Home at Last | Teen Ink

Home at Last

November 29, 2018
By sjoslin1 BRONZE, Devon, Pennsylvania
sjoslin1 BRONZE, Devon, Pennsylvania
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

The train suddenly jolted to a stop. The three amals, two birds and a dog; have been with each other ever since their owners dumped them onto the streets. Luna was a gorgeous yellow lab mix and accompanying her were two peculiar birds, Aaron and Chip. Togetnimals in the last cargo quickly sprung to their feet, realizing that it was about time to get off. These aniher, they have survived the roughest times of their short lives. Aaron and Chip followed Luna off the train and through the train station. This train station was different from all the others the mischievous animals had seen. It was full of bright lights, cheerful people and exquisite sounds. For years they had been working together to try to find a loving home. Many times, Luna had been close, but never wanted to leave behind Chip and Aaron since the owners would not take them in as well. As Luna found her way around the station, many people pointed and stared, feeling deep sympathy for the obviously lost dog. However, only one person made any sort of gesture towards the dog. A tall blond male opened his arms wide for the lab to jump in to. Chip and Aaron were taking their time and messing around with each other. They were used to this kind of thing, someone showing appreciation for Luna and not them. Aaron waited patiently as Chip squirmed in excitement. They may finally find a home! The man, whose name turned out to be Logan, clearly wanted something to do with Luna, the only question is, did he want to have something to do with the eagerly awaiting birds? 
Logan fell in love with Luna within the first few minutes he knew her. No doubt, Luna had found a home. Logan double checked to make sure the beautiful dog didn’t already have an owner, and when he found no name tag or collar, he picked her up and boarded the train that would take him home. However, when Luna got off the train in Logan’s arms, the two parrots were nowhere to be seen. When she noticed this, she sprung out of his arms and began to bark frantically in hope that Chip, who has brilliant hearing, would hear it. Sadly, Chip who didn’t get off the train at the same stop Luna didn’t, wasn’t within distance to hear her howls.  
Fortunately, Logan noticed as well that the birds were missing and associated the shrieks from Luna with the missing birds. Together, Luna and Logan searched day and night until they found Aaron and Chip lying in an empty card board box, exhausted and starved. Luna and the poor birds spun around in circles, overwhelmed with joy. Although the three friends had found a home, their struggles did not end.  
A few months later, a huge forest fire took place, first burning all the houses in their neighbored, and then eventually taking theirs down as well.  The problem with this was Logan couldn’t afford a new home, his only job was construction and made a very small salary. He had no insurance on his house and all odds were against them. But Luna, Aaron and Chip didn’t give up, even when Logan did. They owed him their lives and were determined to somehow find him a place to live.  
 
 
Early the next morning they set out with Logan in search of something, anything that could help them. They came across a rich man who made an unbelievable deal, he would give Logan $15,000 for the dog, seeing much potential in Luna after watching her follow her commands perfectly. He explained to Logan that Luna could be a big star in the dog show that was coming up in a month. However, despite the generous offer, Logan turned the man down, never willing to let Luna go. 
 
 
Throughout the day, Logan saw many signs for the dog show and decided that it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try. In the meantime, they would find somewhere to live. Throughout the month, Logan and Luna trained hard for many hours per day. If they could win this show, they would be qualified for the major dog show and earn 50,000 dollars and if they won the major dog show, they could earn a total of 1,000,000 dollars! Fortunately, Luna was a super loyal and smart dog, and knew what she had to do to win. On the day of the competition, Aaron and Chip realized just how important this competition was for them and tried to help Logan and Luna in all ways possible. Before, they were jealous of the connection between the two but realized that everything that was happening was for the best. 
The competition was easy for Luna because her past owners taught her skills like the ones used, and her and Logan easily took the win. If the next competition was even close to as easy as this one, Logan would be earning $1,000,000. The event wasn’t for another three months so the two had plenty of time to prepare. However, an owner of one of the dogs that made it to the final event feared Lunas talent and decided to sabotage them in a way that would really hurt. He sent an attack dog at Luna in an attempt to hurt her so bad she couldn’t compete. But the two parrots saw what was happening and began to nip and bite the rude man. Sadly, their efforts weren't enough, and the raucous dog was released, who ended up breaking both of Lunas back legs.  
Logan didn’t see what happened until it was too late. Without any hesitation, he spent 35,000 dollars out of the 50,000 he earned on Lunas surgeries and her recovery. As long as Luna rehabilitated in time, she could compete in the event and had an even bigger chance of winning than before since the man who tried to knock Luna out of the competition was arrested and he had won five consecutive years. Even though Luna recovered with three weeks left to prepare, she was rusty and felt defeated. With the spare $15,000, Logan purchased a professional dog trainer to make sure his lab was ready and prepared.  
Finally, the big day arrived. After 5:00PM, it would be decided whether Logan and his three pets would be living on the streets, or in a home.  The whole thing started off with a swimming event, something no one had expected. Luna ended off last due to her inability to swim. But she couldn’t give up now, not after everything Logan has done for her. She made her mind up that she was going to win it for him. The next two events, tricks where the dogs got rated on their skills and dash where the dogs race, she placed third putting her in an overall spot of fourth. But that wasn’t good enough, there were only two events left, ones she had trouble with in training and she would have to win both to win the competition. 
 
 
The second to last event was sports. This was a new level they added in and Luna didn’t work on it until the last week of the trainers help. In this level, she would have to attempt to block mini soccer balls from going into a small net and use the tip of her nose to bump a ball into a hoop. She started off weak, only saving two out of five shots and made five out of ten hoops. Luckily, there were 3 attempts and they used whichever attempt was the best. Luna reminded herself why she was doing this and ended up with a fantastic score that earned her first place in the level, four out of five saves and nine out of ten hoops. Now all she had to do was win the next event. But this one would be a challenge. 
 
 
The last part of the show was an obstacle course. The competitors would have to go through a series of confusing obstacles such as the ladder, tube and fence. Similar to the sports, you have three tries and whichever time is the best would be used. Luna had never attempted the event where you had to climb up a vertical fence which a height of 9 feet and then complete other obstacles. On her first try, she couldn’t event make it up the fence, giving her a bad start. Fortunately, she made it the second time but with a really slow score. Everything depended on this last try. Could she beat the lowest time of 6.1 seconds? With the picture of Logan, Aaron and Chip in her head, she ran faster than she had ever before and leaped over the fence for the win. She got an impressive time of 4.9, a good 1.2 seconds ahead. If the dog going after her can’t beat her, she will win. Just like Luna, the other dog couldn’t make it over the fence, and Luna had won it all. Logan came sprinting over and Aaron and Chip flew over to join the celebration. Now, they had finally found an eternal home. 


The author's comments:

I got the inspiration for this story from a picture with a yellow dog and two colorful parrots sitting alone in a large wooden crate. The first thing that popped into my mind was the idea that the animals were best friends and were trying to find a home, together.


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