Storytelling: The 5 Dogs

Bea Lewis
March 29, 2017
Creative Writing 2325

The 5 Dogs

5 Puppies Source

              Once upon a time there was a village settled in current day Oklahoma. This was a very special and strange village named Kayak.  In Kayak lived many families, however one in particular contained a nice family of a mom, dad, and daughter, this family had a very beautiful dog as well. This dog was very attached to the daughter, whose name was Jenna. Jenna and the dog, Jake, were the best of friends and every night they slept together. Now every night, this dog would transform into a man      (told you this village was strange) and once Jenna became of age, the human Jake and Jenna would sleep together at night to which she fell pregnant. Poor Jenna began to show a bump and her father was outraged. Even worse, her father found out who the true father was. He was so angry he decided to kill the beloved dog/human, Jake. Even worse than killing Jenna's lover, her parents abandoned her and burned everything down so she was left with nothing.

             

 An old neighbor who always had a soft spot for Jenna gave her a match and told her where to find a place to build a fire. This old woman led her to a nice barn and months later Jenna gave birth to 5 lovely puppies. These puppies, while cute, were rambunctious and since Jenna had 4 boys and 1 girl she barely had a hold on them. It is hard to raise 5 children, let alone 5 children of a different species so Jenna worked multiple jobs to support them all. Everyday Jenna would hear giggling and laughter as she left the house! So one day she hid and peered through a window once the puppies believed she was gone. What she saw blew her away; her 5 puppies were now 5 small children! Jenna stormed back in, yelling at the children for hiding this from their mother for so long. Rather than use this anger as a reason to be angry, she channeled it into teaching the young boys how to hunt. 

Many years later and the boys were the best whale hunters she had every encountered. They would drag in the whales to the little town they had built for themselves and have feasts. Jenna's only daughter learned how to sew from her mother and would create beautiful dresses. After a while the old woman came back to see how the family was doing and saw all of the whale meat available. The new town that everyone ran too after Jenna became pregnant was struggling. So the old lady went back to her town and told everyone of the prosperous Kayak and convinced everyone to move back. Everyone was so impressed with the boys hunting talents that they made them all chiefs and made the only daughter a princess. The town went back to normal, the parents apologized for their behavior and they lived happily ever after.

Bibliography: This story is The Dog-Husband  by Stith Thompson, originally from Tales of the Northern American Indians.

Authors Note: This story was originally about a young girl who fell pregnant by a dog/human and an old crow led her to the place to make a fire. I found it a little too weird for all of the neighbors to be part animals so I made it an old woman! I chose to write it as if it was written for another class and put a heading on top!