Buddy Gets a Name
“Can I open it? I want to open it!”
“No! Me! I get to open it!”
“You don’t get to, Beau – It’s not even your birthday.”
“It’s not your birfday either! It’s not Duke’s birfday is
it, Mom?”
I was able to see most of the room through the hole that the
Cowboy had carved in the side of the box before he put me inside. I was nervous
and I wanted to whine a little but I remembered that I had heard my sister tell
my brother once that whining wasn’t very manly. I wasn’t sure what manly meant but he
stopped crying when she told him that, so I figured I should do the same.
I smiled as I watched the two brothers tussle. One of
them – the one named Beau – the one who couldn’t say birthday – was wearing overalls
and a straw hat like The Cowboy. It figured he was the younger of the two, even
though they were almost the same size. And the other one – the one he called Duke – he
was a fine looking boy, strapping even. His hair was reddish and he had a
dimple in his chin. I felt a little twinge in my chest as I thought of my brother,
Buster. And my sister, LuLuBelle. We had such fun playing games and wrestling in
the piles of dead leaves. Who would I play with now?
Beau and Duke had fallen quiet, both of them staring expectantly at the
other side of the room. I couldn’t see what they were looking at but I guessed
it was their mother. At least, a mother type voice answered them.
“It’s not anybody’s birthday. But Gracie gets to open the
box just as soon as she finishes taking off her coat.”
“The Squirrel? Why her? Why does she get to do everything?!”
Squirrel? I knew what a squirrel was. They were fun to chase. Maybe we were going to play after all. I smiled and panted a little bit. It was getting kind of warm in
here. I sure hoped The Squirrel named Gracie was fast.
A shadow crossed in front of the box, blocking my view. I
felt the box move. I stumbled and scrambled against the side, almost toppling all the way onto
my back. When I got my feet under me again, I put my eye up to the hole. A people eye
appeared on the other side. We both jumped back. The top flew off the box. The face looking down at me did not belong to a squirrel. The nose had
freckles on it and the eyes - big brown eyes - were almost covered by a lock of hair - also brown. She brushed
the hair off her forehead but it fell right back again.
“A puppy!” she whispered. “Oh! It’s a puppy!” She looked up
at her Mother and The Cowboy. “What’s his name?”
"Now Squirrel, boys, be careful with him. He's probably scared."
The mother reached in and scooped me up, shielding me from the
eager hands of the two boys. “Be gentle,” she said. “We’ll figure that out a
good name for him later. For now let’s just let him get used to us.”
I looked down at the boys, at the little girl named Gracie and craned my neck to look back at the Cowboy. I lost my balance when I did that and had to scramble a little. This was exciting but also confusing. I felt a warm sensation down my leg and cast a worried glance at my belly. Now, I whined.
Cowboy cleared his throat. “He might need to go outside, Mama.”
“Ummm,” she held me at arms length. Her eyes were lovely and forgiving, but I was so embarrassed I couldn't look even at her. “I think it’s too late for that.”
The Cowboy took me from her. “C’mon Little Buddy. Let’s do
the rest of our business outside.”
At this, Kitty stopped her cleaning and looked up, incredulous. “You peed
on Mama?”
Buddy felt himself blushing to the roots of his ears. “I was in that box a
long time.”
Boss gave Kitty a warning nudge. “And that’s
how you got your name, Buddy?”
“Yep," he answered. "That’s how I got my name.” Suddenly curious, Buddy
cocked his head. “How did you get your name?”
The fire reflected in yellow depths of Boss’s eyes. He
blinked once and it went away. “I was born with it.”