Sojo. Pam Flowers

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       Chapter Three

      One bright sunny afternoon Pam walked up to our doghouse with three harnesses in her hand. She leaned forward, put her hands on her knees, and said in a chipper voice, “Guess what? You puppies are twelve weeks old and it’s time to start sled dog school.”

      Anna wagged her tail, Roald ran inside our house and hid behind Mom, and I nearly fainted.

      Pam said, “The first thing you have to learn is how to get into a harness. Which one of you is brave enough to go first?”

      Anna leaped toward Pam.

      No, Anna, don’t go. This is puppy abuse! I shouted.

      Anna paid no attention to me as Pam helped her slip into the little harness. Anna jumped up and down and ran around in circles, showing off. She made it look fun so I decided I’d give it a try.

      Pam took hold of my collar and slipped the harness over my head. Watch the ears! She gently eased both my front legs through the loops. The harness was red and, against my black coat, I must admit I looked rather stunning. For once Roald came out of the doghouse when Pam called him, and when he got his harness on, the three of us ran all over the dog lot showing off for the big dogs and feeling quite proud of ourselves.

      I ran over to my dad. Dad! Look at me.

      You look beautiful, Sojo.

      I know.

      Dad shook his head and laughed.

       Mom, don’t I look beautiful?

      Yes, dear, you look quite lovely, said my mom. But don’t chew on your harness. Pam won’t like that.

      Soon it was nap time so Pam took our harnesses off and gave each of us our first taste of every sled dog’s favorite treat—liver! Ummm-um.

      Back in our doghouse Anna asked in a sleepy voice, Do you still think that was puppy abuse?

      No. At first I thought Pam was going to make us pull a sled but all we had to do was try on a harness. I was worried for nothing, I said yawning.

      Even I wasn’t scared after awhile, said Roald.

      It was a happy day and I smiled as I drifted off to sleep thinking about liver treats and dog harnesses.

      The very next day Pam was in one of her rare happy moods and did something fun. “Today we start lesson number two. It’s a real drag,” she said with a laugh.

      She put my harness on me and then took a length of string with a stick tied to it and tied the string to the end of my harness. It made a great game and I ran in circles chasing the stick until I got so dizzy I fell over.

      Pam laughed and laughed. Then she helped me get up and said, “Sojo, you’re never going to be a sled dog if all you do is run in circles.”

      It doesn’t matter because I’m not going to be a sled dog. I’m going to be a show dog.

      As we got bigger so did the sticks until we were dragging around small pieces of firewood. Even though we were getting older, we still weren’t chained up yet. So when we got tired of running in circles, we went back to exploring our world while dragging pieces of firewood with us.