The Dog and the Cat

Right now, there lives a dog, a cat and an owner who has a kid. The dog walks like humans when no humans are watching, has muscles which humans never notice and behaves well when humans are with him. This dog also talks like humans, he is very rude to big animals, but really nice to small ones. (by size.) This dog weighs 595 pounds. His name is Donald. He also eats anything he can find that is food, but prefers delicious fancy foods.Then here comes the cat. This cat’s name is Casey. He is a boy and has a lot of things in common with Donald. For example, he walks and talks like humans when humans aren’t watching, he eats anything that is food but prefers fish. He is extremely naughty. He does any naughty things that you can imagine, sometimes even things you can’t imagine. He weighs about 500 pounds. Sarah is their owner, she is only 36 years old, she hadn’t married yet, but she adopted a kid, and the kid’s name is Mary. Mary just turned ten years old, she is extremely clever, and she likes dogs and cats. Currently, Donald and Casey, as pets, and their owners, Sarah and Mary live in Moscow, Russia. Both Sarah and Mary were from America, so they speak English at home, and speak Russian at work and at school. In that way, Donald and Casey consider themselves as bilingual. 

One day, Sarah and Mary went shopping, on their way back home, suddenly, BAM! Their car got crashed by a pick-up, which is rarely seen in Moscow. Sarah and Mary were both sitting in the front two seats, and the rescues found they both unfortunately died. It was really sad to their friends and other people who knew them. But Donald and Casey didn’t know where Mary and Sarah went. They stayed home, waiting for them while watching TV, and they learned the car accident from the evening news. They didn’t know what to do, but started fighting. Donald asked Casey, “What can we do to survive, we barely have any food left,”

“Oos-Poy-koy-sya” answered Casey in Russian, which means calm down in English.

“Seriously, we really need food and water, and look at you, how many days your litter box hasn’t been cleaned up! How are you going to handle your own business?!”

“Dude, we are pets, we’re supposed to be taken care of by humans,”

“There are no humans in this house!”

A week later, Donald and Casey were tired of fighting, furthermore, they ran out of food. So they opened the door and went outside by themselves for the very first step, as Donald decided a few days ago.    

Donald and Casey wanted to go to a crazy place, so they probably won’t get noticed by all the people. They decided to walk to the east. Along the way, they climbed mountains, they crossed rivers, they explored grassy plains and deep forests, they survived from wild brown bears, hunted hares and birds for food.  When they passed some villages, they would also try to beg for some food from people. One day they arrived at Lake Baykal. And they had the first big fight after they started this adventure.  “What a beautiful sea!” astonished Donald.

“Idiot,” answered Casey, “It’s a lake.”

“Can’t you see the seals swimming in the water?” asked Donald, “If we see seals, it must be a sea!”

“Don’t you read? Baykal seal is the only freshwater seal in the world,” Casey proudly replied, “Even if you don’t know, you can taste it, it’s freshwater.”

“Where are we now? Are we in Baykal?” asked Donald.

“Idiot! We are still in Russia! But I forgive you. Because Lake Baykal once belonged to China.”

“Then let’s go to China!” happily suggested Donald.

So they continued their journey to China. But this time they didn’t continuously walk to the east, they walked southward by mistake instead.

When they arrived at a crowded place full of people, they asked an old man who looked like a shepherd, “Where are we?”

“AH!” said the farmer, “MANGAS!” It’s Mongolian language meaning monster. 

Donald and Casey suddenly realized after months of their journey in the wild, they forgot they were not supposed to talk to humans, no matter in what kind of language, except the woof or meow languages! 

Then Donald noticed a sign, and read to himself “Ulaanbaatar.  Where in hell is this place?” 

“It’s the capital city of Mongolia.” replied Casey.

“Mmmm, what’s that amazing smell?” asked Donald with saliva leaking out of his mouth.

“Shish kebab!” they both said it at the same time. 

They can’t help themselves to beg for it, they each quickly caught a screw of the kebab and ran away. This was the best dinner since they have been traveling. After they finished the kebab, Donald felt guilty. “Shame on me! We robbed people’s food.” 

“It’s you who told me once, we have to survive.” argued Casey. 

“It’s just not right.” Donald almost cried, “we can find food in many other ways instead of robbing.” 

“You mean we can steal?” questioned Casey.

“Casey!” Donald got angry. 

“Ok, ok, calm down.  Let’s do something nice later to express our apology.” 

“Now what do we do? We are in Mongolia!” Donald seemed fussy.

“We continue east.”  

They walked for another few weeks and arrived in a big city with buildings and busy traffic. And people were talking in a language they never heard before.  

“Dude, we might be in China,” whispered Casey.

“Really?” answered Donald, “It doesn’t look like China.  I still see buildings like what we saw in Moscow. Look over there, do you see the building with green round domes? It looks the same as the church on the street we lived in Moscow.”   

“Aha! Thank you for pointing out this landmark. I now can tell you one hundred percent sure we are in China!” explained Casey, “This is Saint Sophia Cathedral in Harbin, China. It’s a former Russain Orthodox church built a century ago.”

“Wow, you know a lot.” admired Donald. “But why a Russain church in China?”

“Harbin is a Chinese city built by Russains.” explained Casey, “I’ve always wanted to come visit here. They have really cool ice palaces during winters, and beaches during summer! Could we please stay here?”

“No,”

“Pretty, pretty pretty pretty please,”

After a bunch of these please’s and no’s, Donald finally said, “FINE! But we’re only staying here for a couple days,”

“At least we should wait to see the ice palaces!”

They wandered on the street while making their plans. Slightly Casey heard a low grumble. “What’s that sound?” asked Casey.

“Ur, sorry, it’s my stomach,” answered Donald embarrassed, “do you have any ideas how we’re going to get something to eat?”

“Yah–, I mean no,”answered Casey as he was daydreaming.  

While they were thinking about their meals, they heard something familiar. They looked around and found there were two guys communicating with Russian. Casey and Donald looked at each other and decided to follow those guys since it’s the only language they can understand in a new country. When the guys stopped, Donald and Casey figured out that they found a Russian restaurant. They hid in the alley behind the restaurant, because Casey thought the restaurant owner would throw away some expired, but edible foods somewhere close to the back door for someone to pick up, and he was correct. They almost had a feast. And they also had a good sleep there too. The next morning, as the first ray of sun reached Donald, he felt like he was back home, like a puppy again.

“Hey, bro,” whispered Donald to Casey, “Wake up, wake up.”

*Snore Snore*

“Wake up,” Donald said a little louder,”

*Snore Snore*

“WAKE UP!” 

“I hope nobody heard that except for Casey, “ thought Donald.

Finally and fortunately Casey woke up. 

“We have to leave now,” said Donald, “Don’t you want to see the ice palaces?”

Casey stretched, and they headed to look for the great ice palaces.

Casey was smart enough to follow people who looked like tourists, it didn’t take too long for them to find the ice palace sight-seeing spot. 

“Whoa, I’m speechless!” sighed Donald.

“Then don’t speak.” said Casey.

For no reason they started fighting again,and their voices got louder and louder.  And no doubt the people around them noticed it. A young child suddenly cried as he saw the dog and the cat were talking like humans. 

“Run Casey, we have to leave now!” warned Donald. 

“Yeah this time I can finally agree with you. We definitely have to leave right now,” replied Casey. 

They ran and ran, and they didn’t know how long and how far they ran away. And they stopped in the middle of nowhere as they exhausted themselves from escaping from humans. Donald and Casey laid down and they agreed that they wanted to find an owner to live with, but since people everywhere in China may have already known the existence of them, they’d  rather leave, than live here. 

As Donald and Casey resumed their travel, they thought walking was boring, so they decided to try a different travel experience —- swimming! 

They first walked southeast, and reached the sea shore through North Korea, where they didn’t stay. They swam for a while, and landed in Japan. Casey extremely enjoyed the sushi because fish was on top of his favorite food list, and there’s a variety of fishes in sushi, and Japanese people love cats and always give him food. When  Casey ate enough sushi, Casey and Donald continued their journey.

They kept swimming further and spotted an island. There was nothing, but it was fine, they just needed a spot to have some rest. Since Casey was very smart, he knew exactly where they were. They were in the North Pacific Ocean. Donald and Casey paused their swims and landed on many islands, and kept on swimming. Finally they arrived at a place called Mexico, located in North America. They had many adventures, but not as much as they did in Asia. It was not fun at all. The Mexican people made them wear some clothes, which Donald and Casey thought were uncomfortable, because it’s hot in Mexico compared to that in Russia and north Asia. They also ate some Mexican food, which was too spicy for them. They cannot take much of the food so that they often felt starving. And guess what! Donald and Casey got trimmed because many people there were allergic to animal hair. Donald and Casey didn’t just get trimmed a little! They got trimmed naked! 

“That was mean!” yelled Donald and Casey together. They were extremely upset to see themselves and each other naked, which never ever happened in their life. 

“I can’t imagine people would ever do this to a pet!” complained Casey. 

“But look you, uh, and maybe look at me too,” comforted Donald, “do we still look like a pet at all? After all these adventures? Are you expected to be called a CUTIE by a human owner as they usually treat their pet?” 

“Well, maybe not. I mean absolutely not!” 

They went to the other side of Mexico without hesitation, and had another great swim in the North Atlantic Ocean. Thanks to smart Casey, they know which direction to head to. 

After plenty of island pauses, they landed in a place called Morocco, in north Africa. It’s very close to Spain. Both Donald and Casey were attracted by legendary Spanish dishes, and Casey thought they could understand some of the languages there, since they, or maybe just he, learned some Spanish during their stay in Mexico. But they were surprised to find out that in Morocco, people speak Arabic and French. 

“I told you to learn some forgein language!” complained Casey, “You never listened to me! See! What are we going to do!”

“We can keep going.” suggested Donald. 

“DA.” said Casey. 

Donald and Casey kept on walking, and saw a channel, they swam across it, and landed right in Spain. They didn’t even think of stopping to get something to eat, instead they kept on walking. Donald and Casey walked through a few countries. On the way they saw a huge iron tower standing there like a letter A; they saw people dancing Polka holding cups of beers; they saw a statue of a lady holding a molecule model. They enjoyed the landmarks but they didn’t stop until… they heard some familiar music in their new stop.

“Is that Shostakovich?” murmured Donald. 

“Idiot! It’s Tchaikovsky.” said Casey. 

Then, they suddenly realized they arrived where they wanted to stop. They are in Russia. Although it wasn’t in Moscow, where their home was, they finally felt relaxed. 

They sat there leaning on each other, silently. 

Then a young looking woman came around and her eyes were caught by these two huge but gentle looking animals.

  “CUTIES! I’m gonna keep you.” the lady patted Donald and Casey.  

Then the lady brought Donald and Casey home, giving them a warm bath.

“I am Svetlana, and I am 26 years old, single. But I have you guys now. I teach piano at St. Petersburg Conservatory. From now on I will name you Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky.”