Dots for Oscar

By Andrea Tillmanns

Once upon a time, there was a little white dog who loved nothing more than jumping into puddles. As soon as he saw a puddle on a walk, there was no stopping him. He would pull on the leash, and if his owner wasn’t paying attention, the little dog would take a running jump into the puddle. He loved how the water would splash up and spread far across the path. The little dog didn’t mind getting splashed himself.

“Oscar!” his master would scold him. “Just look at how you look now!”

As soon as they got home, little Oscar was put in the bathtub by his mistress and washed until all the dirt splashes were gone and his coat was snow-white again.

Oscar hated being bathed because the shampoo always stung his eyes, and his mistress kept tugging at his fur. And yet, when he saw another puddle on his next walk, he couldn’t be stopped.

Sometimes, Max, the son of Oscar’s owners, would take Oscar for a walk. Max didn’t mind at all that Oscar jumped into every puddle he came across. Most of the time, Max would jump into the puddle too, and then the two of them would hop around in the water until they were covered in mud from head to toe.

“Oh dear, if Mom sees this,” Max would always murmur, and Oscar would bark encouragingly at him. The little white dog knew very well that his friend Max only had to change his pants. He was spared the terrible bathing.

But one day, Max had an idea: “You know what,” he said to Oscar, pulling a thick black marker out of his school bag, “let’s just draw lots of black dots on your white fur. Then the few splashes from the puddles won’t show at all.”

Oscar barked enthusiastically, and Max painted one spot after another on Oscar’s white fur. When he was done, he liked the dog even better than before. Oscar’s mistress, on the other hand, was terrified and immediately put the dog in the bathtub. But the black spots simply would not come off, no matter how long she washed Oscar. So she gave up at some point.

When Max took Oscar for a walk in the evening, the two of them found a wonderful, huge puddle right next to the path, and of course, they jumped right into it and happily splashed around.

“Oh dear, what will Mom say?” Max muttered as usual on the way home, and Oscar thought sadly of the bathtub. But to his surprise, he was allowed to lie down in his basket right away that evening – his owner looked at him critically, but didn’t notice the dirt splatters among all the black spots.

And because the trick had worked so well, Max kept painting the dots on Oscar’s fur until they no longer faded. Now Oscar loved jumping in every puddle even more – and he was only put in the bathtub very rarely.

- Total nr. of readings: 217 Copyright © The author [2020] All Rights Reserved. This story may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the author except for personal use.