A Tale of Five Tails

February 10, 2018 by JoAnna 44 Comments

Once upon a time, in a little urban cottage, lived a peri-menopausal woman and her adolescent daughter. The daughter liked to wear black. Her mother liked to wear green, blue, and brown, the colors of the earth. They were both somewhat lonely, though not horribly so, because they had each other and the two tails. (We’ll come back to the tails in a moment.) You see, the woman’s prince charming had turned back to a frog after twenty years of marriage and left to be with a younger woman. (That’s all I’m going to say about that, lest I seem bitter.)

The two tails were attached to two dogs. One was a big golden boy with the heart of a lion. His tail looked like a plume and would often catch things like leaves, twigs, and Christmas tree ornaments. The other was a mongrel of medium size whose tail was brown and long with a white tip at the end. The woman and her daughter both loved the dogs and their tails that wagged easily when the humans came home from a hard day at the office and the classroom.

The woman met other princes who were not princes at all. One was a creepy old toad who briefly appeared confident and smart, but alas, he had way too many demons running around in his head and would not even try to slay them. The other was better, with  a big smile. He seemed like the court jester at first, but sometimes he could be, shall we say, contrary. Too contrary. And he was not a good fit.

The woman decided that maybe she was better off with just the two dogs with their plumey and tippy tails. They were not much trouble and better company than the men who had courted her. But she sometimes still wished for a partner, a knight in shining armor who would not turn out to be a frog. Someone who would be a good fit. At the top of her list was that he MUST LOVE DOGS. 

Well, right around the time her daughter graduated from high school, she got a message  from her old flame, from long, long ago and far, far away. He found her again when the time was perfect. The old flame, as it turned out, loved dogs! He had three dogs each with their own special tail. One was shy and neurotic and shook every time it thundered. His tail was black and shaggy with white on the end. One was a tall hound, obsessed with food. Her tail did not wag much because she had been traumatized at an early age, before the man rescued her. But later, she became a happy tail-wagging hound, especially at dinner time. The other dog was “Beep the Horrible.” She loved the man so much, she would tear things up when he left. She did not want to share him at first. Her tail was short but could wag fiercely.

When the old flame and his dogs came to live with the woman, after an appropriate and romantic courtship, the dogs did not all get along well. But walking together as a pack and vigilance at mealtimes, eventually brought the blended family together. “Beep the Horrible” fell in love with the adolescent daughter. The woman and her old flame, who really was her knight in shining armor, got married and lived happily ever in the little urban cottage with their five dogs with wagging tails.

My Golden Boy, Jesse and Mary Moo

Oreo the Vibrating Dog

Doodle the crazy coon hound

Beep the Horrible

…

If you’d like to read the full-length version of this story, buy my book! Or enter to win a free Kindle e-book in Goodreads Giveaways Feb. 12 – Feb. 20. Stay tuned for details!

Today’s prompt for the Saturday’s Stream of Consciousness was to tail/tale. For more tales of the Stream of Consciousness kind, visit Linda’s blog at:

https://lindaghill.com/2018/02/09/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-10-18/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!