• Joseph was an eight year old who hated animals; especially dogs. He enjoyed bullying and teasing them. He thought dogs were dumb and useless and every day he’d look for an opportunity to bully and be mean to dogs.

    One day he was playing with some fire crackers with his friends when a dog ran up to them to play. Joseph got an evil Idea. He grabbed a jump rope from a little girl and tied the dog’s legs together. Then he started throwing some fire crackers at the dog. The dog whimpered and whined as he did it, but Joseph laughed. A police officer saw what Joseph was doing and stopped Joseph before he really hurt the dog.

    Then the police officer took Joseph home, and walked him to his door. The police officer knocked on the door and Joseph’s mom was shocked when she opened the door to her son who was standing in front of a police officer.

    “Go to your room,” Joseph’s mom yelled, “and don’t come till morning!” Joseph pouted all the way up to his room.

    That night Joseph was getting ready for bed when he heard a knock on the door. He ran down stairs to the door.

    “I’ll get it,” he yelled. When he opened the door he didn’t see any one. He looked to he left of the door and the right and didn’t see anyone.

    “Down here,” Joseph heard. So, he looked down and to his surprise a dog was sitting there.

    “It’s just some dumb dog.” Joseph rolled his eyes and started to shut the door.

    “Hey, if I’m dumb, then how can I talk,” the dog replied. Joseph nearly wet himself. “My name is Spartacus E. Kensington the third, but you can call me Sparky.” Sparky looked up at Joseph and started panting. For about ten minutes Joseph stood there trying to figure out what was going on, during that ten minutes neither said a word.

    “This must be some kind of trick,” Joseph finally said.

    “No,” Sparky barked. “And I’ll prove it. Follow me.” So Joseph did, and they stopped at an ally.

    “Look here,” Sparky pointed his head toward the ally, “those dogs are playing.” Joseph looked into the ally and saw the dogs clawing and mouthing each other.

    “They’re not playing,” he said. “Dogs are dumb, they don’t know how to play. They’re fighting.”

    “No, you just don’t see it,” Sparky said. “Look closer.” Joseph did looked closer and saw that they weren’t hurting each other. In Fact, it almost sounded like they were laughing.

    “Time to go,” Sparky said. He grabbed Joseph’s hand with his mouth and they were off.

    Next they stopped at a neighborhood where dogs where barking.

    “Listen,” Sparky said. “They’re talking.”

    “No they’re not,” Joseph said. “Dogs are dumb, they can’t talk. They’re just barking.”

    “No, you just don’t hear it,” Sparky said, “listen closer.” Joseph listened closer and realized that it sounded almost like a conversation. One dog would bark, and then another dog would bark, like they were answering.

    “Time to go,” Sparky grabbed Joseph’s hand with his mouth and they were off.

    Their next stop was the pound.

    “Look how sad these dogs are,” Sparky said, “they have no friends.”

    “So what,” Joseph said, “Dogs don’t need friends.”

    “You’re wrong,” Sparky said. “Look closer.” Joseph looked closer and realized that the dogs were crying.

    “Time to go,” Sparky said. Then Joseph woke up. He ran down stairs. He ran to his mom and asked, “Can we have a dog?”

    “Hold up,” his mom said, “yesterday your torchering dogs, and now to day you want to adopt one?”

    “Ya, I love dogs now.” Joseph said.

    “Ok, sure!” the mom said surprised.

    So Joseph and his mom got into their car and drove to the pound. There, they looked at the dogs. After a little while Joseph saw a dog that looked surprisingly familiar.

    No way, he thought, it couldn’t be. The dog was panting as he got closer to the dog’s pen. Then, he remembered what Sparky looked like when he was panting, and he knew it, the dog was Sparky.

    “Sparky!” Joseph shouted. He ran over to his mom who was looking at a golden retriever and he started pulling on his mom’s coat.

    “Mom,” he said pointing at the dog, “I want this one.” So his mom went to talk to the clerk at the desk and they took Sparky home that day.