Think, Think, Think
Spuds wakes up and sniffs the air. It’s warm-cool and carries the smell of green growing things. Feeling hopeful, Spuds stretches and then gently paws Ollie’s cheek to wake him.
Ollie twitches and opens one eye as a warning to Spuds. Spuds pointedly turns away and looks upward, as though the sky is suddenly interesting. Then she leaps onto Ollie’s back. This sends shivers up Ollie’s spine. He sits up abruptly, which sends Spuds careening off of him. She lands gracefully, looks at him expectantly, and paces. We need to go out, now.
Ollie does a down-dog stretch and then shakes. The motion starts at his tail and progresses to his snout, from which spit flies like raindrops. Spuds squints against this.
They walk out the alley and onto the street together and make their rounds: trash cans, dumpsters, the park. Ollie finds half of a bagel beneath a park bench and offers to share it with Spuds, who has no interest. She’s scanning the area under a thicket of shrubs for any movement of mice. No luck. They amble on, skirting a stray dog working on a garbage bag, and slip down a side street.
Ollie smells something delicious. His raises his head, flares his nostrils, and takes off at a trot. Spuds runs to keep up with him. Ollie’s nose leads him to a truck parked in an alley. The door of the truck is rolled up and delicious scents come from within it. They look around, see no one, and scamper up the ramp.
There are cheeses, lots of cheese—in wheels, in boxes. Ollie selects a ripe-smelling cheese wrapped in cloth, holds it between his paws, and tears the wrapping. Together the animals devour it, their snouts covered in soft cheese. Partway through their feast they glance at each other with glee.
So engrossed are they that they do not notice a man approaching the truck. He is unaware of the animals and rolls down the steel door. Ollie and Spuds dash toward the opening. Spuds sees she can make it through the remaining opening, but Ollie is too chesty. She stops. Ollie looks at her, wrinkling his brow. Spuds looks away.
Slits of daylight edge the door. The engine starts and the truck jolts forward. Ollie and Spuds splay their feet, lower themselves to the floor, and look at each other with wide eyes.
As the ride proceeds smoothly they are able to stand up. Ollie is nose level with a round of cheese. He takes a bite of it. Spuds watches and then jumps up on the cheese wheel and eats as well.
They eat until the truck lurches to a stop. They hear voices outside the truck and position themselves at the side of the door, Spuds first, Ollie behind. When a man rolls open the door, they leap from the truck and run, looking back. One of the men stoops down and calls to the animals, extending his hand outward, palm up. The other man says, ”If we can catch them, I’ll drop them off at the humane society on the way back.”
The men walk toward them slowly, calling softly, but Ollie and Spuds sprint toward the woods. There they tuck themselves behind a boulder and peering through leafy undergrowth, watch the men walk away.
When the men are out of sight, Ollie and Spuds look around. The fields that surround the town from which they fled are dotted with clusters of trees and farms and edged by hedgerows. In the far distance, there is another small town. At the bottom of a steep slope behind them they hear a stream and walk toward it, Spuds picking her way gracefully, Ollie sliding downhill in places. They drink their fill.
Ollie lies down, rests his head on his paws, and closes his eyes. Spuds paws gently at Ollie’s snout, and when he opens his eyes she looks pointedly, repeatedly between the deeper woods and Ollie.
Ollie rises with a groan and follows Spuds through the woods. She doesn’t always choose a path suited to Ollie’s size; at places he has to scoot on his belly. They come to an outcropping of rocks protected by thicket of bushes and there lie down. A large animal ambles into view. It chews slowly in a circular way, bending its head toward the earth and raising it, its mouth bristling with grasses. The creature looks at Spuds and Ollie with a long, steady, neutral gaze. Spuds nestles closer to Ollie, and they sleep.
(c) 2024 Carolyn Cott – To be continued
Untold Animal Stories 