Adventures of 4 Legged friends P1

a Sunny Day

It was bright and sunny and the blue sapphire sky was cloudless. It was mid September, so nearing the end of a hot summer. Four friends were playing together on the lush green fields. They had balls, bones, rings and an assortment of other toys. Their owners were standing around watching them. Ooops, silly me, I forgot to mention they were all dogs. Four different, beautiful in their own way, happy, dogs. There was callie, Amber, diesel and Beth. Amber was the youngest, then Callie, Beth then Diesel.

“Hey!” Diesel was play fighting with Callie. “That’s my ear!”
“you shouldn’t grab my tail!” This was a great time for Callie. All week she was a working guide dog for her owner Liz, the weekends were the only time she could run free and do what dogs are supposed to do.

“Come on Beth!” Callie yelled. Beth shied timidly away and sniffed at a tree stump on the edge of the field. The shade was lovely. Beth lay down with a ball and laid her head on it. She saw her owner Mildred smile and she wagged her tail. Beth’s timidness had been caused by her two previous owners. A man who almost killed her when she was only a year old. He’d hurt her very badly and if a child playing nearby hadn’t seen him doing it, she would surely have been killed. Her next owner was as nice as anything until he got her home. He was a farmer and Beth thought she’d have the best life ever with him, that was until they got home. The first day, he took her in the fields and faced her with about a hundred sheep. Beth had no idea what to do. She was a German Shepherd but no one had ever trained her to do the job of herding. She just stood there, wagging her tail, because she thought her master was playing a game. When he took out the whip and lifted it in the air, she jumped after it. It had taken a lot out of her to trust again, but she thought she could depend on this nice farmer.  How wrong could she have been? But now, in the sunny field, she felt good again. She wasn’t the outgoing pup she had once been but she still played with the other  dogs and she adored Mildred. Mildred had two grandchildren that visited and Beth loved them. Children had always been a friend to her.

“look at her!”  Diesel growled! He was staring at Amber who was playing with a huge football that was very expensive.
“O Diesel!” Callie giggled. “She’s only a baby!”
“Yeah but she’s so spoilt! I mean, we were never spoilt and we can have fun still. We have fun in lots of ways. It doesn’t matter how much the ball cost or how many toys you have. How many toys do you have Callie?”
“I have a squeaky, a ball, and a teddy at home!”
“exactly! Do you enjoy working Callie?”
“Yeah!” Callie leapt in the air. “I feel so good when I get something right and when Liz hugs me and treats me. Sound weird?”
“Not at all! That’s exactly how it was for me.”
“Do you miss it Diesel?” Callie asked the old black Alsatian. “Do you miss the work?”
“Yeah!” he sighed. He’d only been retired for six months and diesel hated it. Sure he loved being able to lay in his bed until he felt like getting up, eat special treats and go on long walks or sitting in the office with the lovely smelling secretary. He used to be on some very dangerous jobs with Steve. It gave him a rush not to mention the special patting and treat he’d get!

Amber came bouncing over at that moment.
“Callie, Callie, come and play with my new squeaky, its lots of fun!” she was a pretty little lab with such a sweet face. Callie didn’t dislike Amber but sort of disliked her spoiltness.
“in a minute,” Callie said gently.
“Go away Amber, we’re talking,” Diesel growled as she tugged on his ear. “Go and play with Beth”.
“She’s sulking over something, come on!” So the two friends were ambushed into playing with the young black Labrador. Callie knew how it felt to have no worries in the world but despite her work load, she loved being a working dog. The only downfall was no sniffing, no playing with other dogs when she was working and no junk food for her. It was great having diesel to talk to about it. Even now his handler wouldn’t feed him junk, he didn’t approve of it. Said Diesel should remain healthy. Steve, his owner was a good man, Diesel loved him a lot. They’d been together since Diesel had been 18 months old. His training was different to Callie’s, where she had to be gentle and non aggressive, Diesel would sometimes have to be fierce and Callie thought that was why if Amber was bothering him, he would get grumpy. Callie stole Amber’s toy and Amber barked objectively as Callie dashed around in circles. She wore a silver bell on her collar so Liz knew where she was. She could see Liz laughing and she wagged her tail and ran to her.
“Callie, you silly girl, you having fun with your friends?” Callie ran a circle around Liz and ran off again. It was  a beautiful day and Callie was loving it!

“What’s wrong Beth?” she asked her friend who looked contemplative laying on the ground. She lay beside her.
“Nothing, Diesel doesn’t look too happy, does he?” Beth was 8 now and she liked to sit and watch sometimes more than play.
“Why are you so quiet Beth?” Beth sighed and Callie knew she wouldn’t get the story today.
“Callie!” Liz called. “We have to go, come on!” a shrill whistle rang and Callie bade goodbye and sprinted back to Liz. “Steady Callie!” Liz patted her warmly and made Callie sit, gave her a treat and harnessed her back up. Callie wagged her tail, off to do some more work again.
Diesel and Beth met as Amber bounded back to her owner for a dog biscuit.
“I’ll see you next week,” Diesel smiled in his doggy way and sprinted to his owner. Beth toddled back to Mildred.
“Ready to go bethy?” Mildred smiled and Beth wagged her tail and let Mildred put her leash back  on.
“You going?” amber bounced.
“Bye!” Beth called and the sun shone on all of Amber’s shiny toys. The humans said goodbye and all the dogs went in their various directions, home!