Story Draft 1

When I was around ten, I had a wonderful yellow Labrador puppy named Angel. Whenever she was around, she always brought such joy and innocence into the atmosphere. In fact, my best memories of her are when I would crawl inside her snug wooden dog house on our porch and cuddle with her in the dark. She would lie on the pillow while I laid my torso and head on her chest. She smelled of the woods and drying mud. It was calming for me to hear her relaxed heartbeat. In fact, sometimes I would be very close to falling asleep until mom called for me. If I didn’t hear mom at first, she would nudge me with her paw or remove her head from mine and lightly lick my forehead. Her heat even comforted me, even though it was during a blazing summer. She never excluded me from joining her by leaving the dog house. Sometimes, I would even swear that she motioned with her head for me to join her. She was always aware of how gently she would place her head upon mine, almost as if I were her puppy and not the other way around. To keep myself entertained, I would pretend that we were hiding in a cave and that our breathing could be heard throughout the cave walls. I knew that we had to be quiet to avoid the people that were chasing us from discovering us. I talked in a faint whisper and told her that someone was chasing us and that they wanted to try and trick her with a treat. She would become instantly energized and her tail would thrash around, wacking me against my neck and back. There was the rare occasion that her enthusiasm could no longer be contained within the dog house and we both tried to escape through the hole, out of the cave, at the same time and we would get stuck. It usually involved me recoiling into the dog house while pushing her out from behind. Her angelic face always read of laughter when this would happen. It was almost as if she was saying “Ha ha! Sorry mom. I just get so excited when you mention treats! Can we play with my tennis balls now? Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!!”