Wooffer by Betty Fasig

Since Wooffer is comprised of thirty-three short stories and has no real first chapter, I have posted here the introduction to the stories. It is an account of how Wooffer came to be my dog and how I came to be his mom.


It was the wonderful Christmas season, and time had come for the family Christmas party. Everyone was there; moms and dads, aunts and uncles, nanas, grannies and grandpas, and lots of children.

The tables were full of delicious things… ham roasted in honey, special breads and pickles, sauerkraut balls, little wieners in buns, cheeses, crackers, vegetables to dip in the special sauces… good things to eat of all descriptions, and lots of it.!!

It was a bodacious party!!

When it came time to hand around the presents, the children received theirs first, one at a time, so everyone could see what they got and ooohhh and aaahhhh over it and have a good look at it and wish they had one just like it themselves. And so, each child received a special present that day.

After the children and the grannies and grandpas got their special presents, it came to be Nana’s turn to get her special present from the family.

She was so excited.

Nana was told that her present was so very BIG, that they had to go get it in a very large truck. Off went the uncles and grandpas in the biggest truck they had to get Nana’s present. Nana could not imagine what it could be! What could be so big that it would take such a very large truck to carry it?!!!

It was not long before the uncles and grandpas came back with the very big truck, carrying the very big present. But, before Nana could see it, she had to close her eyes very tight and not peek at all, and wait until they brought it in.

Nana closed her eyes very tight, indeed, and did not peek at all. She waited with great excitement for someone to tell her it was time to look, but someone put a very furry, very soft, very small animal in her arms. She could not help it! She had to look.

It was Wooffer that she held in her arms. He was a very small puppy. Nana looked at Wooffer, and Wooffer looked at Nana. It was LOVE at first sight! Nana cried for joy. She had wanted Wooffer for a long time.

Wooffer looked at Nana, with the tears on her face, and knew that she was his new MOM.

Wooffer is not very big, and you may wonder why it took such a very big truck to bring him to the party. But, it is simple. There was so much love that came with Wooffer from the family, that it took the biggest truck they could find to haul it all. And even then, the truck was not big enough to hold all that love. Some of it spilled over. And so, Pogo, Daisy, and Jazzper, Wooffer’s brothers and sister, came to live with the family, too. They live in town with their new moms and dads and Wooffer lives in the country with his mom. They can visit each other often, and every Christmas, when all the family is together, Wooffer’s brothers and sister are right there, too.






Being a dog, Wooffer has a connection with all the other life that exists around him… from the smallest insect, to the largest mammal… which is me. He is acquainted with the butterflies, the squirrels, the rabbits and the armadillos, the cats and the raccoons, the peacock and the chicken, the grasshoppers and the worms, the lady bugs and the birds. Nothing escapes his notice, and he is interested in everyone and everything. An egret cannot have passed that he did not know it passed. Every mouse, rat, mole, or vole leaves its scent. Wooffer knows them all by heart. Every lizard and skink has left a mark and a trail for him to follow.
Wooffer also leaves a scent trail for all the other creatures to follow. It was inevitable that they all found each other and became friends. Wooffer is a small dog in a vast world. He does only little dog things, but he has changed his world in small ways that made a big difference. Every animal small or large (that’s me) has had a better life because he is here.

Love,
Betty

I think you have a problem I wreste with constantly...using ellipses too much.

I am forcing myself to use dashes and semicolons more. It's really not all that cool to have two ellipses in one sentence like the first one in the last section.

Dear lin,
Thank you for telling me that. I have so much trouble with punctuation! I am not a real writer in the sense that I know all about punctuation and grammar. I know very little.

I post here the stories as I first wrote them. I have learned a lot over the last few years. But, I let it stand the way I wrote it and the way it was published. I considered it was the only way I could post something that I had written even though I may know better now. I have learned a lot. First of all, I consider that the title of Author is too grand for me. Regardless of all of my errors, I do want to be perfect, and perfect I shall be, one day.

Love,
Betty

Well you can be a real writer and be lousy at spelling and punctuation, Betty.
And have all that down and be a lousy writer.

I consider it good stuff to learn and poke around at it at times, expanding my grasp on all that stuff I tuned out in school.

Betty,
you have nothing to be ashamed of. Your stories speak for themselves.

Betty's stories are loved by many, including me. She gives voices to the animals as they interact with other animals as well as the humans in their lives. Her imagination is wonderful.

Carol

Ditto.

Thank you all for your nice words. Lin, I hope you are right and that an author can be a good author and not be very good at punctuation. God bless people who know how to do all of that the right way. I have just looked through all the smiley things and came up with that sunny one. hahahah.

Carol and Dick, I am glad that you love Wooffer. I wish I could clone you both and send you forth!

Love,
Betty

Dear Abe!

I think that I have succesfully cloned you and am ready to send your clone out to kick the poop out of anyone you desire the poop to be removed from. ( forgive the preposition ending)
Love,
Betty

I think your stories are great, Betty. Just as they are written. In fact, I have Woofer and a couple others on order at the moment. Woofer, I will read and pass to my beloved sister, who loves animals as much as you!

I found a post I'd written about three years ago on another forum and thought I'd repost it:

Betty, you show us the world of animals and remind us again of the glory of lives we sometimes forget. By your stories, you demonstrate to children, who perhaps have forgotten or never knew, that all creatures from the family dog to a chameleon scurrying on a limb, have purpose and feelings.

Most of all, you show us that all life is sacred, something we sometimes forget in our hustle, bustle world.

So, Betty, you are a success, probably more than you’ll ever realize. You should never feel inferior to anyone.