Week 4 Story: Man's Best Friend

Man's Best Friend

By Connor Dugan

Long before written history, dogs were not the cute and fuzzy animals they are today.  They were ferocious, powerful, and cold blooded killers.  They practically ruled the earth with their incredible coordination and hunting skills.  Man could all but cower in fear if one approached.

A man named Joseph walked through a deep and dark rocky forest, looking for mushrooms for stew.  It was ominous, foggy, and incredibly humid.  Sweat dripped down his whole body as he searched the ground for precious fungi.  This lasted some hours, until he heard a horribly cry.  Joseph knew it would be incredibly dangerous to investigate, but he couldn't help himself.  He climbed over the hills, tracked down where it was coming from, and gazed upon Doggious, the god of the Dogs.

Doggious had been hunting in the woods.  In fact, he was on to Joseph's scent and was about to make him a meal.  This all came to a halt when a large boulder came crashing down a near rocky hillside and landed upon his leg.  He was now trapped.  The more he tried to move, the more he ended up just hurting himself.  He laid there in defeat, waiting to be killed or to simply rot away.

Joseph cautiously came nearer to Doggious.  He had heard the legends of Doggious of how intimidating, strong, and deadly he was.  There were rumors that if Doggious were killed, that all dogs would lose their coordination and would no longer be able to rule the world.  Joseph felt for his large spear he always carried on him, and was ready to put an end to the rule dogs had over the land.  But something came upon him.  As he saw the beast yelping and crying, a sudden rush of empathy came upon him.  He got a crazy idea, even crazier than approaching the beast in the first place.

Doggious stared at Joseph as he came eye to eye with the beast.  Joseph nodded at Doggious, and raised his spear, ready to strike.  Doggious closed his eyes, accepting his fate.  But, as Joseph's spear came down, it came not upon Doggious' heart, but was wedged under the boulder, where he proceeded to pry the boulder off Doggious' leg.

Doggious immediately pounced upon Joseph, and Joseph held his breath as if it were his last.  And as Doggious opened his mouth to bite, he instead licked Joseph's face of his sweat.  Doggious thanked Joseph, and explained to him that because of his show of character and empathy, all dogs would serve as noble friends to the human race.  They could hunt, live, and progress together much better than on their own.  And what started as a horrible war became a lasting friendship that exponentially benefited both parties.

And that is how dogs became man's best friend.

Guarding with Man's Best Friend sourced via Wikipedia

Author's Note:

The original story, The Quarrel of the Cat and Dog, was about how cats and dogs became enemies.  It begins explaining that the Cat and Dog were great friends.  They got along very well and were the greatest of companions.  But when winter game and food was scarce, they made an agreement to go their separate ways, but the dog accidentally breaks the agreement and the cat never forgives him.
I wanted to do an opposite of this story, explaining how a feud becomes friendship.  I thought the perfect example for this would be the relationship between man and dog.

Bibliography:

The Quarrel of the Cat and Dog by Gertrude Landa

Reading Notes: Jewish Fairy Tales Part B

I will focus my notes on the story of The Sleep of One Hundred Years.

Rabbi Onias, a man thirsting and starving to death, travels to Jerusalem, a city that has been burnt to the ground.  Everything is desolate and gloomy.  He has food and water, but refuses to drink them in case he meets someone more in need than he.  On his way, he sees a farmer planting crops.  He comes upon the city, and breaks down crying because of the horror of the destruction.  He then sleeps, but doesn't wake for 100 years.  He wakes, and rejoices that the city is strong again.  The crops that the farmer planted were everywhere, the camel he had was a skeleton.  He goes to the city and asks where the house of Onias is.  They tell him that someone's grandfather was named Onias, and surely enough, Onias meets his grandson.  Everyone is alien in their ways, speech, and knowledge, and he feels he doesn't belong and goes back to sleep.

I would like to change this story to a modern version where a young man in Africa hears about the amazing and great country called America.  He goes through great lengths to go there, and finally makes it by climbing on a boat that happens to be headed in that direction.  He ends up in New York City, rejoices, but quickly realizes that he doesn't really fit in.  He realizes that he was much happier with the lifestyle he already had.

Busy New York Street sourced via Pexels

Bibliography:

Jewish Fairy Tales: The Sleep of One Hundred Years By Gertrude Landa

Reading Notes: Jewish Fairy Tales Part A

I chose to read from the Jewish Fairy Tales.
I will be focusing on The Quarrel of the Cat and Dog.

The story begins explaining that the Cat and Dog were great friends.  They got along very well and were the greatest of companions.  But when winter game and food was scarce, they made an agreement to go their separate ways so they might have better chances with food.  They swore to not cross each other's paths again, and the cat made its way to Adam's house to help him with a mouse problem.  The dog had horrible luck with food and fails every time he tries to find a new companion until he finds a house, whose owner gives him scraps and he thanks him by scaring off intruders.  The owner tells him that he can stay, but then the dog realizes that the owner is Adam.  The cat gets incredibly upset that he broke their agreement and they become enemies.

I love stories such as this.  Origin stories, explanations, they are always creative and interesting to read.  I would like to take this story but instead of explaining the conflict between cats and dogs I want to explain why dogs are man's best friend!  I will probably tell the story from a third perspective and have a man save a dog's life.  They will start out enemies and then become best friends.

Dog and Man sourced via Pexels

Bibliography:

The Quarrel of the Cat and Dog by Gertrude Landa