A Fluffy With One Head

A Fluffy With One Head



         I wake up, tangled in a mess of white, warm sheets. I look to my left and Paul’s gone. Where did he go? Oh that’s right, he got a phone call in the middle of the night and was called away. With a scratch behind the ears he said ‘good-bye’ and told me to go back to sleep. I still don’t understand what he does; he doesn’t talk much about it.

I tear the sheets off of me and Frank Sinatra is looking at me again; he’s an older guy wearing a dark suit and hat. I don’t know what his problem is, he just stands there on the wall, doesn’t talk, doesn’t move, just plays starring games with me.

I curl up on top of the sheets and look over at the other dog on the wall. She keeps mimicking me. I guess she’s in her own world behind the cool surface of the wall. Paul kept yelling at me when I barked at her and told me “It’s a mirror. That’s you.” Whatever that means and who names their dog “you” that’s weird. I got tired of him telling me the same thing over and over again, so I grew accustomed to the brown medium sized dog staring back at me. The only difference between us is that she has a scar over her left eye and I over my right.

I get bored with her easily. She doesn’t do much. I turn my attention to Frank. I stare at him, all the while hoping that Paul comes home soon. I have to go outside. I blink. Darn it all! Frank wins again!

         I hear a sound from downstairs and slowly, I get off the bed and stretch out my back and front paws. I make my way to the hallway and look between the banister rails. My brown, wet nose smells the air, making sure it isn’t anything evil.

         “Raven!”  a sing-song voice calls out to me.

         Someone’s calling my name! And it’s not just any someone; it’s Jenn! Running down the stairs I slip, my soft paws against the hardwood floors make me ram into the wall. Getting my bearings, I scramble towards her.

         “Where’s my Sweets?”

         I’m coming as fast as I can. I’m not as young as I once was; five is a very crucial age. As I reach her, I notice that she already has my red leash in her hands.

         “Good morning, Raven,” she says as she pets my head.

         I give her hand a lick as she hooks my leash onto my pink rhinestone collar. That’s my way of saying good morning. I take a closer look at her and realize that her gray sweatshirt is littered with little dark spots. Oh no, it’s raining outside. I am not going out there, not in this rain.

         “Come on Raven,” she says to me, holding the door open so I can get out.

         I let out a small whine. Jenn lets out a little laugh and then stepping outside she opens the big, black umbrella that Paul uses. Oh thank goodness!

         We walk outside and it’s pouring rain. Jenn holds the umbrella over me so I don’t get wet. I don’t think she minds the rain. If she did Jenn would have another over her head, wouldn’t she? The sidewalks are littered with little puddles. I keep my head down to watch where I step. I only look up once when I smell a squirrel running around ahead of us.

         Squirrel! My head is up, my pointy little ears are at attention, and I growl.

         “Leave the poor squirrel alone,” Jenn says. The squirrel runs up a tree and I let it be.

         What is that? I look ahead of me and it’s the biggest puddle I have ever seen. It looks like a river of water on the sidewalk. I’m not moving!

         “Come on Raven,” Jenn says to me as she moves to the grass. She gives the leash a soft tug when I don’t move. If Jenn thinks she’s walking on the grass and making me walk through the water, she has another thing coming! I walk on the opposite side of the sidewalk, and tug hard.

         “Raven!” Jenn screams as I pull her through the puddle, keeping my feet dry as I walk on the grass. She’s not mad, she’s laughing, “You silly dog,” and shakes the excess water off of her shoes.

         “Jennifer,” I hear someone calling out her name from one of the houses. I look up at the little yellow house with a small old lady standing in front of her screen door. She has a funny looking flowery dress on, and round things all in her hair. If she had a tail I’d swear she was a squirrel.

         “Good morning, Mrs. Douglas,” Jenn says.

         “Jennifer,” Mrs. Douglas gives Jenn a huge smile, “how come I never see Paul and you walking together.”

         “Mrs. Douglas, I’m just the dog walker.”

         Yeah, didn’t we just tell you that last week? I know we did.

         “Oh my,” Mrs. Douglas lets out a little giggle. “I thought—”

         “I’m not. I’m just the dog walker when Paul gets called away.”

         Just because Jenn comes and goes at all hours of the day does not mean that there’s something going on! Let’s go Jenn. I start to walk away and Jenn knows I want to finish my walk.

         “Well good-bye Mrs. Douglas,” Jenn says and the little old lady shuts her door.

         “Let’s cross the street,” Jenn says to me. We stop and then she asks, “Do you see any cars?” If cars are those odd shaped things rolling around in the streets, then no. 



         As we make our way home the rain stops and Jenn takes down the umbrella. No! I better not get wet.

         “Oh, it’s the girl and her dog.”

         Jenn stops and says ‘hello’ to the little old guy who stands outside his house and always has this stick in his mouth that smoke comes out of. I like this guy, considering he can’t remember our names. I’d like to say to him “It’s Jenn and Raven. How would you like it if I called you old guy with stick in his mouth?” Well, technically I do, neither Jenn nor I know who this guy is.

         “It finally stopped raining,” Jenn says.

         I know. You took my umbrella away!

         “I hope the golf course is okay, tomorrow I’m going golfing with Billy Blake.”

         Another person I don’t know and this guy can golf? Too bad I don’t know what that is either, but it doesn’t look like he’s capable of doing that. Jenn and old guy are chatting it up, but I want to go! Sniff Sniff what is that smell? Something smells good. It’s coming from the old guy. I walk slowly up to him and sniff at his fingers. He laughs and pats my head.

         “I think she likes you.”

         “She’s a good dog,” the old guy remarks.

         “Well, it’s time we go home.” Jenn says ‘good bye’ and we start off across the street to go home.

         Suddenly there’s a lot of deep dark barking occurring… Mick. He’s a big black dog, never on a leash and for some reason always has a bone to pick with me. He already took a chunk out of me.

         He’s off his porch and in the street in the blink of an eye. I can smell fear radiating from Jenn. I take my stance, bare my teeth, and start up my own barking; nobody scares my friend!

         “Raven, no!” Jenn screams and pulls hard on my leash, trying to head in the direction of home. Mick advances on us, standing in the middle of the road. “Mick, go home!” Jenn screams even louder. For a minute I think he’s going to do it, but then the minute we make a move he’s running after us again. Where’s a car when you need one? I run towards him, but I don’t get far. My leash stops me. Jenn holds her ground and the leash doesn’t give way. Why do I have to be on a leash if Mick doesn’t? She’s still yelling at me to stop it, but if he’s going to attack us, I’m going to protect.

         Then a guy comes running out of the house and yelling at his dog, “Mick, get over here now!” Mick starts to back away, but still glaring at us. “I said now!” that guy doesn’t sound too happy. “Sorry about that!” he says to us when he gets a hold of his dog’s collar.

         Jenn doesn’t say anything, but she gives the two an evil glare. “Come on Raven, let’s go home.” I follow, but not before Mick and I lock eyes. I growl at him; I will get you, cat-breath boy!



         Jenn and I walk through the door, and she’s shaken up, I can tell. She’s breathing hard, I can still smell a hint of fear, and she’s mumbling something about “stupid dog,” and something about a leash law. She lets me inside, removes my leash and then checks my neck beneath my collar. “Are you okay?” she’s checking to make sure I didn’t rub my skin raw. I lick her face, letting her know that it’s all right. She laughs and pets my head. Jenn gives me my breakfast and then a treat after she makes me sit and shake her hand.

         “I don’t have a book today.”

         Oh no, she’s not going to leave me already, is she? I sit and give her my puppy dog eyes. It doesn’t always work, but maybe this time it will.

         She laughs again and says, “I’m not leaving. I have a movie for us to watch.”

         Ooo, a movie! I have no idea what that is. Jenn holds something up to me and I can’t read it, but run into the living room anyways.  Frank is all over the place in here too. On one wall he’s young and on the next one he’s old.  I wonder how he does it! Hey Frank, we’re going to watch a movie.

         I jump onto the white fluffy couch, as Jenn calls it at times, and sit there waiting. Where is she? I bark for her and she comes into the room.

         “I was on the phone! Stop being impatient!” She does something to the big, black box that stands against the wall. Paul puts it on sometimes too, and sometimes Frank is on the box. Sometimes he sings and talks, but he never recognizes me. Frank never says ‘Hi Raven.’

         A picture comes on the big box and Jenn sits next to me. She puts her feet up on the glass table, like usual. I try to tell her, Paul won’t like that. He lets me sit on the couch, but he doesn’t like anyone to put their feet up onto the table.  She never listens, but I guess what Paul doesn’t know, won’t hurt him!

         I lay down, facing the box, snuggling up against Jenn’s leg. She strokes my back; this is my favorite part of the day.

         “Now, I just finished reading Harry Potter to you, and now I’m going to show you the movie.”

         Ah, yes, that Potter kid. I have no idea what that book is about. I fall asleep most of the time. Jenn thinks she has to read to me so I get used to her voice. Growing up in a family of only men she’s afraid I won’t listen to her. I do listen, and always will. She doesn’t have to read to me, but I won’t tell her that.

         The movie starts up and I watch a little bit of it, but soon fall asleep.



         I am woken up by a dog barking. What is that? It’s on the box. It’s a big dog! I jump off the couch and start barking at it! Yeah, you may have three heads, but I can still take you. Would you look at that? That’s me with three heads. What am I doing on the box and with three heads, no less.

         Jenn is laughing this time. “Raven, get on the couch!” She pats the spot next to her and with a final look at this dog I go back. “It’s just on the T.V.”

         What is a T.V.?

         “That’s Fluffy, he’s guarding the Sorcerer’s Stone.”

         I have no idea what half of those words mean.

         “I think that’s a Pit-Bull. You know Raven,” she’s back to stroking my back again. “you look just like Fluffy, but with one head.”

         I look up at Jenn; I am a Fluffy with just one head. Maybe I should tell Jenn… nah, I’ll let her figure it out for herself.





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Hello all I am Jenn, I am new to this group and finally starting to get serious about my writing. I started with just taking something real, my dog, Raven, and just added a little something different to it.



If you could, please leave feedback. I’d like to know, what could be different, or how I can make it better. My copy-editing skills are better than what they were before, but if you notice anything big, please let me know. I can take criticism as long as it is constructive.



Thanks so much!