When Opportunity Knocks - 22. Chapter 22 Bonus Snippet and Author's Note

Bruce, Rosie and Tater had spent the evening running around the backyard while their humans ate the yummy smelling food. Now the three dogs were sitting in front of Kim. Bruce’s one ear twitched when he heard his human’s voice. “Down.” Bruce lay down and Rosie and Tater followed suit.

Kim laughed as she opened a book and set it on her lap, “Good dogs," she said, getting three tail wags in return. Then she started to read:

Lucy Meets the Monsters

Lucy was bored.

Her boys were gone. So were Mom and Dad.

It felt like they had been gone furever!

She had already sniffed all the floors. No crumbs.

She sniffed the couch cushions. Hmmmm, what’s that?

A treat! It was one she had hidden there. Should she hide it in a better place?

No. Mom didn’t like it when Lucy hid treats in her shoes.

She better eat it.

Cronch! Cronch!

Now what?

Lucy jumped on the chair and looked out the window.

No squirrels. No cats.

Her tail swished back and forth each time a car passed by.

Wait!

Is it? Yes!!! It’s Mom’s minivan! Her people were home!

Where are the boys?

There! There they are!

She jumped down off the couch and ran for the front door.

Her nails clickety-clacked on the floor.

Bark! Bark!

Hurry up!

The door opened and her two most favorite people rushed in.

Scott dropped down to his knees and hugged Lucy. She wiggled with happiness.

“Look Lucy, I got my gold belt!”

Lucy had no idea what that was, but if her boy was happy, so was she.

Adam tugged at Mom’s arm. “Mommy, can I haves my Monsters please?”

Lucy tilted her head and watched as Mom reached into her big bag and took something out and gave it to Adam.

“Lucy, I found baby Monsters,” he whispered.

Lucy sniffed at Adam’s fingers. He opened his hand and she skittered back when three little heads looked up at her. The creatures smelled funny. Like grass and lemon and something peppery. Lucy sneezed.

“Don’t scare them Lucy!” Adam closed his fingers, hiding the Monsters from sight.

Adam took an empty box out of the recycle bin and put the baby Monsters inside. The box went on the coffee table. Adam went to play with Scott.

Lucy put her nose up to the box and sniffed again. Two more sneezes.

Lucy trotted off to play with her boys.

The next morning Lucy did her happy dance when it was time to walk the boys to school. She loved her walk. There was so much to sniff. Grass, flowers, fences, fire hydrants and all sorts of stuff. So many smells!

Lucy barked as the boys scampered off to the playground. She was really happy when Mom took her to the dog park on their way home. Yay! Her friends were there. Lucy ran around and chased her friends. She chased the stick that Mom threw. She chased her friends some more until she got tired.

Lucy and Mom walked home. Lucy jumped up onto her chair and spun around three times before lying down. Her tail wagged when Mom came over to give her a pat before going out the door. Lucy closed her eyes for a nap.

Thump!

Lucy opened one eye.

Thump!

Lucy opened the other eye.

Thump! Thump!

Now both of Lucy’s ears twitched.

Thunk!

The lid on the box holding the Monsters fell on the floor. Lucy heard giggling as the baby Monsters climbed out of their box.

She woofed. They needed to go back in the box.

They didn’t listen. Instead, they scampered over to the shelf with books that the boys liked to have Mom read. They pulled one out and all three of those monsters started to chew on it.

Oh no!

Lucy barked loud this time. The monsters kept chewing. And chewing. And chewing.

WOOF!! GRRRRR!!

When Lucy growled, the monsters stopped, but the damage was done.

Lucy was mad. Her boys liked their story books. They would not like this. Not one bit.

Lucy chased the baby Monsters all around the house until they got tired. The smallest one yawned. Then the other two yawned. Lucy yawned.

Lucy made sure the baby Monsters went back in their box before laying down again on her chair.

Lucy woke up when Mom came home with the boys.

Mom saw the book first. “Oh Lucy, what have you done?” she said.

Lucy looked at the box. The Monsters were quiet. She lowered her head to show Mom she was sorry that she couldn’t stop the Monsters before they chewed up the book.

“It’s okay Lucy, the book can still be read,” Scott said.

Both boys scratched her behind the ears. She was forgiven.

Later that night, when the house was quiet, all three baby Monsters climbed out of their box and climbed on Lucy’s chair. They hugged her paws and snuggled up to her. She nudged them with her nose and made sure they were all tucked in.

Taking care of baby Monsters was hard.

Bruce lowered his muzzle and rested it on his paws. His eyes drooped shut. His last thought as he drifted off was that taking care of baby Monsters might be hard, but so was taking care of humans.

The End.

I hope you enjoyed Lucy’s first little adventure with her monsters. Lucy was inspired by our first dog Lucky. We had Lucky when our kids were little. My own ‘Adam’ did find baby monsters at his brother’s karate school. I had to carry those little buggers around everywhere we went for at least two years before the baby monsters faded away. The A/C fan in my car knocks for about twenty seconds when it’s first turned on. I tell everyone that it’s the monsters.

I used to make up bedtime stories about Lucky and the monsters. Looking back, I wish I had written them down. So this was my chance to get at least one done, in Lucky’s memory. She was such a good girl and I still miss her.

Well, that’s all for this tale. Maybe Jett and Kyle will show up again. Who knows? A writer never knows where and when characters will start chattering away in their heads. At least I don’t.

Kudos need to be given out, the first to @Mrsgnomie for putting up with my woeful lack of commas in appropriate places. She helped to make the story flow a little smoother when my grammar decided to take a backseat to whatever other crap was rattling around my brain. Secondly, more kudos to @Danilo Syrtis for being my beta reader again. His comments and feedback kept me laughing and yes, I did have to throw in more references to ER names because of him. It was a fun little running joke. I lost track of how many characters ended up with names connected to the show. If anyone finds them all, let me know!

Thank you as well, all of my readers. Thanks for following along, clicking an emoji, commenting and recommending. My writing journey is far from over. I have a shifter story that I promised would get finished. It’s a little further along than it was. There’s another story I started, but it stalled out and I may need to revisit one of these days. Plus, I never know what’s going to pop into my head when I’m walking my dogs at night. Ideas are always ricocheting against my brain cells, you never know what’s going to stick.

So, keep reading, keep commenting, let your favorite authors know that they’re doing a good job (or not). GA is a great site for not only readers and authors, but there’s a great sense of community among its members.

Thanks again and until next time, stay safe and be happy.

kbois