Never Again-That Night puppies cry

There was a puppy who liked to go out and play. On this particular day the air was cool and full of new scents. The puppy, we'll call her Ellie, found a railroad tie in her yard, old and damp from the rain. It looked like nothing fun, but Ellie knew it was in her yard and being hers it was her job to inspect it thoroughly. It had holes all over it where the wood had fallen away.

She stared at a leaf lodged in one of the holes wondering how this particular leaf had fallen so as to fold up and lodge itself there. It wasn't long before Ellie had her question answered. Out of the hole popped a tiny mouse. It grabbed the leaf and started pulling it into the hole bit by bit. Ellie thought this was so fun and quickly ran to get her blanket of stars to cover the hole and give the mouse something pretty to look at. The mouse the next day however, had chewed holes in the blanket to make pictures with the stars. Tiny little spots of light shone into the hole making the prettiest swirl of dots on the floor of the hole.

Ellie thought this was so fun so she quickly ran to get her least favourite toy, an apple core. Day after day this was what Ellie did when she went outside to play. Apple cores and other bits of scrap and she watched the mouse build a secret world there in the hole. The whole time wondering if the mouse would ever come out to say hello and thank you. But the mouse was always so busy, she never seemed to have the time to talk.

When the flowers grew and the wood was dry, the mouse came out with baby mice ready, thought Ellie, to show them the friend she had made who had given them so much food and such pretty stars to look at. But Ellie was dissappointed when she herd the mouse say: "This is our wood, we live in it. These are our stars, I put them the way they are. And this is our apple core, it shows up here every day just for us." Ellie tried to corect the mouse but when she put her paw out to shake hands and introduce herself the mouse bit her and ran back into the hole.

Ellie, realizing she just must have been startled and tried the next day to catch the mouse and set her straight. But no matter what she said to the mice, they always ran away and never once said thank you. At this Ellie got so mad that she decided to take away the stars. She covered them up as best she could because by now the blanket had so many holes and was so weather worn that she couldn't rightly bring it into the house.

And then Ellie dicided not to give the mice anything else. And day after day the mice showed up looking for the stars. But there were no stars to be seen, Ellie was covering them so it was just always dark in their hole. Thet got thinner and thinner looking for apple cores that would not show up. Too scared of Ellie to go outside and look for other food. But Ellie wanted them to say hello and thank her for all she had done for them, otherwise she wasn't moving from that spot. After all, this yard was her world and she was nice enough to let them live there.

But when one day the mice she had spent so much time watching and caring for no longer showed up looking for the apple core Ellie got sad. She started looking everywhere for the mice but never saw them again. To this day she lays down licking her wound, covering the stars and crying into the dark hole, hoping the mice return to say hello and thank her. To this day you can hear her whimper in the wind of a rainy night.

"What's wrong with that dog?" It was the man from the agency pointing to the old bitch we had found on Easter.
"Lady Easter?" Came the woman's voice from the kitchen window, her eyes following his gaze.
"Hasn't moved from that spot all morning. Some guard dog huh?"
"Don't really know," she said "s'been like that since round the time she came in with a thorn in her paw. S'been lickin' it open and laying there since. Won't let the damn thing heal. S'like she just don't want to leave that damn wood alone. We were going to have it removed when we figured out there were mice in it, but since she's so attached to it we haven't the heart. 'Sides, I think she scared 'em all away. So no harm in lettin her have it now."

He was in the bedroom, avoiding the man from the agency. Listening to her talk to some other guy made him a little crazy anyway. He usually dissappeared to make some "business call" when there were people around anyway. Don't know who he called, but I could guess. I knew that sound well. I heard him crying over the phone, he was whimpering like some wounded puppy.