Rainy Dog Saturday

It was a very rainy day. Dark clouds covered the sky as thick raindrops continuously fell from them. Lightning would occasionally flash across Josh's window as he watched the storm rage on.

Eight-year-old Josh sat in his room and stared out of the window with a sad look in his eyes.

"I'm bored," he announced quietly to himself.

Josh really hated rainy days; there was never anything to do. He moved his gaze from the soggy outdoors, to around his room. The boy had an abundance of outdoor toys: a kite, a remote-controlled car, a ball and bat, etc. It was too bad that he could not play with those toys inside the house. The last time he did, he ran his remote-controlled car into a lamp and knocked it over. His mom had taken the car away for a whole month after that.

As Josh continued to ponder his current situation, very faintly, he started to hear some sort of scratching noise.

"Huh? What's that?"

Josh jumped down from his window and made his way towards the living room. He could hear the scratching getting even louder. It sounded like it was coming from the front door.

Scritch … scratch … scratch … scritch...

Even through the rain and the thunder, Josh was still able to hear the scratching on the door. He stood by the door and stared at it. He wasn't sure what to do.

Josh's parents were adamant about him opening the door when they were not present. Sure, his mom was in her room, but she was taking a quick nap, and his dad was in the house working at his desk in his office, but they were not present in the living room.

Just then, lightning flashed, and thunder roared loudly. After the rumble, Josh could have sworn that he heard the faintest hint of a whimper -- and he was pretty sure it did not come from him. The whimpering grew in volume, until curiosity got the best of Josh, and he opened the front door.

It was the strangest thing. Josh saw nothing out of the ordinary. His hair tossed a little as he looked left, and then looked right. The whimpering was clear now, and when he looked down, he saw a small beagle puppy on the doorstep.

The puppy was soaking wet and shivering. It yipped at him when it knew that it had the boy's attention. Josh smiled. He knelt down onto one knee to pet the puppy, whose tail wagged happily.

"Hey, boy. Who are you?"

The puppy barked at him, as if to answer his question. Josh laughed at the small dog.

Suddenly, lightning flashed and thunder loudly rumbled overhead. Both Josh and the puppy flinched. Before Josh even knew what was happening, the puppy bolted into the house.

"Hey!"

Josh ran back into the house, stopping in the living room when he saw that the puppy was on the couch. The puppy wagged its tail, spraying water onto the fabric of the couch. Then it barked happily at him.

Josh smiled before glancing back at the downpour of rain outside. Thunder clapped again, causing the puppy to whimper. Its ears flattened against its head and its eyes became big and fearful. The eight-year-old boy walked up to the puppy and pet it, not at all minding how he was getting wet, as a result.

"Aww, I can't let you go back out there," he said.

Just hearing him talk made the puppy wag its tail again. Then the puppy licked Josh's face with its long, pink tongue, causing the boy to laugh for the first time that day.

"Okay, it's settled then; you're staying! C'mon, you can meet my mom and dad!" he said excitedly.

Josh picked the puppy up and went to show his mom and dad what he had found. At first, Josh's parents were not too thrilled about the idea of having a stray dog in their house, but when Josh explained to them that the puppy had chosen him for a reason, they could no longer argue.

After talking about it for awhile, Josh's parents decided to give him a chance at having a dog, but only under the condition that it was his duty to take care of it.

And that was how lonely little Josh met his best friend.