Sam’s Pet – ‘Spots’

“Sam’s Pet – ‘Spots’” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Aniketh Menon, Model English School, Mumbai, India.

Sam’s Pet – ‘Spots’

Sam, my friend has a dog called ‘Spots’, who is clever and courageous. He is very loving, rushes to the person he recognizes by wagging his tail. Everyone in the neighborhood adores him. The story of Spots being Sam’s pet goes like this:

On a cloudy day, Sam and I were playing foot ball on the ground. Suddenly, the ball was struck so hard that it reached to the end of the ground. We went to fetch it, but stopped short when saw a small cardboard box at the far end of the ground. ‘Finders, keepers’, was written on it. Curious, we went towards the box and peered inside. And what a surprise we got! A small puppy, one with a white body and black spots was cuddled inside. When it saw us it sprang up and wiggled its tail.

We assumed that someone has left it here and debated what to do. I couldn’t possibly keep it as I already have a pet ‘Canary’, called ‘Peeko’. Sam too couldn’t keep it either, as his family dislike pets. “Now what?”, I asked Sam. “We can’t leave it here like this and we must be quick to decide, what to do, as someone may come and feel that we have left it here.” We pondered over this situation for some time, and the only solution we could think of was that Sam should take the dog to his family, and let them decide what to do about it.

So, Sam went off with the dog, a bit reluctantly, as he was afraid how his family would react. I helped his lift the dog (still in the box) into his hands. “I know it’s a trouble”, I told Sam. “But my family is out otherwise I would have taken it to them”. He went towards the road, I watched him disappear among the next block. I could feel that he was a bit tense. I sighed and hoped that the dog would get a home. I stared at the sky. The darkened sky made an eerie atmosphere. “I’d better get home”, muttering to myself I headed towards my house.

That night, as Sam told me the next day, he had shown the dog to his dad who told that Sam could keep it if he wanted to, until he made enquiries about it. “No need to make it a police case”, he said. “I recognize it as one of Mr. Shaw’s dogs; I will ask him about it tomorrow.

“Who’s Mr. Shaw?” asked Sam.

“Our family friend. He visited us last month, remember?”

“Yes, I do”. Sam sighed.

“Better go to bed now”, Sam’s dad ordered. “And you may keep the dog in the garden; keep him in the box itself.” Hearing this, Sam kept the dog in the garden and went to his room.

In the wee hours, hearing the restless barking of the dog, Sam and others woke up and looked out of the window. “It’s the same dog”. Sam muttered to himself. Sam’s parents started to complain that the dog is a trouble, disturbing the neighborhood. Sam was about to tell something when he suddenly noticed the swaying smoke coming out from the kitchen. Seeing this, Sam’s mom was perplexed and realized that she had forgotten to switch off the gas cylinder.

Luckily, nothing much was damaged except the kitchen which turned black. Firemen were called to put off the fire. “Oh! It is the dog who saved us”. So we should keep him with us”, said Sam. Hearing this Sam’s dad called Mr. Shaw on the line and sought his permission to keep the dog with Sam. Sam was thrilled to know this. His dad asked Sam, “Now Sam, what are you going to call your dog?”

“Spots”, replied Sam instantly.

This was the story Sam told me next day, when we were on the ground to play. “Remember?” I told Sam, “This is the place where we found our ‘Spots’ yesterday”. We took the ball left in the ground by us and started playing again.