There
once was a man named Robert Pettit, who had a dog named Murda. Rob (that was
what he liked to be called) was very fond of animals, but not very fond of
people. He was retired at seventy-two years of age and he had never been
married. His dog, Murda, was fairly young (for a dog), because she had been
recently purchased after the death of Rob’s fifteen-year old dog, Joe. Rob and
Murda lived in a fairly large house about twenty miles outside of Portland , Oregon
One
day at about noon , Rob went out to feed his dog when a he witnessed a giant
bird clasp Murda in its talons and fly off into the woods. Rob desperately
tried to run after it, but it was of no use. Rob wasn’t the runner that he used
to be, and there was no way he could have even traveled at half the speed the
bird was. However, Rob ran. He ran as fast as he could (which wasn’t very
fast), straight into the woods. Pretty soon, Rob could not see the bird at all,
but was just running in the direction he had last seen the bird go. Rob panted
and slowed down, but never stopped. He kept going, because he loved Murda.
Suddenly, a protruding root tripped Rob, who fell down, hitting his head on a
stone and going unconscious.
Now,
it just so happened that there were two children, brother and sister, named
Damian and Lilly. These siblings lived nearby, and they often liked to run into
the adventurous forest to play their games. As they were playing in the forest,
they saw the old man and stopped. Rob’s forehead was bleeding, but not at a
very fast rate. Damian, seeing the blood, instructed Lilly to run home as fast
as she could and get their father, who was outside weeding the garden.
Soon after Lilly left, the giant bird
landed right in front of Damian and Rob, put Murda on the ground, and prepared
to feast upon his lunch. Just before taking a bite, though, Damian caught the
bird’s eye. Seeing a bigger potential meal, the bird left Murda and moved
towards the stunned Damian. The fear in Damian’s eyes seemed to build the
bird’s confidence, so it took off toward Damian. The boy tried to run, but was
snatched up by the giant bird to be carried off as a snack.
Just in the nick of time, though,
Lilly appeared with her father, who leapt up and grabbed one of the giant bird’s
legs. Pulling it down, he was able to bring the bird to the ground. Damian
rolled out of its talons and hit the ground hard. Lilly scurried off to get
some of the family’s neighbors to help. As his father struggled with the bird,
Damian crawled over to Rob, who had been unconscious the whole time. The boy
got his handkerchief out of his pocket to stop the blood a little, even though
a lot of it was drying by now. Murda was also at Rob’s side, rubbing her nose
softly against the side of his head.
At this point, Lilly came back with
one of the neighbors, who had his handgun. There was, however, a problem. The
neighbor did not want to hurt Lilly’s father (who was struggling with the bird)
in the process of stopping the bird. As he attempted to aim around Lilly’s
father to shoot, Lilly screamed, which frightened him and he unintentionally
pulled the trigger. The next thing he knew, the bird and Lilly’s father were
both on the ground.
Both the neighbor and Lilly rushed
over to him, but fortunately he got up and declared that he was fine. Then, all
three acknowledged Damian and Rob, who were on the forest floor nearby. After
seeing the condition of the old man, the neighbor rushed home to give a call to
the paramedics, who were there shortly. It took many days of sleeping in a
coma, but Rob was eventually okay, and he was happily reunited with his dog.
Because of this experience, Rob made friends with his neighbors, and became a
people-person. If you asked any of his neighbors now, they would all agree that
he is the social butterfly of the neighborhood. For the rest of his life, Rob
enjoyed being around and talking to others, especially Lilly and Damian.
Through all this, though, he never neglected his beloved Murda.
