Kiwi rolled around in the shredded newspaper. It was his favorite activity. He loved to play with his best friends also, but ever since they left- it had been the newspaper that helped him pass the time.
Kiwi was waiting for the day when he, too would leave. He often wondered what his friends were doing. He remembered “Sasha”, who was two weeks older than him- but a lot smaller. She would jump up and down, and wag her fluffy tail whenever THE GIANTS would come. She knew the right way to bat her eyes and move her head so THE GIANTS would fall in love with her. She left a long, long time ago.
Then, there was “Bingo”. He was big and strong. THE GIANTS would always say:
“He’s going to be a great protector,” as they looked at his paws and his big teeth. When they heard him bark, they were convinced.
“We want this one,” THE GIANTS said as they took Bingo away.
One by one, all of Kiwi’s friends left. In fact, every time Kiwi got new friends, they’d leave too. But not Kiwi. He’d stay there from the time the first GIANT came to turn the lights on all the way until it was time to go to bed.
At night, Kiwi would dream of what Sasha and Bingo could be doing. THE GIANTS who took them away seemed so nice. He wondered if Sasha and Bingo had soft beds and squeaky toys. Kiwi dreamed of going to a place where there were miles and miles of shredded newspaper to roll around in. His tail wagged a bit while he was sleeping, as he couldn’t wait for the day THE GIANTS picked him.
One morning, Kiwi woke up and ate his breakfast- as he would do on any other morning. For some reason, he felt like this would be the day.
“I’m going with THE GIANTS today,” Kiwi thought- as he licked his paws anxiously. He paid special attention to cleaning his ears, because he needed to look as clean as possible on his big day!
Then it happened.
“Mommy, look at this one,” he heard.
When Kiwi looked up, he saw two hands coming toward him. His tail wagged excitedly. His tongue darted out of his mouth. His ears perked up a bit. Kiwi was so happy, that he even pee-pee’d a little bit on his favorite spot in the newspaper pit! He couldn’t help it! He was finally going with THE GIANTS.
The two hands grabbed him under his front legs. He was quickly lifted into the air- and was now face to face with a young GIANT! She said something that he’d never heard before:
“Awwww, he’s so cute,” the young GIANT was just as excited as he was.
Kiwi had no idea what it meant, but the GIANT’S smile let him know that it was a good thing. He licked her face, with all the slobber he could muster.
“Mommy, Daddy- how about him?” the young GIANT held Kiwi tight.
“Awww, he is cute,” the GIANT with hair on his chin said. “Sir, tell me about this one.”
Another GIANT walked over to them. Kiwi recognized him as the GIANT WHO TURNS THE LIGHTS ON in the morning.
“Well, this is Kiwi,” he said. Kiwi batted his eyes.
“He’s four months old,” THE GIANT WHO TURNED THE LIGHTS ON continued. Kiwi wagged his little tail.
“What breed is he?” asked the young GIANT’s father.
The GIANT WHO TURNED THE LIGHTS ON paused for a second. It seemed like he had some bad news to tell.
Kiwi looked a bit worried. “What’s wrong?” he thought. “What does breed mean?”
“Kiwi is a mutt. His mother was a shepherd… but his father… well, his father was a hound.”
The family of GIANTS looked shocked. The young GIANT quickly put Kiwi back into the newspaper pit, and ran over to the wall to put some of that “rubby” stuff on her hands.
“Do you have any pure bred dogs?” the mother GIANT asked.
“Why, yes we do, come over here and let me introduce you to Rocko.”
Kiwi was sad. He went to lie down in the corner of the newspaper pit. He cried quietly. THE GIANTS took Rocko, even though Rocko was the meanest, nastiest, most rude dog in the universe. As Kiwi cried, he heard a voice:
“They only took Rocko because he’s a pure breed,” the voice said.
It was Charlie, the oldest dog in the newspaper pit. Charlie was wise. He’d been in the pit for a long time. He knew EVERYTHING!
“What does pure breed mean?” Kiwi asked, sniffling from tears.
“His mother and father were both Great Dane’s. Sasha’s mother and father were Yorkshire Terriers. Bingo comes from a long line of Rottweillers.
“My mother was a shepherd..” Kiwi responded.
“Yes, but your father was a hound.”
Kiwi was a bit confused.
“Word is, Hounds aren’t very smart. And a lot of people think they are pretty ugly. They are short, and they have long noses and floppy ears. Hounds have been known to get into A LOT of trouble, too” Charlie said in a deep, scratchy voice.
Kiwi was still a bit confused.
“Let me show you something. Come with me,” Charlie began to walk toward the wall.
Kiwi was nervous as he followed Charlie through the newspaper pit- past the water bowls, under the play structure, finally stopping at the wall that separated the bin.
Charlie turned to Kiwi and said: “Okay, reach your paws up and look over the wall.”
In the whole time Kiwi had been in the newspaper bin, he had NEVER EVER looked over the wall. He knew that he was supposed to stay on THIS side of the bin. He was afraid to look over the wall.
“Won’t I get in trouble?” Kiwi asked.
“Ol’ Charlie will help you out,” Charlie answered.
Kiwi didn’t know what Charlie meant, until Charlie began barking really loud and running around in circles- creating quite a ruckus. THE GIANT WHO TURNED THE LIGHTS ON- quickly ran over and started yelling at Charlie.
“Now’s your chance,” Charlie whispered to Kiwi- as THE GIANTS focused all their attention on Charlie- who was behaving like a crazy dog!
Kiwi quickly leapt up, onto the wall- while none of THE GIANTS were looking.
What he saw amazed him.
There was no newspaper anywhere in sight. Instead, there were soft pillows everywhere. The water bowls were clean- and twice as big! The dogs seemed so happy! All of them had clean hair, and long legs. Their ears were standing straight up, as they pranced around their area. The most amazing thing of all was that there were GIANT hands reaching down at EVERY single dog! Just then, he heard a GIANT say:
“Kiwi, get away from the SHEPHERD area, and go back to the newspaper pit!”
Kiwi darted back under the play structure, past the water bowls and back to his corner. Breathing heavily, he couldn’t believe what he’d just seen. Even more than that, he couldn’t believe what he had just heard.
“Shepherds!” that word kept repeating in his brain, as he remembered that his mother was a shepherd, too.
Kiwi couldn’t wait to tell Charlie all about it- but Charlie was nowhere to be found.
“Where’s Charlie?” Kiwi excitedly asked “Pumpkin” who was busy chasing her tail.
“THE GIANT took him to the cage because he was being bad. He’s going to be in there for a while,” Pumpkin replied in a high- pitched voice.
Kiwi felt bad that Charlie was gone, but he knew exactly why Charlie took him to the wall. Kiwi knew what he had do..
Kiwi began to lick his fur, trying to get it to be straight and clean like the shepherds he had seen. He tried to walk like they were walking. That night, he quietly practiced his shepherd bark- which was very different from a hound bark. Hounds’ barks sound more like a howl. Shepherds let out strong, short barks- showing their bravery.
“I’m a shepherd. I’m a shepherd,” he kept repeating to himself.
By the next morning, Kiwi had his Shepherd act perfected. His ears stood straight up. His tail was waving confidently as he moved all of the newspaper shreds away from his area.
“Shepherds don’t play in newspaper,” he thought.
“Hey Kiwi, you want to go tip over the water bowls and roll around in the water?” Pumpkin asked excitedly.
“No,” he answered.
“But we tip over the water bowls EVERY morning,” Pumpkin said. She was very disappointed.
“Shepherds don’t behave in such a manner. And in case you didn’t know, I’m a Shepherd!” Kiwi responded in a deep voice.
Pumpkin walked away. She was almost in tears. Kiwi continued to make his area more “Shepherd-like”.
“Wow. Look who’s all cleaned up!” a voice stated from behind Kiwi. Kiwi recognized the voice. It was Charlie.
“Charlie!!” Kiwi yelled, as he ran over and gave him a big “I’m happy to see you” sniff. “I’m sorry you had to go to the cage, Charlie.”
“It’s fine, Kiwi. I just hope you learned a lot from our trip.”
“I did,” Kiwi said.
“Tell me. What did you learn?” Charlie asked.
“I learned that I’m a Shepherd. Shepherds are beautiful, smart, strong dogs. I don’t belong in the newspaper pit. The GIANTS will never pick me if I’m in there.”
“Is that what you learned? Did you forget that you are also a hound?” Charlie asked, as he chewed on a shred of newspaper.
What Kiwi said next shocked Charlie.
“Yeah, I remember. But who cares? GIANTS don’t ever pick Hounds. Hounds are ugly, and they’re not smart. I DON’T WANT TO BE A HOUND!!”
Charlie got angry: “Kiwi, don’t ever say that!”
“It’s true,” Kiwi replied. “I hate being a Hound, and you’re trying to force me to be a Hound. You just don’t want the GIANTS to pick me. You’re mad because they never pick you!”
“Kiwi, that’s not..” Charlie tried to talk, but Kiwi yelled:
“No, Charlie. I don’t think we should be friends anymore. And besides, Shepherds shouldn’t hang around mutts like you.”
With that, Kiwi pranced away- as Charlie sat and watched.
As he was prancing- in the most Shepherd-like way that he could, he was thinking: “I’ll show him. I’m not a Hound. If I were a Hound, would my nose be short and wide like this..?”
Kiwi sucked his nose in- making it look very “Shepherd-like”.
“If I were a Hound, would my legs be this long?”
He stood very tall, making his stance very “Shepherd-like”.
“If I were a Hound, would I walk like this..?”
He began to use long strides, just as the Shepherds he had seen. As he walked, he noticed his feet waving in the air. The newspaper pit started moving further and further away. He realized that two GIANT hands were lifting him in the air.
“How about this Shepherd, honey?” he heard a GIANT voice say.
“Wow. He’s just what I wanted, a Shepherd puppy,” another voice replied.
They put Kiwi on the floor. Kiwi had always dreamed of being on the floor. The floor was the last step before the GIANTS took you home. Everyone knew that. The most important thing was to do something cool when the GIANTS put you on the floor- then they’d DEFINITELY take you with them.
Kiwi had seen Sasha do a ‘roll over’ trick on the floor. Bingo fetched a ball for the GIANTS when he was on the floor. Kiwi knew exactly what he was going to do.
“I don’t even need to do a trick, once they hear my Shepherd bark- ‘bye-bye’ newspaper pit,” Kiwi thought- as he gathered up all his strength to let out the best Shepherd bark EVER. He took a deep breath, and…
“Hooooooooooooow. Hoooooooow. Hooowl,” he let out the most Hound-ish bark anyone had ever heard before.
The GIANTS found out Kiwi was not a pure bred Shepherd, but THAT wasn’t the bad part. The bad part was that they did not want a Shepherd with a Hound bark.
“This dog is all confused,” the GIANTS joked. “
Kiwi was put back into the newspaper pit. Once again, he was sad. As he was walking over to his corner, Pumpkin came over to him.
“Cheer up, buddy,” she said. “We love you just the way you are.” She gave Kiwi a nudge, right on his Hound-like nose. Kiwi smiled. He had forgotten how much he loved the newspaper pit- and all of his friends. This whole time, he was trying to be something that he wasn’t.. they loved him for what he was.
“You still want to go tip over the water bowls?” Kiwi asked.
“I’d love to,’ Pumpkin happily replied.
“Me too,” a voice said- from behind Kiwi. It was good ol’ Charlie.
“Charlie, I’m sorry,” Kiwi’s eyes were filling up with doggy tears. “I got a bit confused, and…”
“Say no more, Kiwi. I understand. Just promise me you’ll never forget who you are,” Charlie was glad to have Kiwi back as a friend.
The three of them darted off, toward the water bowls. As they ran, Kiwi thought about what he’d learned. He realized that being a Shepherd/Hound mix was a whole lot better than acting like a Shepherd and pretending NOT to be a Hound. He was so happy, he let out a loud, Hound-like bark.
“Hooooooow. Hoooooow. Hoooooowl”
“That’s it,” he heard a GIANT voice say. “Which dog let out that bark?”
Kiwi felt GIANT hands grab him again.
“I need a HOUND to help me hunt!” a “brown” GIANT who wore glasses said.
“And he’s so cute,” the smaller, “beige” GIANT replied. “Can we get him? Please, please, please?”
“Sir, I must warn you- he is not a pure breed.” the GIANT WHO TURNED THE LIGHTS ON- said.
“Who cares!” the “pink” GIANT with the dress replied. Then Kiwi heard two words that he’d never heard before…
“He’s perfect!”
THE END
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