Bling Bling

Written in response to: Write a story about lifelong best friends.... view prompt

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Fantasy Friendship Funny

Write a story about lifelong best friends.

The dog was a black and white dog but wasn't a Border Collie. He was a Japanese Chin. He had on some golden rings, like marriage rings, but he also had a best friend named Tinsel who was a white Pomeranian. She had the jewels on, too. 

But she wore sparkly magenta, hot pink, warm gray, pomegranate red and royal green colors for her leash, collar and dog bowls. They also had rhinestones as black as blackberries.

Rhino was rich. But Tinsel was richer. 

Rhino got the bling, but Tinsel swore she got the ring. 

The ring for Rhino to admit he was not as rich as she. Every day, she'd trot the four blocks of sidewalk to his house on the other side of the lawn to remind him. Standing outside his house, she'd wait for the Japanese Chin to come to his window, open it and bark that he was wrong. 

One day, he didn't come to his window. She cooked her small whispy head. Huh? She trotted over to the front door across the yard, around the water hose and past the cars. Barking furiously, she scratched and lunged for the door, but no one answered. 

Growling to herself, she saw his leash hanging off of the water hose handle. Its leather was holed, like when the owner was a kid, and the two puppies named Rhino and Tinsel stumbled and cried and tripped their way through the world until they walked and ran through the park until their owners got too old to play with them. 

I mean the kid owners who graduated college, the women standing next to them who they called girlfriends, and the rings they wore on their fingers as they brought groceries home, drove away to bars in their cars and then swung baby rockers from their arms. Some garbled language, and they were gone, Tinsel blinking rapidly, swallowing, her face, if possible, whiter than it was from the fear threatening to choke her when she made out they were leaving. 

Moving is what they called it.

Tinsel's stomach growled whenever her bowl was filled with food, but she only peeled herself off the hardwood floor to get some water. A few drops of this stuff, and then she collapsed back onto the floor. 

"Youknow, Tinsel, Rhino's not moving. Only his sister is. They're just moving her to somewhere else to live until the winter. That's the end of the semester."

After Tinsel shot up from the floor, racing over to Rhino's place, she almost slammed into the doorway. "Watch out, Tinsel. You must walk daintily."

Her legs were like little pogosticks that were on jumping beans--they just couldn't stay still. When Rhino--

"Tinsel."

Tinsel spun around. "Rhi! I thought you left for good."

"No. I just got back from the vet."

The vet. Tinsel blinked. "What did they do to you?"

"Uh...just a few shots and then I'm good!"

"Oh..."

Tinsel shook her head. 

"What's wrong?"

"Oh..."

Tinsel inhaled. "You know, you could've let me know, you know?"

Rhino twisted his face into a question mark. "It was just the vet's, Tin!"

"You aren't scared, Rhi!" She started checking him. "They didn't take your stones or jewels, right?

He shook himself, ordering her worried looks to change to normal face expressions. "Stop!"

"Rhi, you never let me down. Holes in the leash. Not a smushed down blade of grass. Not a chewed up chewtoy. Not a broken up dog bone. What's going on?"

Nothing! Rhino invited her inside. After barking her usual greeting to Rhino's owners, she dashed over to his star studded dog bowls. The water was lukewarm. The dog food looked mushy, at least to Tinsel, and Rhino wasn't anywhere. Whenever she growled at another dog--as if it were his or her fault she was angry--Tinsel's fur bristled and tiny razor-sharp teeth showed themselves--it was to back off. Ain't no dog gonna steal my bling. Only Rhino is gonna have it when I die.

"This can't be happening!"

Tinsel started barking frantically, but Rhino let out his most fearsome growl and bark. Tinsel froze. Then thawed. 

"What in the world, Tin?" Rhino came around, eyes staring straight into the dog's eyes. 

"Well, last time you told me you were leaving, you said you'd be back. It was four days! And the last time you said goodbye, it was four weeks. And when we used to play in the sandbox, you got picked up early--"

"I was still crying in the crate for Mom. Please! Besides, the sand was too sandy for me--I shut my eyes and imagined myself somewhere else, anywhere--other than the stupid sandbox."

"I was, too. But--"

"Stop worrying."

Rhino shook his head. "Tin, please. I can't be there for you forever. One day, I may find myself in other places. Or maybe a dog pound for sale if my owners don't like me anymore. But I'll always think of you! No. I'll head back home for you. I'll hike, I'll bike or I'll find a way."

Tinsel looked into his eyes. They were brown, but warm. Her cheeks went pink. "I know, Rhi, but there's no one else like you."

"Same here. But I might meet a Great Dane or yellow lab or Chihuahua who never stops barking or growling or..."

The Pomeranian laughed. "Yes. I get it."

Rhino hid the next day, and Tinsel bolted around every little corner of the house, causing his owners to yell and hop up and down in a panic and try to calm her down. 

Rhino appeared when Tinsel was very still, sniffing the air. "He's got to be around here somewhere. He's got to. He's got to." She paced back and forth.

"Boo!"

Tinsel spun around. Rhino crashed to the floor, roaring. "You should've seen the look on your face. I haven't seen that since you yawned for the very first time out of your mother's stomach!"

Tinsel and Rhino stood there. They touched noses. 

June 12, 2023 23:30

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