Inspired by Jake

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Shasta saw the open door. It was too much of a temptation. He bolted out into the sunshine, jumping, running, twirling in circles, and looking over his shoulder to see if anyone knew he was outside. It wasn’t the fist time he had breeched his confines, and most likely it wouldn’t be the last time. Princess, his friend who lived next door, was worth the scolding he would be facing.

“Hi,” he said through the gap in the wooden fence.

“Hi yourself,” Princess said with a sultry voice.

Shasta had heard that tone before. His mother used it occasionally. Strange, he thought remembering those times, when she sounded like that she was usually confined in an area away from the others.

“Princess!”

He knew that tone as well.

“Get in here, now!”

Yep. She too, was in for a good scolding. Like him, any scolding she received was unpersuasive. The person scolding her might just as well have been using a foreign language. The shouting was loud, and Shasta began to worry about the punishment threatened by the deafening voice. Then the voice stopped and he heard the clap followed by a screaming yelp.

Princess raced past him. went to the corner of the yard, and stood looking toward the house with head lowered and legs shaking.

“Come on, let’s get out of here," Shasta said as he approached the end of the fence.

“Where to?” She continued to shake as she spoke.

“Come through here,” he said while frantically scooping dirt from under the fence.

Princess squirmed through the passage, and joined Shasta running across the yard. The side gate was closed so they pressed against the chainlink as far from the wooden fence as they could get.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let anyone hurt you,” Shasta assured a quaking Princess.

“But you’re so small.” she said to the brave Yorkie.

“For your information, ‘It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog,’ my friend,” he said with puffed out chest.

Princess snuggled as close to Shasta as the fence would permit.

By Robert L. Scarry

From: United States

Twitter: usnavy1990bob

Facebook URL: https://www.facebook.com/Robert.Scarry.3