Moose

"Daily Flash Fiction Challenge"  winner, 8/27/09

Jimmy, get up off your butt and take Moose for a walk, right now. I’m not going to tell you again.”

“Mom, do I have to? I don’t walk Moose. He walks me.”

Jimmy headed toward the front door with his mom glaring at his back.

Glumly, he called, “Come on, Moose, boy.”

Jimmy grabbed Moose’s leash and just got it hooked onto his collar as Moose, with tail wagging, bounded down the hallway toward the front door. The three-year-old St. Bernard dragged Jimmy across the front porch, where he almost fell on his face when he tripped over the newspaper nobody had bothered to bring in.

Moose, leading the way, steered Jimmy toward the bridge over Otter Creek. The last walk with Moose had ended with skinned-up knees for Jimmy when Moose had tried to drag him through a dry culvert after a squirrel. Luckily, the culvert proved too small, and the squirrel found a tree before this reality found Moose’s brain.

Scampering down an enormous hill beside the bridge, Moose spotted a neighbor’s cat. The leash flew out of Jimmy’s hand, and, in minutes, Moose was howling at the base of a dogwood tree, and the cat was hanging onto a limb, hissing and snarling.

“Are you okay, son?” the big burly policeman gently helped Jimmy to his feet. His forward motion had come to an abrupt end at the release of the leash.

“That dog looks like he’s a little too much for you. Let me get him, and I’ll walk you home.”

With Moose preoccupied with the cat, the cop sneaked up behind him and grabbed the leash. Moose was a very surprised mutt when he turned and saw what Jimmy had changed into. Jimmy smiled as Moose, tail hanging down, quietly walked home.


299 words