All Good Things… Doris the Doggo’s Story. · 11:19pm Jun 25th, 2020
#Blog #Bloggerstribe #AllGoodThings… .
25th June 2020
Hello, Chaps and Chapettes,
Boy, I can tell you I am looking forward to some cooler weather. It is hot as balls in England! Or, as hot as an Englishman’s balls can cope in this weather. It makes it very hard to concentrate on writing or telling any kind of story, you really have to find a wedge into the thing you are writing and make it as exciting for yourself as a writer as well as for the reader. If you don’t have that drive to get a story, blog, or miscellaneous writing going, it isn’t going to go anywhere what so ever.
It reminds me of a story I once wanted to tell as part of a bunch of children’s fables. You know the kind, like Aesop’s Fables or the Beatrix Potter tales of creatures getting into scrapes and learning valuable lessons. Well, before Hollywood took over and it was a rabbit who sounded like James Cordon and annoyed one of the Weasley boys...
My story was about a dog. I don’t think he or she ever had a name, but for the sake of argument, let’s call them Doris, Doris the doggo.
Doris was a very pretty dog. So pretty, she was incredibly vain. She wouldn’t have liked to have been called dog, no, no, that was far too inferior for her liking. She much preferred canine. It had a certain… je ne sais quoi. She was so sure of herself that she believed she was destined for greater things. Things like winning Crufts. Not the beauty show, all of it. Basically, completing all of the Crufts. If that wasn’t a thing before she arrived, she believed it certainly would be when she left.
After that, she expected there would be record deals. Appear in movie roles beside Tom Cruise and Scarlett Johansson. Rub shoulders with Beyonce and Drake. Throw tomatoes with Justin Timberlake at Justin Beiber. That kind of thing.
Unfortunately, Doris had not realized or not cared that one fact stood in her way. She was not a famous canine. She wasn’t even a barely recognizable canine. She did not belong to anyone famous, she was not a stunt dog. She lived on a farm and the farmer expected her to round up sheep.
This was the least interesting thing that Doris could ever imagine. She groused and whined and moaned in the morning when the farmer urged her to wake up and perform the task. She barked and whimpered and howled in the evening when she came home from the task. Every other animal on the farm was sick of it, they all got on with their jobs without fuss, so why was this annoying, noisy pup so complacent about her role. Most would just complain at her, which made her feel even worse.
Nobody understood her, not one single creature, and while she chose not to show them how sad it made her, she did feel alone and distraught. Her desires seemed like an impossible goal to reach.
Luckily for her, there was an old nag on the farm. Don’t worry, it wasn’t someone like mommy or granny when they’re having a bad day. This nag was a horse named Susan.
One evening, after Doris had got back from begrudgingly assisting the farmer with his sheep-herding, the beautiful canine tried to find a place to wail alone where she would not bother the other animals. She had no clue she’d slipped into Susan’s stable, as the nag was usually so quiet and calm. It was only when Doris gave a shrill “awoooooooooooooo~” that Susan piped up.
“Excuse me,” grunted Susan, “but can you not?”
“Oh no,” Doris replied, “not another animal annoyed at me! I’m so sorry, but I just feel so gosh-darned terrible about my life! I have to herd sheep, I’m not famous, I get mud on my fur every day, and the farmer doesn’t appreciate me! I might as well be a pig and roll around in their pen all day.”
“Ah, well, first off, I wouldn’t do that,” Susan trotted over, “you really would not like what they roll in. Let’s just say, they’re the only ones to be happy in it. Secondly, why do you not like herding sheep? You get to run about, have your freedom, and all you have to do in return is ask those fluffy-cloud-wearing blighters where you want them to go!”
“I think you’re confused,” Doris scratched an ear with her foot, “I have to bark and run after them to get them to go anywhere. I can’t just tell them where to go… Can I?”
“Have you tried?” Susan smirked the smirk of a horse who knew she was right, as the canine tilted her head at her. “Try this. Ask the sheep nicely tomorrow to go where the farmer wants them to go and then do everything you can to impress the farmer. If you can impress them, they might tell their friends! Then you’ll be one step closer to what you desire most!”
Doris gave it some thought. Eventually, she nodded, agreed to try what Susan was suggesting, and went back to the farm-house to rest in preparation for the challenge the next day
“You do realize that’s part of the plot of ‘Babe, The Sheep-Pig,’ don’t you?” whispered a spider from the corner of Susan’s ceiling.
“Hmm,” thought Susan aloud, “it hadn’t even crossed my mind…”
…
The next day, the old nag watched Doris walking out to the fields with the farmer and waited patiently for their return. The day was nice, sunny but cool, and the nag did not mind having to wait for news as to whether the plan had worked or not. Soon, just before the sun began to set, the farmer and canine could be seen returning up the lane. However, they did not simply walk. The farmer was running, yelling excitedly and waving their iPhone in the air like they just did not care!
The farmer’s partner came out of the house to see what the racket was, only to have the farmer race up to them, give them a big kiss, and hastily and loudly explain what had happened while showing them a video they’d recorded on their phone. The partner examined it, gasped, and began to speak in the same speedy, excitable tone right back.
Meanwhile, Doris padded happily over to Susan’s stable and smiled proudly at the horse.
“I take it you did what I told you?” Susan asked knowingly.
“Well, yes and no,” the canine replied to the nag’s ultimate confusion, looking down at her claws as if deciding whether to paint them.
“Did you ask the sheep to do what the farmer wanted them to do?”
“No,” Doris giggled, “I asked them to do what I wanted them to do.”
“...And what was that?” Susan looked very perplexed, but the pretty, pleased-with-herself pup simply looked up at her with a doggy-dentures smile.
“I made them stand on the hill in such a way so that they spelled out the words, ‘GET ME AN AGENT’”
After that day, the farmer and Doris got visits from more than just their friends. The video went viral, and soon celebrities such as Tom Hanks, Miley Cyrus, Dwayne Johnson, and even Taylor Swift all showed up to have special messaged created for them by Doris and the sheep. Hanks had “LIFE IS LIKE A BOX OF CHOCOLATES,” while Johnson got “I CAN SMELL WHAT THE ROCK IS COOKING!”
Best of all, Doris realized that she would have never thought of this if it wasn’t for the old nag, so every night she ensured she shared all her stories with her new best friend, Susan. The canine became famous, but because this is a children’s story, it did not go to her head.
The moral here is that sometimes you have to do what you don’t like to get what you want, but that does not mean you cannot enjoy it in the process.
Stay safe, stay happy.
All good things,
Love, Scaramouche.
X
Very true and sound advice.
And something I needed to hear myself, I'm afraid. Thank you.
5293920
You're welcome! Sometimes the best lessons are learned through stories.
I'll share another with you, but I won't try to tell it when I know somebody else can tell it better:
https://youtu.be/dv_GSA843wU
5293920
Be good to yourself, and if you have to do something, find a way to make it suit you. Be good to yourself, Olden.
Huge hugs!
Scara x