LASSIE
"Woof Morning, class. It is day two of our lessons on dog urban
legends. The
first story was about Beethoven and the sacrifice he made in order to
save his owner's life. Let's read story two and see what lesson or
lessons we learn from it."
In the small town of Midwest City, Oklahoma there lived a beautiful
collie named Lassie. Lassie was a very loyal dog who was loved by
everyone who had the chance to meet her. Today, however, was the
day that would change Lassie's life forever.
It was a fair day outside but the winds were high and strong. Lassie's
owner Doug had gone out to Oklahoma City to run a few errands as he
usually does on Thursdays. Lassie was home as usual when she noticed
smoke coming from the neighbors' backyard. She immediately ran to the
kitchen and went out the doggie door to investigate. When she got to
there, the entire back of the house was in flames. She ran around
to the front door, barking so that hopefully someone would hear her.
She
jumped and pushed on the door to try and open it. No luck! She had to
do something because winds were picking up and the fire could spread
fast if it was not put out quickly. She made the decision to jump
through the front window to save the Jones family. The house was filled
with smoke and Lassie could barely see. She finally spotted Mrs. Jones
lying on the floor, coughing and covering up her nose with the neck
crew
of
her t-shirt. They crawled to the front door, unlocked it, and went
outside.
"Boy, was I ever so glad to see you," said Mrs.Jones. Lassie let out a
howl and barked as if she was telling Mrs. Jones, "No problem!" As they
both
waited for the fire department to arrive, Mrs. Jones noticed that not
only was her house on fire but the house next to hers was too and the
one next to that one too. The fire was spreading and the high winds
were not helping the situation at all. By this time, the fire
department
arrived and began attempting to put out the fires and rescue people who
were trapped.
Meanwhile, Doug was at the entrance of the neighborhood worried to
death
about Lassie. He was not sure if his house was on fire and, if so,
whether Lassie
was still inside. He tried telling the officer his concerns. However,
the officer told Doug that the fire department and other officers were
putting out
the fires and rescuing trapped people and their pets and he could not
go past the entrance of the neighborhood.
Lassie, of course, was safe but she knew that others probably were
not. She started off by running to the very last house at the end
of the street. She went in and got the three people out and brought
them
the safety. Lassie did this for at least over fifty homes. When she
finally got to the last home, it was completely in flames but Lassie
still went in to save the family. She felt obligated to do so since she
had saved so many others. As soon as she went into the house, the right
side of it blew up. Everyone screamed and was sad because they thought
that Lassie had been
killed while trying to save the family's lives.
To everyone's surprise, Lassie came out, limping, covered in ashes, and
black from the smoke. When she came closer to where everyone could see
her, they noticed she
had a small object on her back. It was a child she had saved from the
house. Following behind them were the child's mother, father and older
sister. Yells and screams came from the crowd in excitement. Although
she suffered from mild injuries, Lassie had saved over two hundred
lives
that day.
Eventually all the fires were put out and people were able to return to
their destroyed homes to try and save anything that they could. Doug
and Lassie were reunited and to Doug's surprise his dog was the state's
hero. The next week, Midwest City Fire Marshal Jerry Lojka and Oklahoma
Governor Brad Henry awarded Lassie with a medal of honor for her huge
efforts to save the lives of others. Lassie is the first dog to
ever win such a prestigious award.
"Class,
you see we as pets are not only obligated to be loyal to our owners. We
have to
serve the community by saving and protecting those who need us. Now in
today’s
lesson we learned how to be brave no matter what. Lassie was just that.
Brave!
She was a huge help to the fire fighters, was she not? Okay, so
tomorrow
we will be starting story number three. It is a legend about the
rewards that
come with
being so brave and loyal."
Coverpage
Introduction
Beethoven
Paradise Island
Author's Note:
The original story I used was a false legend about a dog that saved
hundreds of people during the collapse of the World Trade Center
Towers. In my story I changed this to a more recent event. On Thursday
April 09,
2009, fires spread across Midwest
City
fast. I thought by adding this as real event it would make the story
seem even
more believable. Obviously, the story is not true. There were way more
than fifty
homes destroyed by the blazes and it took more than one day to put the
blazes
out. In the original story Daisy was a dog who supposedly saved nine
hundred plus
people
from the burning towers on September 11. In my story I was able to
capture some
of the same efforts made by Daisy. The main focus of the original story
was to help
people accept what happened on that very horrible day. The story was
created in
a way to give the fire fighters' story and rescue attempts but just in
a
made-up
way. However, the purpose of my urban legend was to serve as a lesson
to dogs
to show that they not only be loyal to their owners but serve their
community
as well. The legend gave Lassie the opportunity to show her bravery and
courage
for those in the time of need.
Image
information:
Picture of
Lassie(web source)- Lassie
Picture of fire(web source)- Fire
Bibliography:
Daisy Unchained-
Snopes.com