What's Different?

When I woke up Maddie before that stupid alarm clock did, giving her licks in the face, she nudged me away. She usually laughed then hopped up to feed me breakfast, but not today, she wasn't getting up. I tilted my head, I had counted the days right I think, she only overslept twice a week. Then the clock went off.

She turned that off too! Now I was getting really worried, I jumped off the bed and started pacing. I didn't know if Maddie knew that it was time that she had to leave. I didn't like it when she left, but I always felt like there was a sense of importance and pride from her when she walked out that door. I jumped up onto the bed and started crying, I thought maybe that would work... And it did.

"What do you want Bailey?" She wasn't smiling, I tried to show her. I hopped off the bed and ran to the closed door and barked once, hoping she would understand. She always kept the door closed so that that pesky cat wouldn't bother our sleep.

"Breakfast? Outside? Walk?" I perked up my ears at that last word, I mean I knew what all of them meant, but none if them as interesting as "walk" and "car ride."

"We can't. No." I knew what no meant and trotted slowly over to my rubber bone sitting in the middle of the floor. I was surprised when just before I lied down, Maddie got up.

"Bailey, Bo-Ba-Bailey..." Bo-Ba-Bailey was her nickname for me.

"We can't walk because of this thing. This thing called the 'corona virus', It's really bad. If we walk, I could get sick, but you can go out to the yard. Backyard, that's it. Oh, and I won't be going to work for 2 weeks, not that you know what that means..." she trailed off then slid underneath the covers again.

Walk? No? Those 2 words did not mix. Yard? Work? Weeks? What did those mean? I got to gnawing on my bone while I thought hard about those unknown words.

***

By now, Maddie had gotten up, and did the usual stuff, breakfast, throwing me a ball, and petting the cat. I never knew why she bothered with that last one. I had figured out by now that she wasn't leaving today, I wondered about tomorrow.

"Bailey! Do you want a treat?!" I rushed in and sat down, then spun after being told to. This always made Maddie giggle when I spun. She handed me some floury dough that she called "bread."

I followed her to the living room, and she curled up on the couch, in the fuzziest, green blanket with tassels on the end. I jumped up and laid with my head on her lap, as she read her story to me. She was always doing that, scribbling something down then reading it out loud.

"Bailey, someday I will be a world-renowned author. Mystery, Romance, and Adventure. I write about you sometimes!" After saying that she would always scratch me behind my ears. I had no idea what those words meant, but I associated them with being pet, she got excited when she said those things, too.

Today felt different, instead of getting out her notebook, she got out her laptop.

"Were going to publish it Bailey! It's called, "What's Different?" I perked up my ears. Different was a word that kept turning around in my head, why wasn't she leaving today? Why wasn't the cat bothered by this? What did publish mean? I didn't care, I knew that Maddie was happy.

Maddie had short hair, so short that when she put it up, not all of it could reach, so she used clips to clip the loose strands up. She was in a brightly colored hoodie, I liked to nibble on the strings.

I remembered the day that she had picked me up with my siblings at a small field, and I remembered the mean man. I was just a young pup, recently separated from my Mother, it was causing me a lot of anxiety, so I started chewing on the mean mans shoes.

I also remembered the look that Maddie did when she saw me for the first time.

"7 weeks. You sure you want 'em? He's a troublemaker. Golden retriever, not full breed but dunno what else. Looks kinda strange, maybe the runt." I knew that harsh, hoarse tone.

"He's perfect, does he have a name Mr...?"

"Grocks"

"Right, Mr. Grocks does he have a name?

"Nah, only pretty ones do. 40 bucks Missy."

I had seen the exchange, and then when Maddie had picked me up, I immediately licked her face. Her scent was so comforting, and her giggle was like dripping honey, (a delicacy I had a couple years after that.) Although that was a long time ago, now I was 8 years old, as Maddie had put it.

I felt her excited presence as she put something into her laptop.

"It's done!" She was so loud that I tried to hide my face under the blanket, but she just laughed when she saw me do that, and went to pet me.

"Bailey! Bo-Ba-Bailey! It's published!" I started wagging my tail because I didn't know what else to do in this situation.

A lot of the rest of the week went on like that too, not going to wherever she went, and curling up onto the couch. Then, after about 10 minutes she would shout in excitement after having just published it to another "site." I didn't know what that meant either.

She danced around the house when the oversleeping days came, shouting about being "a real author now" I didn't know what that meant! I wanted to say to stop saying to many random things that I didn't know what meant.

I got extra treats that day, it made me happy, (not just the treats, her being happy too!) It changed after that, she started going out more, but she brought me with her. I got pet by a lot of people and and they all seemed very happy to see me.

"Is this your hero dog? Who's a good boy!" That girl gave good scratches behind the ears.

"Yup, she saved me from that sea monster!" Maddie laughed at herself, "Although in real life, she saved me from being lonely, and I saved her from a bad environment. I guess we complete each other." I saw her smile, and I wagged my tail.

I was the best boy, at least in Maddie's eyes.