in this old house.”

Rex took a few steps forward.

“Why don’t I fix you a plate of leftover steak? I had steak for supper tonight, and my family has all come and went already. The next crowd’s coming in the morning. I sure don’t want to throw good steak out.”

Rex had already barreled through the door and was trotting into the kitchen. A small white dog came running up to him.

“HIHHIHIHI! My name is Spaz and I’m a dog that got dumped out here by my owners! They said I was too hyper but Granny says I’m just happy! Are you my new friend? Did you get dumped? Do you want some steak? It’s good! Are you going to be my friend? We can cuddle and snuggle and chew on shoes! The steak is good, have a bite! What’s your name?”

“Rex,” Rex mumbled as he wolfed down a T-bone steak.

“My name is Spaz and I got dumped out here by my owners! They said I was too hyper but Granny says I’m just happy? How long are you staying---oof!” Spaz was scooped up, still chattering wildly by Granny, who sat down a bowl of water next to Rex.

“Now Spaz, let him eat,” Granny chided him gently. “He’s a tired and hungry boy, aren’t you?”

Rex nodded as he chewed happily. After his belly was full of leftover steak and a full T-bone, he laid next to Granny as she brushed his long hair. Spaz jumped from the chair to the couch to the table and back again, chattering the whole time about all the things they were going to do together.

“I think Spaz is glad to have a friend,” Granny said, “And I am too? Think you might want to stay awhile?”

Rex barked in agreement and nuzzled Granny’s arm. “This is almost as good as a big bone,” he thought sleepily as Granny rubbed his protruding belly.

Granny made him a nice bed of soft towels and old pillows and Rex went to sleep for the night next to Spaz. In the early morning, he woke up to a bright light coming through the window. Lazily, he stretched and walked to the window and looked outside.

On the porch was a bone the size of a small door. An artic wolf was standing in the front lawn, his piercing blue eyes meeting Rex’s. Rex bounded out the doggie door and ran out on the porch before the wolf could run away.

“Wait!” Rex yelped, as he danced happily around his big bone. “Who are you? How’d you get this to me?”

The dog simply grinned and winked in reply. Then he ran into the early dawn, the morning mist swirling around him. As Rex gazed up into the dark stars, he heard the faint jingle of bells and a deep belly laugh. “Ho ho ho!” he heard in the distance. “Ho ho ho!”

Rex stared at his large bone in utter delight and joy. He was so happy, he could cry. The door squeaked behind him, and he turned around quickly. Please let me keep my bone, he thought. Please, oh please, let me keep my bone.

Granny stood behind him, peering around Rex. When she saw the enourmous bone on the porch, she started laughing. “Santa bring you a late present?” she asked, laughing. “Well, best get it inside before the coyotes get it.” She laughed as Rex proudly trotted his gigantic bone into the house, laughing even harder as he had to drag it in sideways since it wouldn’t fit through the door.

As Granny’s family came in for New Years, Rex sat contendtly chewing on his bone. He was the luckiest dog in the world. Granny brushed his coat and fed him beef every night, since she owned a cattle ranch and there was a lot of it around. Every night, Rex fell asleep with a full belly, a brushed coat and a hyper little buddy named Spaz, who turned out to be a loyal friend. Now instead of dreaming of visions of rawhide bones, he dreamed of spending evenings on the porch with Granny and Spaz, chewing on his big bone.

Thank you Santa, he thought as he chewed on his bone, thank you so much. In the distance, he heard a wolf howl in reply.

“Merry Christmas!”