Monday, February 11, 2019

More Than Puppy Love

by Alyssa Symon from the January 28, 2019 issue

Tagline: Erika had given up on finding love, content with the unconditional affection from her furry friends, until a serendipitous accident gave her new hope.

Observations: I wanted to analyze the black moment in this story because it was particularly nice.

Boy meets girl.
Boy tends to girl's bumped head.
Girl confesses:

"I love animals. I had a dog growing up, Scotty. He was my best friend. My parents worked a lot, but Scotty was always there for me. I wanted to give other kids the opportunity to have a best friend like Scotty..."

Boy goes silent for a moment.
Girl thinks boy thinks she's wacko for having a dog for a best friend.
Boy confesses...he's a vet!

I really liked how Erika's self-doubt made us really feel for her. We've all felt that uncertainty that we've stuck our foot (or paw!) in our mouth.

I also thought the ending--where he brought the hot cocoa to her, and they drank a toast to animals--was perfect.

Photo credit: Marco Verch via Flickr CC license

3 comments:

Pat said...

Cute story. Enjoyed it.

Jill Weatherholt said...

I really liked Erika's character. Hot cocoa and dogs...what's not to love! I enjoyed this story.

Sandy Smith said...

This was a well written story.