A Dog's Immortality

Hi everyone! My name is Sunny. I am a 13 year old Bernese mountain dog. I am about to tell you the story about my unique journey to becoming immortal…

Bernese Mountain Dog

⤁

I let out a large yawn as the door to the room slammed shut. It took a while to adjust to the darkness inside this new home of mine, but the lights from the Christmas tree in the corner helped out. I was the new to this shelter and was anxious to know what the local dogs would think of me. As I was about to lay down when a low bellowing voice from the kennel across the room spoke out.

“Hey newbie! Names Sasha. What’s yours?” The shape of a beautiful border collie appeared before my eyes. His eyes were sunken and he looked quite old.

“Uhm, the name is Sunny.”

“Well, Sunny. I see you’re quite young compared to all the locals. I am sure that you will get adopted pretty quickly with that smile of yours. I do have one question though since you won’t be around long and I don’t want you to suffer the same fate as me being in here. Have you ever heard of immortality?”

“No, I am afraid not.” I returned an answer to this strange question.

“Well you see, once you are adopted you can gain immortality. All you have to do is a simple task in order to gain this magical gift.” Sasha’s voice slowed down and hung on the last few words

.

“What is the task!?” I yearned for immortality because I simply feared death. I mean, who doesn’t?

“It’s simple… Become a good boy.” With those words, Sasha laid down and fell asleep.

⤁ 

The next morning was a complete blur. I was contemplating what Sasha had mentioned the night before but kept getting distracted from the humans walking around. As dogs next to me got adopted left and right, I finally gave up and laid down to rest. I can’t believe how some of these dogs last in here for months. I wanted out… Now!

Just as all hope was lost, a young man and woman walked up to my kennel. A few good scratches and licks later, I was in their car with my head out the window. I was well on my way to becoming a good boy for my humans.

The car finally came to a stop and I sat in my seat waiting patiently to not get in trouble. I mean, my first impression had to be good so I can become immortal. All of a sudden, a smell caught my nose. I resisted and resisted but my oh my that smell! It smelled like heaven. As my new owners opened the door, I couldn’t take it any longer…

I jolted as quickly as I could and was on the trail of this delicious smell with my new humans following right behind. When I arrived at the end of the smelling trail, I saw what it was. It was the most delicious looking prime rib I had ever seen. I stuck my tongue out to lick it but I remembered that I needed to be a good boy.

Prime Rib

I couldn’t help it though. I mean this prime rib looked amazing! So before my humans got to me I gobbled up about half of the prime rib. I was ashamed… I couldn’t even resist this my FIRST day with my humans. I felt my tail go between my legs and I slowly walked to the corner. 

As soon my new humans reached me, I heard the anger in their voices. I knew I was in trouble. I mentally prepared for my punishment when all of a sudden the young woman got on her knees and spoke to me.

“Aw hun. Our pup must be starving! They must not be feeding him anything in that kennel. Let me cut off some more for him and we can all celebrate our Christmas Eve dinner together.”

As she put some into my bowl, I heard her say those magical words.

“Here’s your food Sunny. You are such a good boy!” My face lit up with excitement. I was well on my way to becoming immortal and happy forever!

 ⤁

Now as I sit here 11 years later breathing heavy, looking into the eyes of my humans I love so much, I finally understood what Sasha meant. Being a good boy did not actually mean immortality. What it meant was having the best possible life and getting to spend every second of it with MY humans. I mean hey, that feels like immortality to me…

Author’s Note: This reading is based off of me reading The Monkey King. The stone ape in this story tries to become immortal but constantly suffers from not being civilized enough. I wanted to play off of this and have my main character be a dog who couldn’t resist simply being a dog. The stone ape eventually gains immorality, but he never really became civilized. Therefore, I had Sunny do something as easy as becoming a good boy and gaining not immortality, but a great life with his humans. I felt that having a dog live forever would have been unrealistic, therefore, I decided to be more grounded in my story. In contrast to the original story, I made Sunny happier and not so stuck on himself. I felt the original stone ape solely wanted immortality for himself, however, by the end of my story I wanted the reader to understand why Sunny wanted it. He simply wanted to live forever with his humans.

In terms of characters, symbols, and the setting, I tried to keep some portions similar to the original while I changed others. The prime rib represented The Peaches of Immortality that the stone ape ate without permission. Additionally, Sasha was the great Master that the stone ape heard of immortality from. Finally, I wanted it to be set in the modern world for the reader to be able to connect better with the story.