Lady and the Punk

4: Morning With Sam

It was a new day. A rooster crowed. The clock chimed as a teen Sam opened her eyes.

Sam looked at the clock. 6 AM already.

Sam yawned and stretched her legs. She quickly woke up her humans with nuzzles and face licks.

Sam tugged at Jim Dear's pajamas to get him up. Jim was semi-asleep, but he then got up as Sam gave him his slippers.

JIM DEAR: Alright Sam. Alright. I'm up. I'm a– Sam! Oh no!

DARLING: What's wrong Jim? What is it?

JIM DEAR: Can't you explain to Sam what Sundays are?

Jim Dear slumped back to the bed as Sam rushed downstairs and outside to do her daily morning routine.

Sam used the dog door to go outside. She saw crows in the backyard, and not wanting to see them, she shooed him off by woofing at them. But as she was walking off, the crows returned.

Not that she minded, because something else caught her eyes; a bone, waiting to be buried somewhere. So Sam took the bone and buried it under a flower patch.

But then she saw that one flower was out of place. Imagine what her humans would think! She quickly placed the flower upside-down and walked off.

But then Sam scented something. It was awful. She looked behind her.

It was a rat! A large, ugly rat. In her very yard, advancing on the house. Sam would not let this happen. She snarled and aggressively barked at the rat.

The rat ran under firewood and a hole in the fence, and Sam chased it off. Even after it disappeared out of sight, Sam was digging under the fence hole, ready to kill it.

But then Sam heard a bell ringing. The paperboy was here! She dashed to the other side of the yard to fetch the newspaper.

The paperboy, knowing Sam well, went by his bicycle and tossed the newspaper for her. Sam got her aim ready, and perfectly caught the paper in her mouth.

Sam went back to the front door, shooing off the crows, and made it to the porch, but...

The paper wouldn't fit through the dog door. Sam tried to jump through it again. It still wouldn't fit.

Okay. Maybe if Sam walked backwards with the paper at a vertical angle, then it would fit.

And it worked. The paper did rip at the door, and some of it was lost, but it worked.

Then it was Jim Dear and Darling's breakfast time. Jim was trying to read the paper with an enormous hole in the middle.

JIM DEAR: Have you noticed darling, ever since we've had Sam, we've seen less and less of those disturbing headlines?

DARLING: Yes. I don't know how we ever got along without her.

JIM DEAR: We've had her for about six months now. We'd better be getting her a license.

Jim Dear gave Sam crunchy bread with honey for breakfast.