Short story: Mew dogfood
Here’s a short story I wrote based on the prompt: Write a short story inspired by the sentence “He wondered why his dog didn’t like the new dog food.” Enjoy. :)
Alex had a dog. But it wasn’t just any dog. It was a very particular dog. Alex’s dog was a terrier named Hudson. From the time he was a puppy Hudson appeared to have an extremely specific schedule and taste.
He’d bark at the squirrels at exactly 12am, chase cars from 1:05 to 1:30, expect a 43 minute walk starting at 1:59pm, and many other specific activities at certain, odd times.
Alex, being goodhearted, never conflicted with Hudson’s particulars but slowly learned them and fit his care and daily routine around them. He always wondered why and how a dog could be so particular, but he accepted it nonetheless.
One day Alex’s friend Troy came over to drop off his cat, Mew, for a week. Troy was going away on a trip with his family and Alex had agreed to care of his cat Mew while he was away.
Mew was also quite strange for a cat. Everything he did was apparently completely on a whim. One moment the furry cat would be purring around Alex’s legs, the next he’d be outside batting at a blade of tall grass.
At breakfast, Alex set out food for both of the pets.
Alex, being used to his dog Hudson having a rigid schedule for eating, found it both funny and frustrating that Mew was nowhere in sight. He figured the cat would show up eventually, but an hour later the cat food was still untouched.
Stranger yet was that both bowls of food remained untouched. Hudson just sat by his bowl of kibble uncharacteristically waiting.
Alex checked his watch. Yep, it was 8:05am, his usual time to eat. It was definitely abnormal for Hudson to not be eating.
At first he thought it might be that Hudson didn’t like the new dog food he’d switched to a few weeks before. However, the dog always ate his kibble before, even the new kind.
It was puzzling.
Alex left the kitchen, where Hudson still sat staring at the food, to look for Mew.
He looked outside first.
Under the car? No. Under the deck? No. In the garden? Nope, not there either.
Finally he came back into the house and began a quiet search. Where was that cat? Alex hoped he hadn’t run away.
With a sigh, he looked through the house. He finally came back to the kitchen, to find his dog just as he’d left him, except both bowls were empty now.
Alex studied the empty bowls for a moment. Was it possible that Mew came and ate the cat food while he wasn’t there, or did Hudson eat it?
The days following the cat was nowhere to be found at normal mealtimes. Only during seemingly random times did Mew reappear.
Alex was somewhat concerned that Mew wasn’t eating, but it occurred to him that the cat didn’t appear to be hungry. So, he didn’t worry about it.
Finally, towards the weekend he was able to figure out what was going on.
That afternoon he’d put out the dog and cat food as usual. Hudson stared at his dog food just like he had since Mew first came to stay.
Alex turned the corner and peeked around to watch what happened. After not too long Mew darted to the kitchen and immediately began to eat the dog food. Alex’s eyes widened. Mew appeared to really like the dog kibble. Meanwhile he noticed that Hudson had consumed the cat food.
He laughed. Evidently Hudson didn’t like his new dog food after all. And Mew? Evidently he preferred meat kibble to tuna kibble.
THE END