BEETHOVEN
"Woof Morning,
class. We are ready to begin our first story about dog urban legends."
It was a quiet
and nice Friday afternoon on Rhode Island. The trees were slightly
blowing, the sun was shining
bright, and the skies were a clear light blue with no clouds in sight.
When Tabitha walked in to her house she noticed that she was not
greeted by her
furry friend Beethoven. This was strange and unusual because he
usually leaped
into her arms every day when she arrived home from work but this day
was different. She walked around frantically calling Beethoven's name.
No answer! When she got upstairs she was extremely shocked to find
Beethoven lying on the floor gasping for air.
"Beethoven, what has happened to you?" she yelled out in a concerned
and
scared tone.
She immediately called her vet and told her that her dog was choking.
The vet instructed her to bring Beethoven in for a full examination.
But
there was one problem. Beethoven weighed over 125lbs. There was no way
that Tabitha could carry Beethoven downstairs and load him into the
car.
Tabitha was a small five feet four inches tall Japanese woman. She ran
downstairs out the front
door to her neighbor's house in a hysterical frenzy. She knocked and
knocked on the
door non-stop until someone answered. Luckily, it was Mr. Baxter who
answered.
"James, please
help me. Beethoven is choking and I need to get him to the vet."
"Okay, calm
down,
Tabitha, and breathe. Where is Beethoven now?"
"He's at home
lying on the floor upstairs. I need your help to carry him downstairs
and load him into the car."
James and
Tabitha ran across the street and went into the house to get Beethoven.
They loaded him into the car and Tabitha took him to the vet. When she
arrived the vet staff was waiting for her with a stretcher and a team
of four to help get Beethoven out of the car.
The veterinarian
began to examine Beethoven but needed to do a tracheotomy since there
was no way to determine why Beethoven was having trouble breathing with
the physical exam alone. The doctor informed Tabitha that she would
have to leave Beethoven overnight and he would touch bases with her in
the morning. Tabitha was sad but she agreed that it was best for
Beethoven.
When Tabitha
arrived home, she noticed that she had at least fifteen missed calls
and
messages on her answering machine.
Ring! Ring! As she went to check her messages, her phone rang.
Tabitha was nervous to answer. She just knew it was bad news
about Beethoven. She answered the phone hesitantly. "Hello," she
said in a soft and timid voice.
"Tabitha, get out of your house now! Go to your neighbor's and call the
police."
When the vet
performed the operation, he immediately found the strange reason why
Beethoven was having trouble breathing. There were four human
fingers jammed in his throat. Whoever the fingers belonged to
could possibly still be in the house.
Tabitha ran to
James' house and told him what had happened. James was the police
officer so he
called for backup, grabbed his gun, and went to Tabitha's house to look
for the fingerless intruder. James searched all of downstairs and found
nothing. He went upstairs to the first bedroom and found a man lying
face down with blood everywhere. He looked to be unconscious, but alive
and breathing.
When the police got there, they arrested the man and took him to the
hospital.
Tabitha was
relieved that it was all over and that Beethoven
would
recover fine. When she brought him
home, she promised him a vacation away from Rhode Island. It would be
somewhere beautiful and relaxing because she wanted to show him how
thankful she was for
his loyalty.
"Okay, now was that not interesting? Beethoven risked his own life to
save the home of his owner Tabitha. His story was so touching
that is was featured on the local news. People from all over the state
traveled to come see such a heroic dog. It was a great time for
Beethoven
after he recovered from his injuries. He was a Rhode Island celebrity
who made his owner very proud. Today's lesson was on sacrifice.
Class, as pets we must be willing to sacrifice to show our loyalty to
our owners. Tomorrow, we will read a legend about bravery."
Author's Note: I did not change the Urban Legend that pretends
to be true but it is not true at all. I did however,
change the dog from Doberman to Saint Bernard. Also, I added a name to
the main character- Tabitha. In the original legend the dog was taken
to the vet with no problem. In my story Tabitha needed help to get her
massive Saint Bernard to the vet since she was a small lady. This
helped introduce the new character of James. In the
original the dog owner did not need help getting her dog in the car.
Also, in
the original the race of the burglar is not known. In my story the race
is
revealed by the picture. One would assume by seeing the picture that he
is
black even though it was not stated in the story. There can be many
different
variants of this story, like the number of fingers found, the type of
dog, the
race of the robber, what the robber's intentions are when coming into
the
house,
etc. The
legend changes depending on who
is telling it and what their goals are for the person hearing the
legend. All
in all, the entire story's main goal is to focus on single women being
victimized
by crime. In my story the main goal is to focus on how a
dog can be a hero if he protects his owner from
being a victim of crime.
Image
information:
Picture of
Beethoven(web source)- Beethoven
Picture of Burglar(web Source)- Robber
Bibliography:
The Choking
Doberman - Snopes.com
