The Legendary Adventures of Ronnie and Calypso
The Lost City of Wagibotham
Garry Fisher

Some info.
[This is the story of how Ronnie and Calypso find their Woofish Names. Woofish is the native language of Dogs and the names that Humans give them are only adopted names, not their true name]

[Dogs believe in the Great Dog and that only with their Woofish name that the Great Dog gives them through their dreams can a family find each other after their time in this world. Without a true name a dog will wander tails end without his family.]

Chapter 1
It happened one warm summer evening, not so long ago, and not so very far away. A new litter had arrived on Millington's Farm.

Maisy, a russet red and white Cavapoo, was busily washing her new pups ready for them to meet Max the Bichon Friese, the puppies’ father.

"Are they washed, yet?" barked Max, through the kitchen door.

Though Maisy couldn't see, she knew that Max would be bouncing high just the other side of the door; his hind legs kicking him off the ground as hard as they could as he waited, eager to see his new family. Max was not a cool dog, as he would be the first to admit; he was, in fact, a rather excitable dog, particularly so on a day like today. The day he became a father once again.

"All right, you can come in now," Maisy woofed. "Mind where you tread, though!"

The kitchen door flew open, and Max bounded in. He was greeted by eight pairs of eyelids tightly closed over tiny little eyes. "One, two, three, four ... four pups! Can't believe it!"

"Five," Maisy barked, "there's five," she said, flicking her right ear behind her to where a single tiny, wrinkly black pup wriggled around on his own, away from his sisters and brother, heading in the opposite direction from his siblings, who were bullying each other for the best position at the dinner table of mum's tum.

"Where's he off to?" asked Max.

Maisy shrugged, "Five times I dragged him round to this side and five times he climbed over me and headed straight for that old mouse hole," Maisy flicked her nose over to the side wall where a small, ragged hole in the old, rotted skirting board opened to an outside air vent.

Max trotted over to the hole in the wall and sniffed, inquisitively.

"Not sure what's so special about an old mouse hole!" he snorted. He turned to the wayward pup and gently lifted him in his jaws and strolled back to rejoin his new family. “I’ll tell you what, though!” he mumbled before putting the pup with the others at their mothers' belly, “there's a proper breeze blowing through it! I’m surprised Master Millington hasn’t fixed that yet!” He moved back a step and sat watching intently as the litter were fed.

It seemed like no time at all before all the puppies' eyes were open wide. The excitement on their faces when first they saw the things around them, their Mum and their Dad, the bed where they slept, the hotbox that smoked and made different smells every day, things called chairs that the tall Pack sat on, an entire world, that was a sight Maisie and Max would never forget. Nor would they forget the look of pure delight on the littlest one's face as he lay staring at the tiny glimpse of daylight that snuck in through the old mouse hole. Day after day straight after breakfast he would lie, sniffing snorting and occasionally sneezing, drinking in the unseen world beyond.

It was a hot sunny day outside, but the kitchen, being of north-facing aspect, was cool. Max wandered in after his early afternoon walk with Master Millington, Pack leader. Seeing his youngest in his usual place over by the small hole, he went and sat beside him. The pup snuggled up to his father whose fur was warm from the outside heat of the day. “Dad?” he said, quizzically, “What’s it like outside? I mean, how big is it the other side of here?” he tapped the skirting board with his muzzle. “It all smells so big, but it looks so tiny” he took another look through the hole in front of him and sighed.

Max looked down and growled softly, “You’ll find out for yourself soon enough, son.” Tonight, is the last night you’ll be fed by your Mum, tomorrow you and your brother and sisters will start eating from scoff bags and ring tins, just like me and Mum do.” He paused a while in thought. “You’ll be grown before a tail’s wag!” he said, more to himself than anyone else. He gave his son a kindly look, “The world beyond this here puproom is bigger than even I could guess; better you take the time to explore it for yourself, than I try and explain.” Max licked the thickening fur of his son's head. “Go and join your siblings for supper, Mum will be waiting.”

That evening after supper the pups gathered into two little groups. The first saw the two eldest of the litter playfully tugging at each other's ears. The eldest, who was called Tethlitti, in old Woofish, was the colour of honey, her fur flowed and rippled as she tussled with her brother, Granaxatta, the second eldest, this one, pure black and larger than the rest. They were watched by the remaining members of the litter, who whispered secretively to each other.

"I heard Mum and Dad talking last night, long time after supper...," Petralitti said, her voice was soft and low. The two youngest puppies' ears pricked up. Reblitti, her coat a monochrome black and white palette of dense wavy fur, was bristling with curiosity as she moved closer to her sister, whilst her brother, the youngest, whose fur was a deep brown to the point of black, with wisps of white clouding his legs and chest, stood facing her, tail wagging, his tongue lolling half out of a muzzle clearly revealing the poodle in him. “What? What did they say, Petralitti?” he asked in a voice too loud.

“Sshh!” Petralitti hissed. She smiled at her elder siblings who momentarily stopped their play to see if they were missing anything exciting. After a quick glance, they decided they weren’t and returned to their scuffle.

The youngest looked around to make sure no one was listening and whispered, “What did Mum and Dad say, Petralitti? Tell us!”

Petralitti leaned in, “They must have thought we were all asleep,” she began, “but I was woken up by Granaxatta snoring! I was just about to nudge him so’s he’d stop, but I noticed that Mum and Dad were talking over by the hotbox.” She paused briefly and looked lovingly at the two pairs of brown eyes staring up at her. “Well,” she went on, her voice barely a whisper, now, “There’s a human Pack coming to the puproom … we’re to be taken away and given new names!” The two younger pups gasped. Reblitti nearly fainted with the shock, while the other sat down heavily on his bottom. And there they sat, none saying a word.

“Granaxatta?” their Mother called, “Stop fighting with your sister and all of you get ready for bed, it’s getting late.”

Without another word spoken, the five little puppies made their way to the large sleeping bed and all collapsed into a deep sleep, all except the youngest. “A new name!” he said to himself. “I didn’t even get to earn my Woofish name,” he thought sadly. I hope the new Pack take us all together, he thought as his eyes finally closed and he drifted into sleep.

Chapter 2
“But it’s too soon, they can’t go yet,” Maisy stomped her front paws on the flag stones of the kitchen floor. “They should have two more weeks with us!”

Max held up his front paws defensively, balancing on his rear legs. “It’s not my fault!” he barked. “Mistress Millington says she got the birth dates wrong!”

“But there’s only four of them has got their proper Woofish name! What's our youngest going to do? How will we find him again?” Maisy was crouched with her bottom in the air, she was rubbing her face with her front paws, left paw, right paw, left paw, sweeping the side of her head from ear to nose.

Max moved closer and sat beside her, he put a paw on her head. “Now stop that,” he woofed softly, “He’ll find his name and we’ll learn of it when the time is right. Don’t fret now. He'll be fine, you see!”

Maisy stopped stroking her face and nuzzled her head in, tight, under Max’s chin.

The loud slam! of a car door pulled Maisy and Max out of their hug and set Max to barking the news that the time had come! “Granaxatta!” he yelped, “Where are you? Your new Pack leader is here! … Granaxatta? Where is that boy?”

Granaxatta was with his sisters and brother, in the back room of the farmhouse. “But why can’t we all go together?” whined Rebliiti. The youngest pup sat next to his sister, nodding, his head moving so fast that Tethlitti thought it would fly off at any moment and go rolling into the mouse hole he loved so much. “Because we all have different Packs to follow! That's just how it is!” Tethlitti growled. “The Great Dog will make sure we see each other when we wag our tails for the last time.” She turned to Granaxatta, “Take care dear brother, see you at tail’s end.” Giving his ear one last tug in the direction of the front door, Tethlitti led him forward and the others came up behind him and pushed from the rear. “Tail’s end, tail’s end” they all howled together, as Granaxatta walked out the door into the bright sunlight of morning.

The following day it was Rebliiti and Tethlitti’s turn to join their new Packs, and two days later, Mum called Petralitti’s name.

She was lying with her brother by the mouse hole, both sniffing at the air seeping in from the outside. She turned and whined gently, “Well little brother, find your name soon, I expect to see you at tail’s end” and slowly she eased herself up from the floor and set off to find her place in a new home.

Her brother followed Petralitti through to the kitchen where Master Millington bent down and gently lifted her into his arms. The kitchen door was split into a top and bottom half, like a stable door, the bottom half was closed behind them as she was taken to a big trackabod, its engine knocking noisily as it idled. Bouncing frantically to see over the half-closed stable door, he barked and barked “Goodbye sister, goodbye, I’ll see you at tail’s end, I promise!” There was a thwump, thwump as the car's doors were closed, the engine revved slightly and slowly it disappeared down the long farm track to the main road.

Max and Maisy followed Master Millington in through the kitchen door, and went straight to their pup and both began to lick and comfort him.

“Will there be another Pack come for me?” whined the youngest, his head hung so low, his ears stroked the flagstone floor.

His Mother and father both regarded him with gentle eyes and Max said, “They come tomorrow, son! Master Millington says they come from the flat lands where the sky stretches across the horizon. Out there some say you can even see the great Dog Itself, see its tail, in the wisps of cloud and know you’re safe. Don’t be afraid, son, you’ll find your name and...” Max’s words dissolved into a sad silence; it was Maisy who finished them for him, “And we shall come find you, have no doubt! … Have no doubt!” she barked again.

They suppered together, and after, Max and Maisy lay down with their son for the last time in this life.

Chapter 3
The morning had come too quick, and before a tail’s wag Max and Maisy were in the field watching the black trackabod drive their last pup away.

In the car, the little puppy shivered and cried and soon, much to his shame, had an unpleasant accident. The trackabod stopped, the travel cage was opened, and his new Pack leader picked him up in a soft towel and cleaned him, and then, without a warn or word, gently brushed his cheek against the fur atop the puppy's head before placing him carefully back in the cage. Soon they were on their way again.

It was many hours later that he woke. It was dark, and the trackabod had stopped. He checked himself, just in case he’d had another little accident and not noticed, but he was still clean. He looked over to where his new Pack leader had been sitting for so long, but he was there no longer. Where had he gone? “Hey! Hey, come back, where are you?” He stood on all fours, “Where are you?” The trackabod door opened and cold air tickled his nose, “Where, woof, wooofooffoof,” he barked. Two Pack mistresses stood at the opened door, they had big smiles on their muzzles and the tall one leaned forward slightly and spoke. “Hello, Ronnie!”

 

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