Life of Shadow by I A M Watson

Author:I A M Watson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: chapter book about a dog, animal chapter book, middle grade dog books, kids book dog death, books about dog heaven
Publisher: I A M Watson
Published: 2024-05-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12: Life of Grizzle

A group of kids gathered around the body in the ditch on the outskirts of town. They moved with caution into the thick brambles and mud to witness the body of a lifeless Rottweiler. He was huge and greying around his snout, lying motionless among the wild raspberry vines with bones protruding from his sides where the flesh had rotted or been eaten away by scavengers.

They approached the scene with morbid fascination. The dog had no collar and no sign of an owner. One of the older kids dared to poke the dog with a stick, but nothing happened. The children grimaced at the ghastly sight of the forsaken animal.

"Stop it. That is just disgusting!"

"You're just scared is all."

"I am not! I just feel sorry for it."

"Why? It probably ate little kids like you when it was alive."

"I bet it still does. Watch out, or Ol' Grizzle will get you too!"

"Cut it out!"

The kids ran away, screaming about Ol' Grizzle and laughing.

Ol' Grizzle's skeletal remains decayed there until the raspberries grew straight through him. The kids of the town told each other more and more scary stories of the grisly "Ol' Grizzle."

Ol' Grizzle was once a forgotten stray, but through the years of rumors and stories, his memory transformed into a dreaded phantom in the minds of the people in town.

The children grew up and told the story of the rotting monster to their own children. These children sometimes dared each other to approach the haunted patch of wild and thorny raspberry vines outside town after dark on spooky nights. Even as they grew older, they would sometimes drive by that sinister spot with their children sleeping in the backseat. They half-expected to catch a glimpse of the horrible and lonely creature that had become pure terror in their collective imagination. Ol' Grizzle was the reason you felt watched in the graveyard. Ol' Grizzle was the one who gobbled up all the stray cats that went missing. Ol' Grizzle was lurking around alleys, waiting to attack the kids who came home too late after dark.

In his life, Grizzle never had a name. He was born to a big litter of puppies bred to become guard dogs. Since he was the runt, he mainly kept to himself and tried not to get into any fights because he knew he'd lose. His owner would visit as he grew fast. The new owner talked about getting his tail docked and his ears cropped.

This strange man had a smell that made the puppy afraid. On the morning that the owner came to take the puppy home, the dog breeder accidentally left his kennel unlatched. The puppy shot like a bullet out of the kennel and ran into the woods without looking back.

The puppy hunted his food in those woods for many years. He grew into a powerful dog, though he didn't realize it. He knew no other dog, and he never trusted a human. He did befriend spiders, snakes, and other predatory creatures who were born to fight and kill but were so often misunderstood.

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