Dumpster Dogs

By Ann Colberson Schiebert and Jack Varonin

Dog Love, It's the Best!

Exploring lessons in friendship, love, and courage, this fetching tale demonstrates the resilience of our most loved companions. Readers will be instantly drawn into the plight of Riley and his friends as they do their best to stick together through thick and thin.

After being abandone

• Language: English
• Publisher: Andrew Benzie Books
• Release date: Sep 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781950562305

Book preview

Chapter 1

Riley lived under a dumpster. He didn’t want a human because he thought that dogs with a history like his were destined to live on their own. He hung out with other dogs who also lived under dumpsters. They had a special dog club. They made their own rules. (We’ll get to those rules later.) Riley didn’t like having to answer to someone. He liked being independent, on his own, a dog around town. He felt regal. What he didn’t realize was that he actually needed humans in his life because it is a very lonely life without them.



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There were two issues with Riley. First, when he was a puppy, he had loved a human family, but they moved away and didn’t take him with them. They drove away and left him tied to the front gate until the postman set him loose. Riley tried not to think about the family. It made him sad. He remembered loving the kids, getting the paper in the morning, sleeping with Timmy, and watching Saturday morning cartoons on TV. He’d get under Timmy’s blanket and cuddle with him. Riley remembered baby Carrie. He liked to follow her as she walked around the house. She dropped food all the time, and Riley made sure he kept the floors clean by eating whatever she dropped. When family memories came to Riley’s mind, he would crawl under his dumpster and allow himself to cry. Then he would tell himself, I don’t need anyone. Over time, Riley convinced himself that his Dumpster Dog pals were enough. He didn’t need a human.

The second thing about Riley was that he had convinced himself that he should only associate with other Dumpster Dogs. He viewed canines that lived with humans as being not as smart as he was. They didn’t understand that living with the Dumpster Dogs was much preferred to living with people. Riley knew that at any time humans could abandon a dog whom they had taught to trust them. Gus, one of Riley’s friends, had told him there was a place that humans called the pound. Gus told him about how his humans had left him at the pound and never came back for him. Gus was still sad about this. When the moon was full and illuminated the dumpster neighborhood, Gus occasionally joined his friend Mosley in howling their grief about not having a house to live in with a warm place to sleep.

All of the other Dumpster Dogs had stories similar to Riley’s and Gus’s. The humans they loved had deserted them, and they had vowed to NEVER allow that experience to be repeated. They formed a Dumpster Dog Club. Entry into the club was only open to dogs who had been left by their human, dogs who had been mistreated and had run away, and dogs who were the offspring of other Dumpster Dogs and had never had a human. The Dumpster Dogs formed a close-knit group.

The Dumpster Dog Club (DDC) Rules:

Humans are for convenience only. Never get attached to a human.

Learn how to look cute so humans will give you food.

Don’t bark when humans are around. If you have to bark, do it when the humans are inside their houses.

Always be on the look-out for Mr. Zinevil. He drives a truck and catches Dumpster Dogs. He drives them away and we never see them again. Every loss is a sad event for the DDC club members.

Hide any sore places on your skin because humans won’t feed you if you look bad. Roll in the grass to help your coat look fluffy.

Dogettes that are courted by Dumpster Dogs can’t be housed by humans because that would require visiting them and getting to know their human.

Riley was voted to be the head of the Dumpster Dog Club. As such, he was in charge of enforcing the rules and because this was such a big job, he asked Gus to help him. He figured that DDC members needed to go to club meetings so they could be shown how to beg for food by looking cute. Riley taught Gus the tricks of getting things from humans without any obligation; then, together, he and Gus taught the other club members.

For the first lesson, Riley demonstrated how to have sad eyes. He crossed the street so he would be by himself. Humans seemed to be afraid when dogs hang out together. He knew that most humans fell for sad eyes. It was his best ploy for getting food. Riley lay down on the cement outside the shop that smelled the best to him. He put his ears down. He put his head between his paws, and then he looked up, searching for unsuspecting humans to walk by. Sure enough! A woman and her little boy passed by. They said, You look so sad, big guy. How would you like it if we got you a treat?

Riley wagged his tail just a little bit. He didn’t want to seem too excited. And then they knelt to pet him. The little boy said, Mom, he is so cute, can’t we go in the butcher shop and get him a dog bone? Please, Mom! He seems so sad and hungry! Before he knew it, Riley had a huge dog bone in his mouth, and he proudly crossed the street to show his friends. They couldn’t believe it! They had been used to hunting for food in garbage cans!

While Riley gleefully gnawed his prize, Gus led the other dogs in the practice of looking sad. One by one, they took turns looking dejected and lonely while lying on the cement outside Flynn’s butcher shop. Target got a bone from a little old lady. Elmer got one from a young girl and her dad. Mosley didn’t get a bone. He got some chewy things from a box that he seemed to like and wouldn’t share. Rover did his own thing and sat by the fast-food drive-through next to Flynn’s. He came back with a hamburger in his mouth. Riley thought that Gus had taught the Dumpster Dogs very well. Every dog had gotten something to eat.



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The next day, Riley taught the second lesson. He knew he had a special talent with this one, and he knew that people loved him even though he was scruffy, smelly, and ungroomed. He had a way about him of going around town and sitting outside of someone’s store, waiting for the owner to come out so he could lie down on his back with his four paws in the air. Everyone in town thought this was the cutest thing ever, and they fed him. This was yet another way of getting humans to take care of him with no strings attached. He’d eat the food humans gave him, let them give him a pat, and be on his way to do dog things with his dumpster pals.

Rover learned quickly. He went outside of a place where people were eating. He waited by the door for humans to come out with little containers of uneaten goodies, and he would look them in the eye, sit down, lie down, and then roll on his back, paws in the air. The humans seemed to think this was funny. Often, they would open their bags of food and give him some of the most delicious morsels he had ever eaten.

With these two lessons well learned, the Dumpster Dogs charmed the town. The townspeople called them the orphans. Riley understood the word orphans to mean that he and his friends didn’t have special humans to tend for them. They were right! Riley thought that he had outsmarted humans, because they didn’t realize that the Dumpster Dogs were now being fed by the entire town due to their love-evoking antics that played on the human heart. Riley and his pals ate well without any fear of getting attached to someone who would just leave them in the end. Riley was an expert at getting his needs met. But he was not an expert at giving or receiving love, like most dogs who have humans. (That is what this story is about: how one dog learned to love and give love to a human without any thought about personal gain.)

Riley should have been ecstatic. He had his pals, a dumpster to live under, and no human attachments. He prided himself that no one owned him. He could do whatever he wanted. But Riley wasn’t happy the way dogs are who play Frisbee or fetch balls with their humans. He only wagged his tail when he was trying to get a human to give him food. He felt alone. In secret, he ached for human love. He grieved over the family he had loved long ago. He was leader of the Dumpster Dog Club, but somehow, it just wasn’t enough.

Chapter 2

One day, as Riley lay on his back outside of the butcher shop waiting for Mrs. McMullen to buy him a dog bone, he sniffed an aroma that was better than meat! What was it? It was sweet and clean. Riley turned on his side. His ears went up. He couldn’t see where the lovely smell was coming from. He beckoned Gus to take his place outside the butcher shop so Mrs. McMullen’s bone wouldn’t go to waste. He followed his nose down the street until he spotted a dogette, prancing on a leash next to her human. She smelled even better than Baby Carrie had smelled when she carried cookies around. Riley suppressed a bark! He decided to follow them. In a few short blocks, Riley was at the dogette’s house. Riley stood across the street and watched. He couldn’t take his eyes off the dogette.

She was magnificently groomed and wore a pink collar with a bow on it. The bow sparkled. The dogette looked just like her human: both had silky blonde hair. The human pranced up the front stairs of her house and said, Come on in, Sophie. It’s dinnertime.

Sophie. Sophie. Sophie! Riley couldn’t get over what a lovely name that was. He noted that Sophie’s long ears didn’t have a tangle in them. He reasoned that if Sophie smelled so good from across the street, up close she must smell better than a steak on a barbeque.

The dogette and her human went into their house and closed the door. Riley crossed the street and lay on their lawn. He was hopeful that after dinner they would take an evening stroll around the neighborhood. As it grew dark and cold, Riley decided to return to his dog friends and check with them about how the human food gifts to the orphans went after he had left.



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The day had been a great success! The Dumpster Dogs had been given many bones! They had received many pets by various strangers, been given all kinds of other food, and most of them were resting quietly under their dumpsters when Riley returned. Since Gus was Riley’s closest pal, he told him about Sophie. He shared every detail about how Sophie looked, how she smelled, where she lived, and her human. Riley confessed that he would like to meet her.

Gus grew serious. He put on his most reproaching face. Riley, you know the rules. No friendships with dogettes who are tied to a human. Connections with humans only lead to hurt and sorrow. Remember how it was for you when you were a puppy? Remember when your family drove away and left you tied to the front gate?

Riley became somber. He put his tail between his legs. His ears went down. He slowly walked to his dumpster. He crawled under it. He had a lot to think about.

* * *

Against his better judgment, the next morning Riley made his way to Sophie’s house. He sat on her front lawn, patiently waiting for her to come out. Before he knew it, there was Sophie at the front door with her human. They walked down the steps and Sophie’s human came right over to Riley. She bent down. She looked in his eyes. She checked him over from head to tail. Well, big guy, she said, what is your name? She looked at Riley’s expandable collar that had been given to him right before his humans abandoned him. Riley. She laughed. That’s an unusual name for a dog. Sophie, meet Riley. Do you have a home? Your collar looks so old. Want to come for a walk with us? My name is Emily. Riley couldn’t wait.

They walked around Sophie’s neighborhood. They stopped at the bakery, and Emily bought each of them the most delicious biscuit that Riley had ever eaten. They walked to a shop that was unfamiliar to Riley. Emily opened the door. A kind-looking woman came out and greeted Sophie. "Well, Miss Sophie, are you ready for your bath? Do you want bows on your