 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
Children's Author Event
Nationally recognized author and animal advocate Patricia O’Connor shared her talents at a family event here. Drawing inspiration from a stray at our shelter, Patricia created a story about the dog which she illustrated while reading aloud to the audience. Enjoy the following tale of Snow and original artwork!
In the great big city of New York, there was a very small dog named Chelsea. She lived behind a laundromat in an alley, which was filled with chairs, old clothes, boxes, and an old blue car.
One day, Chelsea gave birth to 6 puppies. Two were black, one was brown, and two had spots. But the last puppy, the littlest one, was all white, just like fresh fallen snow.
The puppies lived quite happily with their mother in the alley. Every day, she would leave them for just a little while to go out into the city and look for food. One day, she came back with a delectable piece of pepperoni pizza. Another day, she came back with a delicious cheeseburger. And another day, she came with a giant steak.
The puppies grew big and strong. One of them loved to howl. He howled at the moon, he howled at passing cars, and he really howled when he was hungry. Another puppy loved to eat. He waited patiently for his mother to come back and anxiously pounced on whatever food she brought.
One of the puppies loved to jump, and jumped high in the air without any reason whatsoever. He could jump right over his mother and come down on the other side without his mother even noticing.
Snow was the shy one of the group and she loved to hide. While the other puppies were doing their various hobbies, Snow would always go off somewhere and hide. Whether it was next to the old blanket, under the brown cardboard box, or behind the big trash can, Snow was always hiding somewhere. One day the puppies were especially energetic, a man walked by the alley and stopped.
“Oh dear,” he said. “Look at all of you! Don’t you belong anywhere? Don’t you have a home? Come on, I’ll take you and help you find a good one.” And with that, he scooped all the puppies up in his arms, and the mother too, and took them off in his truck to the Animal Humane Society.
All except one…Snow had been hiding as usual, this time behind the trash can, and the man did not see her. His truck pulled away from the curb and drove down the street, and Snow was there all by herself.
When she came from her hiding spot, she looked everywhere for her mother and brothers and sisters. She sniffed, she whined, then she barked, but they were nowhere to be found. First, she was surprised.
Then she was scared. And finally, as night began to fall, she was just plain sad and tired. She lay down and fell asleep and dreamed of pepperoni pizza and the warmth of her family.
The next day, Snow wandered out of the alley to search for food. She had the pepperoni pizza on her mind as she started to cross the busy street. But a car nearly hit her and honked so loudly that Snow ran back into the alley and behind the garbage can where she stayed that whole day. The next day, very hungry, Snow wandered out to search for a hamburger. She decided to avoid the street. But suddenly, she was overtaken by thousands of people running. So many pounding feet frightened her and she ran back behind the trash and stayed there the rest of the day.
By the third day, she was cold, tired, and really, really hungry. She wandered out of the alley and smelled a wonderful aroma. A father and son were sitting on the back of a trailer eating pepperoni pizza.
When they got up and said good-bye to one another, Snow jumped into the back of the trailer, dragged a piece of pizza with her, and hid under a blanket and ate every bite. Then she fell soundly asleep. When she woke, she did not know where she was. She looked out of the back of the trailer and saw, not the big buildings of New York City, but mountains and trees everywhere. She stood and watched the world go by, found another piece of abandoned pizza and ate it and then fell promptly back to sleep. When she woke up the next time, she saw cactus and sand dunes. Finally, after days of eating pizza and watching the world go by out of the back of the trailer, everything stopped and the boy got out and started unloading. Snow hid under the blanket as long as she could, until there was nothing left in the trailer except that…and her.
“Well, what do we have here?” said the boy. “This blanket seems to be moving.” He pulled off the blanket and there was Snow, looking up at him, and very frightened. “Hey, little dog,” he said. “How the heck did you get here? Don’t tell me you came all this way with me from New York City. And now what am I going to do with you? I’m just starting college and I’ll be living in a tiny dormitory room with a roommate. I really can’t have a dog, not even one as cute as you.”
Snow arrived at the Peninsula Humane Society and SPCA on August 18, 2009 delivered by a young college student who wanted her to find a great home. For every animal brought in to this and other Humane Societies and SPCAs across the United States, all have a story to tell. And they all deserve for their story to have a happy ending.
Children who attended the storytelling had a chance to meet the real dog and then make their own illustrations see their artwork. Snow was actually adopted that very same day!
Home | About Us | Our Services | Adopt an Animal |
Volunteer | Events
Resource Library | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Contact
the Webmaster