Hi my name is James Cox, and I love to write stories about dogs hence the name of the blog – Doggy Tales, I am 100% dyslexic, I hope you enjoy reading my stories as much as I enjoyed writing them. I self published my book Earth Dogs Don’t Speak in March 2009…
This story is fiction, but as there are some truths in it, the names have been changed to protect both the guilty and the innocent.
It’s about the most famous dog in the land of Dog World – so let’s start at the beginning; as that is the easiest part to start with – if I started at the end I’d get muddled and so would you!
In a time long ago, in land far away, that’s more than a bus journey or two so, it’s very far away! It is a cold dark snowy night and a lady dog is running through the streets carrying a basket that’s so well covered that you can’t see anything inside it. Now you may ask why was this happening. Why is such a well-groomed lady out on a night such as this? She runs up to a door, puts the basket down on the step and knocks; then she runs off and hides beside a neighbouring building and peeps round the corner.
The door opens and a lady dog opens the door, she’s wearing a nurse’s uniform, she looks round and calls out “Hello is any one there?” The nurse looks round and still can’t see any one and steps back to close the door but as she does she looks down and sees the basket. A note is attached to it and she picks it up and starts to read it. “Please look after my pup; he will have a better life with you than he could ever have with me. But do not judge him for his looks or he will have no life at all, he’s not very pretty and may scare some people” Well, being nosy, the nurse had to look didn’t she – so she pulled the blanket back and gasped in horror at what she saw, letting out a scream she put the blanket back and was going to shut the door when a voice came from behind her: “What’s all the screaming about, Sister?”
The Sister turned to the voice and pointed to the basket “Look!” she squeaked, the Matron lifted the blanket “Oh poor little mite” she exclaimed, “What has happened to you?”
The Sister handed her the note and Matron read it and told the Sister to bring the basket in out of the cold “Oh, Alex, can’t we just close the door and hope that someone else comes along and picks up the basket?”
Matron, Alex, was shocked and angrily pointed out that this was the Dog World Orphanage, and no matter how deformed this poor little pup was, he had been committed to their care and he would be looked after. “I’ll personally take charge of him” and she took the basket from Sister and took him to her own private sitting room.
The mysterious lady watched the basket go into the orphanage and disappeared into the night…
Alex kept her promise and looked after him herself. She called him Frankie, after her father, and made him a mask so that he could mix with all the other pups in the Orphanage. At least that’s what she hoped would happen. He had to eat his meals by himself because the mask had to come off, but Alex was optimistic that this wouldn’t matter too much.
It worked quite well whilst the pups were very little, but as they grew up and others came into the Orphanage things changed. One of the new comers was quite big for his age and quite a bully; Alex blamed it on his parents who had bullied him until they got fed up with him and moved towns leaving him behind.
Of course because Alex still kept her promise and looked after Frankie herself, Billy, the bully, called him Matron’s pet and kept picking on him – encouraging the other dogs to do the same.
Alex noticed Frankie was upset and called him into her sitting room, “What’s wrong Frankie?” she asked and watched as tears slipped down behind the mask. “Nothing” mumbled Frankie and turned to go, but Alex caught hold of his paw and asked him again adding “and why the tears?”
So Frankie poured out all his woes, how Billy was calling him Matron’s pet and Frankenstein’s monster because of his mask and that he was getting the other pups to do the same. Alex became very annoyed and was all for going straight to Billy and telling him off for picking on someone who was different, but Frankie begged her not too as it would probably make matters worse.
But Alex was having none of it; she left Frankie in her sitting room and went to find Billy. Seizing him by the ear, she marched him to her office and sat him in a chair in front of her desk. “Now Billy what’s wrong with you? I thought I’d taught you better than this, why are you picking on someone who is different to you? All pups here are the same under the skin and all should be treated the same, with respect not name calling. If I hear it happens again, you will be in serious trouble as all my pups that leave here get good jobs and live good live in Dog World, and they certainly don’t go round bullying because someone is smaller or different to themselves.”
For a while Billy behaved himself, but slowly he forgot Alex’s words and gathered a gang of younger dogs round him and they started pushing the other dogs around and bullying them and Billy became top dog in the orphanage because the other pups were too frightened of him to complain.
Then one day in the pups’ play room, Billy climbed on a chair and shouted to Frankie “Oi, monster, I bet no one’s seen your face under that mask – not even you – have you! I bet it’s so horrible that even your mum couldn’t bear the sight of you and that’s why she dumped you here.”
Then Billy jumped off the chair and grabbed hold of Frankie and whispered “f you run and tell Matron, I’ll set my gang on to you.”
Frankie ran off and hid, then he pulled himself together and went and knocked on Alex’s door and asked her to give him a mirror. Alex was surprised and worried and asked Frankie why but he just shrugged his shoulders and told her that it was time. Alex hesitated and asked again if Frankie was sure and he nodded and held his paw out for the mirror.
He held the mirror up to his face and slowly removed his mask ….. Alex held her breath and watched him.
He looked hard in to the mirror and cried out loud – “My face, my terrible face! Why didn’t you tell me that I looked so horrid! No one will ever, ever see my face again” and he pulled his mask down and smashed the mirror into hundreds of pieces and ran crying from the room.
Alex ran after him and found hiding in the cupboard under the stairs, “Oh Frankie, you’re still young you may grow into your face when you get older. Things won’t always seem this bad.”
Frankie shook his head, “No Matron this is the face I was born with and this how I will look forever.”
“So just because you’re not the best looking dog in the world, you are still a very talented dog. Look how you make things in carpentry and last week you mended my favourite chair and Dog World will always need craftsmen like you” Alex wiped his tears and secured his mask properly.
So for a couple of years things calmed down, Billy backed off and Frankie built himself a small workshop in the attic and repaired things and carved toys for the younger orphans. This made him quite popular and the youngsters stuck up for Frankie and the other pups left him alone as he always helped them when anything was broken.
But Billy became more and more jealous of Frankie’s popularity and was determined to become top dog again. He was bigger and stronger, so why wasn’t he the top dog – it wasn’t fair and he started to plan his revenge.
One nice summer’s day all the pups were outside enjoying the warm weather and playing sports or just sitting in the sun reading, now was Billy’s chance!
“Frankie come here” shouted Billy – Frankie walked over to Billy “What’s up” he asked, Billy grinned and said to his gang “Grab him”.
Frankie tried to run but they held him too tight and Billy swaggered up to him and said “Now I’m going to see what you are hiding under that mask” He grabbed Frankie by the ears and pulled the mask off!
The other pups, attracted by the scuffle and noise, had gathered round to see what was happening and as Billy pulled the mask right off they recoiled in horror, Billy laughed and said “see what hideous monster you’ve all been making friends with – now look at him – he’s not just ugly he’s a real Frankenstein’s Monster!”
One pup didn’t like what Billy had done to Frankie so he ran to fetch Matron and as he left he heard Billy encouraging the others to laugh at Frankie and call him names which made him run even faster.
By the time he had found her and they got back to where he had left them, Frankie had escaped from the bullies and, knocking Billy over had run out of the orphanage’s grounds with the laughter and insults still ringing in his ears.
Alex grabbed Billy up off the ground and demanded to know where Frankie was. Billy shrugged his shoulders and said “I don’t know, the monster ran off.”
Alex looked at him and said “I hope he’s OK, because if he’s not you will pay for this publicly” Then she ran out of the grounds and called for him and night after night for several months she toured the area asking if anyone had seen him and even after that her holidays were taken up by her never-ending search for Frankie, the ugly pup, but she could never find him. But Alex, being a caring soul never gave up hope… read more