Trixie Finds Her People

By RJ The Story Guy

RJ the Story Guy tells the story of Trixie the Brown Dog. This mama dog is rescued from a situation where she and her puppies were part of a hoard of 23 dogs. Soon, her puppies were adopted, and she joins a girl and her grandparents as her new family.

At first, everything is new: living indoors in her new home, learning to potty outdoors,

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ralph J. Mirabal
• Release date: Oct 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781733436113

RJ The Story Guy

RJ the Story Guy has lived in the Middle Rio Grande Valley for most of his life. Recognized with awards for his teaching, he is now retired, pursues writing and music while volunteering with various organizations.

Book preview

Trixie Finds

Her People

Adventures of the Brown Dog

Interpreted by

RJ the Story Guy

High Desert Libris

Albuquerque

Copyright © 2019 by RJ the Story Guy

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission.

High Desert Libris

Albuquerque, NM

www. https://www.facebook.com/TrixietheBrownDog

Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

Book Layout © 2017 BookDesignTemplates.com

Cover designed by David Wilson, davidwilsondesign.us

Cover picture enhancement by Paul Murray

Photo credits: raccoon image by Murat Ilgarlar from Pixabay; Fireworks image by Free-Photos from Pixabay; raven on tree by JudaM from Pixabay, and raven by Chris KI from Pixabay; all other photos by The Story Guy.

Trixie Finds Her People/ RJ the Story Guy. -- 1st ed.

eBook ISBN 978-1-7334361-1-3

Dedicated to my Wife, Parents, The Brown Dog, and all who love dogs

Special thanks to Joyce Hertzoff, Kathy, and my wife for their invaluable critiques and copy editing; David Wilson for full cover design and Paul Murray for his work on the cover picture and artistic advice.

CONTENTS

The Adventure of Bandit’s Past

The Adventure of Trixie’s  First Day

The Adventure of  the Wild Weekend

The Adventure of  Trixie’s Walks

The Adventure of  the Unloved Toys

The Adventure of  the Scary Night

The Adventure of  Company Coming

The Adventure of  the New Guard Dog

The Adventure of  How Trixie Built Her Racetrack

The Adventure of  How Trixie Became  The Princess

Trixie’s Fantasies

The Fantasy Adventure in  the Enchanted Juniper

The Fantasy Adventure in  the Enchanted Juniper

The Adventure of  4th of July Fireworks

The Fantasy Adventure of  the Pilfered Kibbles

The Fantasy Adventure of  the Pilfered Kibbles

The Adventure of  the Open Space

CHAPTER ONE

The Adventure

of Bandit’s Past

A soft moan escaped the Brown Dog’s throat as she slept one night in her people’s bedroom. A distant thunderstorm boomed softly. Her ears twitched and her tail trembled.

In her dream, she still lived at her original home in another part of town.

Looking through a chain link fence, she watched the door to her owner’s house. Several feet of barren ground separated the large, trashy yard where the Brown Dog (then known as Bandit) lived with her eight puppies and fourteen other dogs.

A loud peal of thunder shook the dark sky. Bandit whined and let out a frightened bark. Her puppies huddled against her, some of them digging in the dust under her stomach.

Pushing her pups aside, she lay down. Also scared, she was frantic to find some way to escape the Big Booms. But there was no escape.

Sure, crude wooden boxes built out of old crates filled their fenced area. But those were full of holes, smelled bad, and shook as the wind whipped around the surrounding houses and trees. It was less frightening out in the open.

Quiet my little ones. We don’t want the barking man to come out and yell at us!

Her babies sang a sad chorus at the top of their lungs. Finally, the owner came out and stared at the dogs begging with their eyes to be let in the house. Instead he yelled and made awful noises like human barking.

Shut up, you stupid mutts! Be glad you have a place to live and food to eat! Get back in your houses and leave me alone.

He was confronted with twenty-three pairs of pleading eyes.

Please. For just a little while until it’s quiet after the cold rain stops.

As if to answer, the overweight man bent down barely enough to reach a rusty bucket. He threw it against the fence so hard it burst into several dozen pieces of corroded metal and dirt clods. That cloud of dirt and rust quickly became an orange mud in the hard downpour.

Please, please, oh please! Bandit and the others all whined in pitiful harmony.

He wasn’t impressed uttering a nasty sounding human bark.

He slammed the door as another big boom vibrated the whole sky and rattled Bandit’s insides. Giving up, the dogs slinked back into the smelly boxes and struggled to find small dry spots to curl up on. Huddling as close as possible, they shared body heat and trembled in fear of the thunder and the cold, damp wind.

Bandit had enough. Standing, she stretched her front legs then arched her butt up high to stretch her back legs. With a woof deep in her throat she strode out of the crumby dog house ready to bark, growl, and threaten great harm to the mean old owner.

But as she stepped out into the pelting rain, a large van pulled up on the street alongside their fenced enclosure. Three big men, dressed in dark blue jumpsuits burst out of the van and stomped across the muddy yard to the owner’s front door.

What? Hey, go away! If I get out of here, I’ll bite you hard! What are you doing? Bandit called out with her loud barks.

The men ignored her as they pounded on the door. There was no response. They pounded again, nearly knocking the door off its hinges.

Finally, the door creaked open a narrow crack. Bandit heard her owner’s voice muffled by the door and the pelting rain.

One of the big men rumbled, We’ve got a court order to take custody of your dogs—

What? the owner barked. You have no right! These are my animals—

You have too many dogs according to city ordinance… And he went on. Of course, none of the dogs, including Mama Bandit, understood any of this, but they caught the drift of the humans’ emotions and intentions.

The barking man slammed the door. He was barely heard saying, Go away! You have no right! I’ll call the mayor—

Go right ahead, it was his Department of Animal Welfare that sent us out, the big man said. He turned to the other two and motioned with his jaw toward the fenced-in dogs.

Get ‘em. Don’t leave a one of them behind, especially the pups.

The bigger man approached the gate and, with a pair of long bolt cutters, snipped right through the chain wrapped around the bent metal post and rusty gate. The other two men went to the van and came back carrying long poles with big nets looped on the ends.

Lickety split, they started scooping up the dogs, big and little, in their nets. Yawps, barks, and whines filled the air as some canines struggled free and scurried between the legs of the men. They tried to find a way out of the fenced enclosure, but the gate had been slammed shut.

Most of the dogs hunkered down and waited to be captured, their tails barely wagging in fear. A few dogs tried to avoid capture by jumping and running in circles. But one by one, they were all finally gathered up, thrown in metal crates brought out of the van, and loaded into compartments inside the big vehicle.

Bandit stood her ground while her puppies clustered underneath her tummy. The men scooped up her puppies as she yowled and barked and snapped her jaws at the men’s hands. Lucky for them she didn’t get a good grip on their thieving hands.

They wrapped