The story of a little ginger puppy girl named Suri

“Yes.”

“And you ate meat from a bowl?” Suri’s stomach grumbled, and she was drooling at the thought.

“I did,” her grandmother smiled.

“Where did you do all this?” Suri tried hard to imagine a pipe or a hole in which there could be a soft bed and a bowl of meat. But even Suri’s rich imagination could not summon up such miraculous things.

“All this was at the house of my friend – my human,” grandmother sighed and looked sadly into the distance.

“HUMAN?” Suri shouted in amazement.

Dad and mom had told them about people. After all, it was always around people that they found food for themselves and their children. But there was always danger and anxiety attached to these stories.

“Remember, children,” dad had once said, “you must never get close to people. If you come across them unexpectedly, hide or run for it.”

“Are they really that scary?” the puppies asked, wiggling their ears in fright.

“They are unpredictable. They could scream right out, kick you, or throw stones at you. They don’t like us taking the food that they throw away.”

“Are they so greedy?” asked the cowering puppies.

“Yes. They are greedy. They won’t even give us what they don’t want or need,” Dad said with a frown. “People think we are dangerous and so they chase us away.”

“Are all people like that?” Suri asked timidly. For some reason, she did not want to believe in such scary stories at all.

Dad looked at her closely.

“No, baby, not all people are like that. They say there are good and kind humans,” for some reason, while saying this, dad turned to look at Granny Pea, who was sleeping nearby. “But this is not something you can know by just looking at them, and you should never try to check because it is too dangerous. A person can sound friendly when it calls you, but when you come closer… WHAM!”

The puppies loved their dad so much and, of course, believed him and perceived grandmother’s stories as fairy tales. They believed in her, certainly, but she was always at home; dad was the one who used to go out to get food and he was the one who saw people, which meant that dad’s stories had to be true.

However, Suri still could not fully believe her dad. Something inside her, in her little heart, said that her grandmother was also right, and what she was telling were not fairy tales; there could be such people too!

So, every day Suri and her grandmother lay down ever more comfortably in the shade and talked.

Suri once asked:

“Granny Pea, how come all other dogs have no names – even mom and dad and my brothers – but you and I have? And only you call me by name – well, sometimes mom does too.”

“Because, my little Suri, the rest of the dogs chose to have no name. More precisely, to have no human name. They have seen too much bad and too little good from people. I kept my name, and I gave you your name.”

And, in fact, the dogs in the pack did not really call each other by name. If a dog was black, then it was called so – Black. Big White Dog was hence called exactly that. Everyone called Suri’s dad Red, and her mom was called Fluffy.

In the whole pack, only Suri’s grandmother had an actual name: Busya.

“Grandma, what does your name mean?” Suri asked. “And where did it come from?”

“A human gave it to me,” answered Granny Pea. “Or rather, I always had it, and my human just said it out loud.”

“Always had it? How’s that?” Suri was very confused.

Grandma looked carefully at her granddaughter.

“Well, it’s time for you to know this, since you’re asking.” She moved closer to Suri. “Every dog… Remember this, Suri… Every single dog has its own name. It does not describe it just like Black or White. It may not mean anything, it just is.

And in the life of each dog, a special person can appear who will call it by name. Only that person will know it, and that person will be the first to call a dog by name. And when a person names that dog, they will forever be friends and will be together.”

“Did your human say your name?” A strange sensation crept into Suri’s throat, which made it difficult to breathe.

“Yes, my little Suri. My human found me and gave me my name,” Granny Pea answered quietly.

“How? When?” Suri was barely able to find her voice.

“It was a long time ago. I was still living with my mom and her human. I had brothers and sisters; a big friendly family. And each of us had our own name. My name was Pearl.

“Pearl?” Suri pricked up her ears in surprise. “Isn’t your name Pea?”

“I became Pea here, in the flock. Dogs really didn’t like my human name. They called me Small because I was the smallest. But then they agreed to Pea.

Grandma smiled a little sadly.

“So, Suri, I lived with my mother. When my brothers and sisters and I grew up, different people began to come to our house. They played with us, told us how cute we were, and then someone would suddenly called one of the puppies by name. It was wonderful to suddenly realize that this was your human! And that puppy, whose name was spoken, left with the human to go and live in their house. This is how my human appeared. One day, a very nice lady in a beautiful dress and with a glamorous hairstyle came to see us. She took me in her arms and brought me closer to her face. She smelled of flowers and of something warm. It was such a lovely aroma that I could not resist, and I licked her right on the nose!”

Suri giggled, and Granny Pea laughed:

“Imagine, I licked such a beautiful lady on the nose!” Granny Pea stared dreamily into the distance.

“And what did the lady do?” Suri asked.

“She laughed and said ‘Oh, you are my Pearl!’ And she kissed me back. So I realized that it was she who was my human.”

“And you began to live with her? What about yourmom? Didn’t you miss her?” Suri felt sad for some reason. She could not imagine her own mother not being there. Or her dad. Or her brothers.

“Of course I missed them at first. Out of habit, I whimpered and cried. But my lady was extremely kind. When I cried, she always took me in her arms, consoled me, and gave me a tasty treat. And at night she put my bed next to hers and caressed me until I fell asleep. This is how our world works – when we grow up, we leave our parents and go to live with the one who is our destiny.”

Grandma, a pensive look on her face, fell silent and Suri was also deep in thought. For a while they just lay there, each turning things over in their minds.

Suri tried to imagine what a bed was like. Is it as soft as grass? Did it also tickle the paws and tummy? And if it was similar, then how could it be moved somewhere else? Because grass always grew in the same place. And what did a person look like? Grandmother said that people walked on their hind legs, and with their front legs – rather, what she called their arms – they touched and did everything, even carrying different things with them. Suri once tried to walk like a human, but it was very uncomfortable. Her paws were all a’quiver, and she fell over constantly.

Suri also tried to imagine what it would be like to be “taken in a person’s arms” and “stroked on the head.” Was it like how mom and dad used to carry them with their teeth to move them from place to place? Did humans also lick one’s face with their warm tongues?

Suri dreamed so much about this, that at some point she even saw Grandma’s beautiful lady. She was standing in the shade of a tree, guarding a large bone in between her front paws, and wagging her fluffy tail. And next to her was Granny Pea.

Suri woke up and shook her head in confusion. What a strange vision! After all, people don’t have tails!

“Grandma, where did your lady go?” asked Suri, staring at her grandmother.

In turn, grandma gazed dreamily into the distance, and it was clear that she was a little sad. Suri’s question brought her out of her reverie. She looked at her granddaughter and said: