A Dog In A Trap
by
Lauren Vrybloed
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PUBLISHED BY:
How It All Began
Copyright © 2012 by Lauren Vrybloed
Book Cover picture by mesaba via flickr
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Foreword: How It All Began is the first work by a young author. Written as a writing project for her Grade 5 Language Arts class in 2012, A Dog In A Trap shows the promise of greater work to come from Lauren in the future.
If you have any comments, words of encouragement or suggestions, they can be
sent via to
[email protected]. Appropriate emails will be forwarded to her.
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ISBN: 9781476063904
Title: A Dog In A Trap
Author: Lauren Vrybloed
A Dog In a Trap
by Lauren Vrybloed
Chapter 1
"Lexxi get back here," Malyna Cooper said, in her daydream. Malyna was chasing her beautiful chestnut horse around the paddock trying to catch her but Lexxi managed to get away.
"Malyna, Malyna," Mrs. Tooth said, waving her beautifully manicured hand in front of Malyna’s face to startle her from her dream.
"Will you please pay attention Malyna," she said crossly walking back to face the class from the front of the class and promptly said."Please turn to page 25 so we can correct the math questions 1-12 that we did yesterday."
After the long, boring math lesson at the end of the day Malyna climbed aboard her bus driver’s yellow 28 year school bus and the bus headed out to the countryside and to Malyna’s home.
When Malyna arrived home she started on her evening chores, milking her cow Milly and her dad’s 10 other cows ( April, Rebekah, Keeley, Ali, Dawn, Laurel, Spots, Grape, Peaches and Molly). When Malyna was milking the cows they decided to play a joke on her. Grape and Rebekah (when Malyna was milking) swished their tails around Malyna’s face and knocked her glasses clean off her tanned, freckled face and into the stall beside them.
Now since Malyna had a good sense of humor she laughed at them and said, "Now Peaches and Rebekah please don’t swish my glasses off my face or there will be no Honeysuckle hay for you."
Malyna said Honeysuckle hay because it was the cows’ favorite treat for being good. "But on the other hand if you promise not to do that again you can get a handful of the Honeysuckle hay with your supper."
After milking all the cows Malyna headed over to her family’s bright red barn, now Malyna liked her barn just fine but many other children in her class did not. They would say, "Malyna did your family’s old barn fall down yet"? The reason they said this was because they had all seen her barn and to them it wasn’t a very good barn because the shutters on the small windows were broken, some of the beams that held the barn up were broken or bent.
Another reason they didn’t like it was because there wasn’t a chicken coop, instead the barn was near the back because the barn had a hole in it. Malyna’s father designed it like this so the chickens (he first thought horses but changed to chickens when the carpenters made the hole too small) could roam outside the barn whenever they liked.
The reason he could do this was because around the Cooper land there is a 12 foot mesh fence to keep the coyotes, dogs and other animals that might want to have a midnight snack on the Cooper chickens.
Anyway when Malyna walked into the bright red barn and started on "red barn chores" it’s called "red barn chores" because these barn chores are only for the red barn.
When Malyna walked in the barn she immediately turned left and walked to the dull, faded blue storage container and reached inside for the chickens yellow feed bucket and their feed. When the bucket was full Malyna walked over to the chickens’ homemade pen and sang "chickens, chickens come to me, I have your food and you are hungry." Malyna kept singing those words until all the bright yellow chicks and chickens came to her.
Then she let herself into their pen, opened their dull yellow feeder and sprinkled their corn and wheat mix into it and watched them gobble it all up.
When Malyna walked out of the barn she was delighted to hear something that sounded like her brother’s old pickup truck.
When Malyna saw that it was Carl, her brother, she breathed a sigh of relief. Carl could help her about her school troubles.
When Carl clambered out of his old battered Ford, Malyna immediately ran up to him and said "Carl, can you help me? Some kids in my class have been teasing me. When I had my lunch today they stole my brand new eraser that had stripes on it, then they stole my lunch."
"Do you know who and why they did it?" Carl questioned.
"Yes I do," Malyna said. "Their names are Kalee, Sheila, Lou, Amy and Daisy. They stole my stuff because they hate our barn. They hate it because it’s falling apart."
"They shouldn't say that," Carl said. "It’s tradition in our family to leave the oldest building standing until it falls down."
"Do you think you could make me some early supper? I have not had any lunch or food for the entire day."
"Of course, come inside so I can make you some grilled cheese sandwiches and tell me in more detail about this "theft." Okay? I’ll do your other barn chores after we eat our early supper."
After they ate their supper Carl and Malyna headed back to the old red barn and when they walked into the barn, they each took a horse to turn out into the pasture. Malyna grabbed Golden’s bridle and walked over to Golden.
Golden was an Appaloosa, a leopard spotted horse with a chestnut-honey base color.
Golden was in the Cooper’s hands because she was being boarded while her owners (Mrs. and Mr. Hunter) were on vacation on the Hawaii islands.
Malyna opened up Golden’s stall door and gently put her bridle around her face, and quickly snapped on the lead rope.
As she lead Golden out into the pasture Malyna saw Carl turning out Kendra the Shetland pony. Kendra is spotted black and white. She is only 39 inches tall. Even though she is short her owner is a boy named William that is only 5 years old. But William is tall for his age. Kendra still holds his weight, and when they feel like it (providing William hasn’t already ridden her), they hitch her to a small wagon and she pulls him and his mom around the yard.
After putting those two into the pasture they went back into the barn for the other 6 horses and 2 of their own. The pony’s and horses that they are stabling are: Phoenix a Spotted Saddle Horse, Shina a Swedish Warmblood, Logan a Thoroughbred Horse, Akayla a Westphalia Horse, Madison a Falabella Miniature horse, Jennifer a Mangalarga Horse.
Next Malyna and Carl brought out their horses. Malyna’s horse is named Lexxi and is 9 years old. She is a Purebred horse.
Carl’s horse is named Steven and is 12 years old. He is also a purebred horse just like Lexxi.
After Malyna and Carl put the horses out in the grassy pasture they walked over to the painted white fence and watched the horses play galloping after one another playing something that looks like a game of tag.
"It’s great isn’t it," Malyna said.
"What’s great?" Carl asked.
"Living on a farm, with you and our animals," Malyna said sighing. What could be better?
Chapter 2
"Hello everybody," Malyna said as she sauntered into the Cooper’s kitchen wearing her fleecy blue pajamas, with a picture of a chestnut Appaloosa that looked like Golden, one of the Cooper’s boarding mares.
"Hi Hun," Malyna’s dad said raking his fingers through his hair as if he didn’t get enough sleep. "Come to think of it," Malyna thought. "He probably didn’t get enough sleep."
Last night her father had came in from work at about 9:30 and then had to do his barn chores before h
e could have a shower and go to bed.
"What’s everybody doing today?" Malyna asks.
"Well I'm off to take Onisty to the park," said her mom otherwise known as Emily Cooper.
With that Emily got up from the polished wooden table and went upstairs calling for Onisty to wake up and come downstairs from her butterfly bed.
Then Malyna’s dad said "Well I'm off to feed the cows and do all of the other chores."
"I’ll meet you outside," Malyna told him as she picked up her orange juice and her gently toasted white bread, and hurried out to her bedroom to get changed for the day.
In her bedroom Malyna scarfed down the toast and pulled on her matching grey and blue top and bottoms and scurried outside to help Carl and her dad feed the horses and do the other chores.
When Malyna reached the barn she immediately stopped and listened. Far off in the distance she could hear a sound- a sound of distress, an animal was in danger.
Malyna dropped her empty feed buckets and ran to the gradually growing fainter sound. Malyna raced across the steep grassy hills that lined her family’s property and when she stopped after the 7th hill to catch her breath she saw what was making the noise.
A honey colored Beagle puppy. It was making the horrible noise because his leg was trapped.
As Malyna drew closer she saw that the leg was caught in a trap! Now this was still on Malyna’s family’s property and her father outlawed hunting on the Cooper land so this meant that someone was hunting with traps illegally.
When Malyna was right beside the struggling honey colored puppy she knelt beside and gently touched his head, and petting it gently she pried the leg from the trap. As soon as it was out of the trap the wound started gushing blood, so Malyna picked up the puppy and wrapped the hind leg with her crisp white handkerchief. Her mom would be mad at her but that didn’t matter all she wanted was to get the puppy to the farmhouse and get its leg looked at by the vet.
As Malyna walked over the last hill before the house she saw her Dad, Mom and big brother Carl walking all over the farm calling out something.
As she drew closer to the farm she heard that they were calling her name! "Mom I’m over here," she called.
Chapter 3
Emily ran over to Malyna. "Where were you,” she scolded. "We’ve been so worried." Malyna pointed wordlessly to the honey colored puppy who was struggling in her arms.
"Aw that is such a cute puppy," she said tickling his chin, "where did you find him and what happened to him?” She said eyeing the blood soaked handkerchief wrapped around the hurt leg.
Silently Malyna took a deep breath and told her parents how she heard a hurt animal crying and she wanted to help it so she ran toward the sound of help and rescued the puppy.
When Malyna finished telling her family why she left to find the sound she found that her family was actually quite understanding. Though they were very mad that she didn’t tell them where she was going.
"Well, all ends well," Emily said. As she opened the door to the house to find a blanket for the puppy to sit on while they took the puppy to the vet to see if the leg was broken or just a huge long gash that would need to be stitched and maybe splinted.
When they arrived at the vet Emily told the receptionist that we had a golden brown puppy that needed immediate care.
As soon as she said that the room was a flash of activity all the nurses and surgeons surrounded the honey colored puppy and began to examine him.
To Malyna this felt as if it took hours instead of half of a tiny hour of impatient waiting.
"Mom how is he, is his leg very hurt?" Malyna asked her Mom when she had come out of the examining room (under 15’s couldn't go into that place.)
Emily sighed then said in a resigned voice. "Its broken sweetheart, the bone is cracked cleanly in half. He’s going to have to have an operation."
Choking back tears Malyna asked "When is he going to have it?"
"Today, at noon."
"Oh-ok," Malyna cried then without warning turned and ran from the clinic. As she ran her vision was blurred with tears. All she wanted was the puppy to be okay and to be back at her house in her bed so she could cry to her heart content.
Just as Malyna thought that she wanted to go home her brother’s battered old pick-up truck came into view.
When Malyna got home she ran from the truck and into her room and throwing herself on the bed she began to cry.
In a couple hours all the sobs that had welled up inside of her were gone. She still was quite sad but her eyes could cry no more. So Malyna stood up took a few deep breaths and ran through the house and out into the pasture where the horses were grazing. As she watched the horses graze she realized something. "The Trap,” of course, she needed to look around, who knew just how many traps the trapper lay about?"
At that moment Malyna bolted into the house and ran up the stairs to her bedroom. Searching frantically, she found what she wanted; her old school backpack from last year, 2 pairs of tweezers one big and one small, a big Walmart plastic bag, 3 pairs of sanitized plastic gloves, 1 notebook and 4 sharpened pencils, 1 water bottle, 2 packs of trail mix, dog and cat food (in case that she found another hurt animal) and paper, pieces of brightly colored paper for marking places where traps were.
Chapter 4
When Malyna reached the spot where the first trap was found she examined it closely. Something wasn’t right. The trap was set again! That meant that the trappers checked the traps in the morning between 7:00 am to 11:00. Carefully so that she did not get hurt she timidly poked a long stick into the trap. The trap snapped shut grinding the end of the stick into pieces.
Malyna then took out her notebook and wrote: The trapper(s?) check the traps between 7:00 am- 11:00. The traps are capable of grinding a stick to pieces.
Malyna scratched her chin with the end of her pencil and asked herself, who is trapping and why are they doing it?
Malyna walked for half an hour before she found another trap. This one though had a trapping license on it. As Malyna knelt by the trap to get a closer look at the license and realized like the other trap this one too caught something. Hmm.....the license was torn but she could just make out the beginning of 2 words Bob… Guyfie… each word had 2 letters missing. "Well at least it is a start," she said to herself.
"Oh my gosh, its supper time and I am late," Malyna gasped. "I was supposed to be home an hour ago to help with the dinner!" Malyna pushed herself out of her kneeling position and ran. As she ran she hoped that she would not get in trouble for being late, just this once everything would be okay.
No such luck. When Malyna got home her mom was frantic. She said that she would have whipped her if whipping wasn’t illegal. Thankfully Malyna did the chores for dinner. If whipping was allowed she would have got a really, really bad whipping for being so late for supper.
Luckily her dad was a lot calmer and definitely not so mad. After supper Malyna decided to tell her Dad about what she discovered about the trappers. Hopefully then he could get Emily to calm down.
Chapter 5
"Uh oh," Malyna whispered as she looked over at her digital clock on her nightstand. It was 12:00 am and Emily and Dad were yelling at each other.
"How could you let Malyna go off and find traps and trappers and not have a care in the world, she could have been shot or worse caught her leg in a trap," shouted Emily.
How in the world am I supposed to sleep with this racket going on, Malyna thought stuffing her head underneath the pillow to muffle the noise.
Five minutes later she woke up to more loud shouting, "What! There are more traps out there?" Emily yelled. "We need to tell the police about this. If any of our animals get out into the field they could get a major injury and that will mean less people will want to board their horses here, for fear their animals will get hurt and if horses do get hurt we won’t have enough money to help them, just like that sweet puppy that Malyna rescued."
Malyna’s
dad asked, "What about the puppy? Did he come through the operation okay?"
"Yes, thank goodness, if he hadn’t Malyna would have been heartbroken. In fact Malyna loves that puppy so much that I'm thinking of adopting him so we won’t have to listen to Malyna’s pitiful begging," said Emily, sounding relieved.
"That’s great that he came through the operation okay but if he has a home it won’t work out so I'll talk to my friend Dameon who is in the advertising business, he will know just how to advertise our little puppy," Malyna’s dad said.
"But Richard, (What! Since when was my dad’s name Richard wondered Malyna) what if someone loves our puppy so much that they decide to pretend to be the puppy’s owner so that the pup will be his?" Emily asked.
"Emily sweetheart that won’t happen, I’ll make sure that if someone thinks that our puppy is theirs they will have to have proof that they are the owner like our pup’s old leash or something and most of all the puppy will have to know those people....."
"Shhhh Richard someone is up and out of bed and that could be Malyna, we can’t let her know what we are planning or the surprise will be ruined!" Emily said softly. (In fact it was so soft; Malyna could barely hear her speak)
"Yes," Malyna thought, "I'm going to get a puppy and I know exactly what he will be named- Lucky because he is so lucky to be alive after being caught in that nasty trap."
Chapter 6
"Hi mom and dad," Malyna said yawning.
"Why are you so tired?" Richard asked, "Were you awake all night?"
"Why no of course not whatever gave you that idea?" Malyna lied pouring milk into her bowl of cereal and splashing it onto the table.
"Well by the way that you are splashing stuff everywhere and your sleepy eyes I don’t think that you got any sleep," said Emily. "I think that you should go back to bed and get some rest...."