Rudy

Let me introduce myself to you.  My name is Donnie and I am 10 years old.  I live with my mom and dad in the Napa Valley.  Rudy is my dog.  He was born on a cold December day, two days before Christmas.  He was so small; he looked just like a little mouse.  I always thought of Rudy as my best Christmas present ever.

His mother, Sadie, left Rudy under the deck.  He was so cold, alone, and crying when I found him.  I put on some rain gear and started to crawl under the deck to bring him out but he wasn't there any longer.  His mother had come back for him and had taken him to the flowerbed in the front yard where my mom grew her orchids.

I thought everything was all right now, so I went back into the house to warm myself up and to have some breakfast.  I didn't have to get ready for school because it was Christmas vacation.  I hadn't even finished my breakfast when I heard this awful crying like one of the puppies was in big trouble.  I ran to the front room window to see what was going on. There I saw Rudy, all tangle dup in the little white fence my mom kept around the flowerbed where Rudy and his family were. I grabbed my jacket from the coat rack and went out to untangle him.  I gave him a kiss on his head and put him back under his mother.

Later that evening when my dad came home from work, we talked about the cold weather and the puppies being out in it.  My dad decided we could use the old pony-watering trough.  We could stand it on its side in the garage and put newspaper and old clothes in it to make a nice warm bed for Sadie and her puppies.  There were 6 puppies counting Rudy, who had been the first to arrive. Rudy had 4 brothers and one sister.

Next morning, my dad and I carried the pony watering trough into the garage and filled it with the newspapers and old cloths that my mom had given us for the puppies new bed.  My dad and I got a basket and very gently, one by one; we put the puppies into the basket to carry them to their new bed. By now, Sadie was very upset.  She didn't understand what was going on and she kept jumping up to look in the basket to see if her puppies were all right.  When we got to the garage, we carefully placed each puppy in the bed.  Sadie kept running back to the flowerbed to make sure we had all of her puppies.  She finally settled down in her new bed with her puppies, happy at last, warm and dry.  It was time to leave them alone so they could rest. It had been a long day.

"Good Night, Sadie!"  "Good Night, Puppies!"