Perro Oso

Reyna had a dog, or a bear. She really could not tell which it was, so she just referred to him as El Perro Oso, the dog bear. He had the body of a dog, but the size of a bear. He had light brown fur, his nose was black and always covered with a thin wet layer of mucus. His hair was matted, he looked perpetually happy. His tail was dark brown, the colour of cardboard, and so were his ears. Reyna had Perro Oso for as long as she could remember, Perro Oso had grown with her, when she was a baby he was a puppy, and when she was twelve he was too. He grew with her, but never changed, he always remained her silly, babyish Perro Oso.

She was used to having him with her. Sometimes he made things hard, other times it was nice to have him there. Reyna loved Perro Oso though. She loved him with the kind of love you can only have for a pet.

Sadly, as Reyna grew older she grew tired of having Perro Oso with her all of the time. People became scared of him, people looked at Perro Oso with disgust. kids at her school laughed at him and her. Sometimes she'd wish she could stop him from following her. She wished he would just leave her alone. No one else had what she had. No one else had pets that would not leave them alone. No one else had a Perro Oso.

One night, in mid-Spring Reyna wanted to go to the park with her friends. She put her sweater on, and her shoes. She said goodbye to her Mama and Papi. Of course, Perro Oso was following her all around the house while she did these things. She walked down the creaky old stairs of her home and opened the old white side door. She stepped out onto the concrete step and looked down her gangway quickly, her backyard was in chaos, she would have to mow it soon. She turned to her right and trekked through her pathway to the sidewalk, and Perro Oso was trailing along beside her.

She was halfway down the block when Perro Oso made a terrible whining sound and stopped, he moved behind a tree and crouched down in fear. Reyna looked around, nothing seemed menacing or threatening. She walked back to Perro Oso urging him on. He kept whining, slowing Reyna down. He was a burden.

"Come, please," she begged patting her legs to get Perro Oso to her. He began crying, making horrible whining sounds while cowering behind the tree.

"Please, I have to go," she begged, knowing fully that he couldn't understand her.

"Perro Oso!" she shouted she squatted down and patted the cement hoping he would be urged to move and follow her hands. He wasn't.

She got up, and walked to Perro Oso. She began to push him, to urge his gigantic body forward, but he whined and cried.

"Please," she begged pushing him forward, she couldn't leave him. He'd always been at her side. However, now he was just being a pest. Why is he doing this to me? She thought. Reyna was done, she'd had with Perro Oso.

"You are stupid! I hate you! You are always holding me back, always stopping me from doing what I want! Everyone thinks you are weird, so they think I am weird! I don't even know where you came from! Why do you do this to me? I want to be rid of you!" She spewed her sharp words unable to control herself.

Though he couldn't understand her words, he understood her tone. Her tone spoke of anger, hatred, though he could not understand the horrible things she said he knew she was speaking of her hate for him. He shrunk down hiding his face in his body. She began yelling again screaming choruses of 'I hate you' and 'leave me alone'. Perro Oso understood her hostile tone and soon retaliated with his own. He growled and barked at her. She began begging for him to leave her be. She began crying, tears tinted Reyna's face. He jump towards her, and she skipped back, he missed biting her arm by only and inch.

Then, Reyna ran. Her legs carried her away. They carried her far and she couldn't stop. She was terrified, of Perro Oso. She wanted to control him, but it always ended up, no matter what, him controlling her. Perro Oso chased after her, following her as usual. He had stopped growling and simply chased her, wanting to in some way apologize. He realized he had scared her, but when Perro Oso got to the door she had locked him out, she looked fearfully through the window in their door.Perro Oso scratched wildly at the door, soon his gentle scratching turned into clawing and growling again. Reyna screamed, and as her parents began rushing to the door she opened it and let Perro Oso in. Partly out of guilt, but mostly because she thought he'd knock the door down. As she opened the door she drew in a breath and waited patiently to see what Perro Oso's next move would be. He walked menacingly into the home. Everyone backed against the walls subtly. Everyone was afraid of him.

For the next few weeks Reyna refused to leave the house, she was embarrassed by Perro Oso. However, staying in the house proved to be a hard task indeed. Her mama, though she didn't say it was mad at Reyna, she was mad and concerned. Mama knew Reyna didn't have a choice but she was irrationally upset at Reyna, after all Reyna had brought el Perro Oso into the house Perro Oso was Reyna's so naturally the bad things he did Reyna was responsible for.

It was 17 days after the incident. Reyna laid calmly in her bed, as she had done for the past two-and-a-half weeks Reyna looked to Perro Oso who was sleeping on the floor aside her bed. Reyna sat up in her bed, and looked out of her window, there were normal kids playing outside, she could see them clearly through her window, she lived in the attic. As she looked around she noticed a boy walking down the sidewalk, next to him was the biggest cat Reyna had ever seen. As he walked along, the kids playing scooted to the side to let him through, he looked down at the sidewalk, embarrassed. He looked down the way Reyna had a million times before.

In that moment Reyna slipped on her flats, put on a sweater and ran down the stairs. Perro Oso followed her, she ran down another set of stairs and opened the front door, Perro Oso ran outside with her. As she got outside she ran after the boy, once she got to his side he looked up at her. They walked silently side-by-side with their pets.

That was the beginning of a great friendship, and Reyna could only thank Perro Oso for that friendship, for he led her to the boy. If she had not understood what it was like to have such a pet herself, she would have probably thought the boy was strange. Though Perro Oso was often a handful, he was Reyna's handful and she was grateful that she had him.