{"id":8382,"date":"2018-07-04T17:27:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-04T17:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/?p=8382"},"modified":"2018-07-05T23:42:27","modified_gmt":"2018-07-05T23:42:27","slug":"oliver-the-miracle-dog-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/?p=8382","title":{"rendered":"Oliver the Miracle Dog Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story is based on what happened to our daughter’s dog, Oliver.\u00a0 I have taken literary license with some of it, but a lot of it really happened.\u00a0 This is illustrated by my grandson, Tristan, who is an aspiring artist.\u00a0 He is also one of the “little buddies” mentioned in the story.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Oliver, a beautiful Golden Retriever, lived at the top of a tall hill\u00a0with his buddies, the Larsons, his goofy son, Farley and Lily, the mother of Farley.\u00a0 They were a wonderful Golden Retriever family.<\/p>\n

It was a wonder life.\u00a0 Eating, sleeping, running after thrown balls, exploring the forest all around.\u00a0 There were head rubs and playing with his little buddies as they rode their bicycles in the driveway or played in their hideout in the woods.<\/p>\n

One cold Winter’s day Oliver awoke and went to the door to be let outside.\u00a0 Now Oliver was a roaming dog.\u00a0 At one time he disappeared on one of the coldest nights of the year and didn’t return home until the following morning, no worse for wear.\u00a0 It had worried his buddies greatly.\u00a0 Big buddy had called for him for a long time. He heard him, but the smells of the forest were too enticing.<\/p>\n

This particular day he lifted his nose into the air and grew giddy with the wonderful odors that wafted on the breezes.\u00a0 “I must see where all these smells are coming from,”\u00a0 he thought to himself.\u00a0\u00a0 So off he bounded.<\/p>\n

Oliver ran quickly on his four sturdy legs, his tail like a plume, stuck in the air.\u00a0 There was a squirrel smell.\u00a0\u00a0 The squirrel had not been there for a long while.\u00a0 Move on.\u00a0 There a possum smell.\u00a0 Not much to Oliver’s taste, but playing\u00a0with a\u00a0possum as it played dead was great fun.<\/p>\n

Then Oliver smelled coyote.\u00a0 These were ones with whom he did not want to cross paths.<\/p>\n

Deeper into the forest Oliver ran, nose to the ground.\u00a0 Suddenly, he saw movement.\u00a0\u00a0 A rabbit!\u00a0\u00a0 Off Oliver went chasing the rabbit among the trees until the rabbit reached his home in the ground and popped inside.\u00a0 Oliver sniffed around the hole and would have dug around it if the ground had not been frozen solid.\u00a0\u00a0 “Hmm,”\u00a0 Oliver thought to himself.\u00a0 “I’m hungry, must go home.”\u00a0 But which way was home?<\/p>\n

The day was coming to an end.\u00a0 Oliver had been in the forest all day. His\u00a0buddies would be home fixing supper and doing homework around the kitchen table while the dogs would be eating their final meal of the day and settling down for the night.\u00a0 The sun was lowering in the sky\u00a0 Oliver ran and ran, so full of life and happiness just being alive when suddenly, SNAP!\u00a0 He felt a great pain in his back leg as a coyote trap snapped its ugly jaws around it.\u00a0 He yipped in pain, trying to jerk away from the trap.\u00a0 But the trap was attached to a chain that was wound around a tree.\u00a0 Whoever had set this trap meant to keep his prey right there.<\/p>\n

Again and again Oliver pulled and could not get free.\u00a0 Blood gushed from the gruesome wound.\u00a0 The sun went down.\u00a0 It was cold.\u00a0 Oliver was all alone.\u00a0 He whined and moaned.\u00a0 The pain was great, but nobody could hear him or knew where he was.\u00a0 The pain was almost too much to bear.<\/p>\n

Day 2<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 Oliver had\u00a0managed to sleep a bit through the night, but the pain and his hunger would not let him sleep very long.\u00a0 He also was beginning to feel a terrible thirst.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 All that day he pulled and pulled to try to get away from the trap, but it just held on tighter.\u00a0 The pain was so great.\u00a0 Where were his buddies?\u00a0\u00a0 All that long day Oliver felt sad and lonely and scared.\u00a0 it was cold and night came again and the forest was quiet all around except for the rustling of the night creatures and the birds who were settling in for the night.<\/p>\n

\"DSCN7597\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0 Day 3<\/p>\n

\u00a0 Another long night for Oliver.\u00a0 He had heard an owl hooting in the tree above him.\u00a0 A sad, lonely sound to Oliver.\u00a0 He missed his buddies. He missed his soft bed and the warm house.\u00a0 Most of all he missed his food and a cold drink of water.\u00a0 He spent part of the day trying to pull free, to no avail.\u00a0 He lay panting and feeling very sad.<\/p>\n

Day 4<\/p>\n

\u00a0 Snow fell gently on Oliver as he lay with his nose on his forelegs.\u00a0 A tear fell from the corner of his eye.\u00a0 He had been forgotten.\u00a0\u00a0 He didn’t realize his buddies were looking for him and calling his name into the forest, but Oliver had traveled so far from his home, he could not hear them.\u00a0 He only felt the pain of the trap on his leg. He pulled and pulled on it.\u00a0 His beautiful golden coat had become dirty and stuck through with dead leaves and twigs.\u00a0 Night came.\u00a0\u00a0 Nobody came to save him.<\/p>\n

Day 5<\/p>\n

\u00a0 Oliver felt dizzy and sick.\u00a0 Where was he?\u00a0 Why wasn’t he in his nice, warm bed?\u00a0 Where were his two little buddies who lay on top of him and scratched his ears?\u00a0\u00a0 He slept and dreamed of playing with Lily and Farley in the yard with his buddies all around.\u00a0\u00a0 Would he never see them again?\u00a0 Pull on the trap chain again and again, but it remained securely wrapped around the tree.\u00a0 Night time and danger was lurking.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 That Night Oliver heard strange noises in the forest.\u00a0 He smelled smells that worried him.\u00a0 He must get free.\u00a0 Pull harder.\u00a0 Lunging and jumping with every bit of strength he had.\u00a0 The chain moved a bit, but still was attached to the tree.\u00a0 He did not want to give up.\u00a0 His buddies were waiting<\/p>\n

Day 6<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 Oliver was so tired from the last night’s exertions.\u00a0 He felt so helpless.\u00a0 Suddenly a squirrel came close to him and sniffed Oliver.\u00a0 Seeming to know it had nothing to fear from the sad looking dog, the squirrel proceeded to gnaw on a nut it had just dug up from a hole where it had hidden it in the Autumn.\u00a0 Oliver just lay there and watched it listlessly.\u00a0 “I’d bite you in two if I could get to you,” he thought about the cheeky squirrel.\u00a0 It made him angry.\u00a0 “If only,”\u00a0 he thought.\u00a0\u00a0 Oliver was in that poor, thin, starving dog somewhere.\u00a0 He was so cold, hungry and thirsty.\u00a0 Why was he here?\u00a0 Did no one love him anymore?<\/p>\n

Day 7<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A day of rest from pulling on the chain.\u00a0 By this time Oliver had grown use to the pain.\u00a0 His leg was growing numb. If\u00a0it \u00a0wasn’t attended to soon, gangrene would set in. Luckily, Oliver knew nothing about gangrene.\u00a0 All he knew was that he wanted the trap off his leg. He wanted out of the forest and into the arms of his buddies.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What was that?\u00a0\u00a0 He heard rustling in the brush. He smelled what he didn’t want to smell.\u00a0 Coyotes were close.\u00a0 But the worst had not yet happened.<\/p>\n

To be continued…\u2026…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This story is based on what happened to our daughter’s dog, Oliver.\u00a0 I have taken literary license with some of it, but a lot of it really happened.\u00a0 This is illustrated by my grandson, Tristan, who is an aspiring artist.\u00a0 He is also one of the “little buddies” mentioned in the story.   Oliver, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-original-stories-by-kate","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8382"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8387,"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8382\/revisions\/8387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}