{"id":1393,"date":"2015-12-15T14:29:43","date_gmt":"2015-12-15T19:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/?p=1393"},"modified":"2015-12-15T14:50:37","modified_gmt":"2015-12-15T19:50:37","slug":"geralds-talking-dog-essay-contest-2015-first-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/geralds-talking-dog-essay-contest-2015-first-place\/","title":{"rendered":"Gerald\u2019s Talking Dog Essay Contest 2015: First Place"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Gordon Berg<\/strong>
\nGerald’s Talking Dog loves cherries. That’s all he talks about. But who you gonna call when those beloved cherries mysteriously disappear??? Stormcloud, Private Dog.<\/p>\n

Gerald\u2019s Talking Dog, a scruffy mutt named Stormcloud, had a reputation for solving life\u2019s toughest mysteries. The Case of the Lost Keys. The Case of the Lost Cellphone. And\u2026most importantly, The Case of the Lost Bottle Opener.<\/p>\n

Now he needed to solve his biggest one yet: The Case of the Missing Cherries.<\/p>\n

Stormcloud paced the back porch for answers. The sun had set. The summer moon was on the rise. The smell of a freshly baked cherry pie floated through the screen door and onto the back porch. Until the cherries went missing, Gerald had planned to bake a bunch of pies. Thankfully there were enough cherries left for one lone pie and it was cooling in the kitchen.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, Stormcloud caught a new scent in the breeze. A dame. Not just any dame. This was\u2026couldn\u2019t be\u2026both nostrils came to life\u2026\u201dLola!\u201d<\/p>\n

Lola was one classy Great Dane with a body that made every dog drool. Big chest. Tiny waist. And long, slender legs that just didn\u2019t quit.<\/p>\n

Stormcloud licked himself, cocked his head to one side and tried hard to look nonchalant.<\/p>\n

As she rounded the corner from the driveway next to the back porch\u2026their eyes met.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey, Stormy,\u201d she quietly woofed.<\/p>\n

Stormcloud\u2019s heart melted. He got up, walked over to her and sniffed her. She sniffed him back. \u201cSame old Lola,\u201d he wistfully thought to himself.<\/p>\n

Stormy broke the silence first. \u201cWhat\u2019s a great dane like you doing on my side of town?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

She hesitated. \u201cI know what happened\u201d\u2026her voice broke \u201c\u2026to the missing cherries.\u201d She began to whimper.<\/p>\n

Stormcloud perked his ears. He leaned toward her. \u201cWhat?\u201d he asked urgently.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2026I\u2026I ate them!\u201d she blurted and she broke into a low, mournful howl.<\/p>\n

Stormcloud barked, \u201cYou what?!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a weak moment, Stormy,\u201d she wailed. \u201cI\u2019m so ashamed. I don\u2019t know what to do.\u201d Her head hung low. Her shoulders were shaking.<\/p>\n

Then she lifted her eyes and said, \u201cYou gotta help me, Stormy. Ya just gotta.\u201d<\/p>\n

And for the second time that night, Stormcloud\u2019s heart melted.<\/p>\n

Then Stormcloud heard footsteps. Gerald was walking up the driveway. \u201cThink fast!\u201d Stormy cried to himself.<\/p>\n

He ran into the kitchen and grabbed the still-warm cherry pie in his jaws and raced to the back porch. Without a second thought, he buried his muzzle deep into the still-warm cherry pie and slurped up as much as he could.<\/p>\n

Gerald rounded the corner, looked at Stormy and in disbelief yelled, \u201cYOU!\u201d<\/p>\n

Then Gerald pointed at Lola, \u201cYOU! Go Home!\u201d<\/p>\n

Gerald spun around again to Stormcloud. \u201cYOU! You\u2019re spending the night outside in the dog house!\u201d<\/p>\n

Stormy, head down, ears back and his tail between his legs\u2026winked at Lola. As she turned to leave, she looked back, smiled and whispered, \u201cI\u2019ll be back tonight, Stormy.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, for the third time that night, Stormy\u2019s heart melted again.<\/p>\n

See all the winning submissions from current and past entries here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Gordon Berg Gerald’s Talking Dog loves cherries. That’s all he talks about. But who you gonna call when those beloved cherries mysteriously disappear??? Stormcloud, Private Dog. Gerald\u2019s Talking Dog, a scruffy mutt named Stormcloud, had a reputation for solving life\u2019s toughest mysteries. The Case of the Lost Keys. The Case of the Lost Cellphone. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":1386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Gerald\u2019s Talking Dog Essay Contest 2015: First Place http:\/\/wp.me\/p3TDCr-mt","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[46,171,41],"tags":[188],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/geralds-talking-dog.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3TDCr-mt","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1393"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1412,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393\/revisions\/1412"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}