Story #1: Animal Characters

Prompt: Write a story with animals as characters. (Word count: 255)

* * * * * The coyote tore through Whitfield’s garden, the sheepdog nipping its tail. It dug its paws deep into the soil, flung it back at the dog’s face.

Old Whitfield hobbled out from the garage, brandished a rake. “Sic ’im, Butch! Get ’im this time!”

Butch had found the coyote skulking beneath the henhouse, the frenzied cackling of hens having given away its position. Once he’d stuck his muzzle beneath the structure, the coyote had skittered out the far side. After noticing it had broken left, toward the garden, he dodged around the henhouse, and the chase was on.

When Butch shook the dirt from his eyes, the coyote flattened itself. The dog shot over it. The coyote reversed course and headed back to the henhouse, the barn, the forest beyond.

“Butch, he’s getting away!”

Snarling, Butch blazed hot on its trail.

Frantic cries of chickens. Discouraging lows of cattle. The dog’s labored breath getting closer. The coyote shut out everything but the birdsong of safety in the forest. It leapt a haybale near the bottom half of a Dutch door at the end of the barn, then flung itself for the upper opening.

Landing tail-over-shoulders, it saw Butch soaring toward him. Found itself pinned by the Sheepdog’s body.

“Owwwww!” it howled.

“Get up, wuss,” Butch growled. “Payback for dirt in my face.”

“Fine,” the coyote said. “Next time we play hide and seek in the forest.”

“Whatever. Saturday, then.”

Exhausted, both animals headed for their homes.

–30–