When I was just a day old my mommy left me alone on the mountain. Later she tried to find me, and I was right where she left me, but she never did find me. The ones that walk on two legs picked me up and took me over to my new mommy’s house.

At first I didn’t want to eat and I felt puny, but my new mommy looked after me and made me eat out of a bucket. Later she started giving me sweet grain and I really like that.

The strange men came over and put a hot iron on my side and burned a strange looking symbol on my hide. It hurt when they did that and I cried. The others ran to the big ones that look like me; but I ran to my new mommy even though she doesn’t look like me.

My new mommy comes out and feeds me everyday. She combs my hair and polishes my hooves. I like to walk beside my new mommy. Every now and then I step on her feet and she says ow. When I butt her with my head and she falls down she says ow then too. I don’t know what ow means but mommy doesn’t seem happy when she says it.

Mommy and Daddy have lots of critters that say bow-wow. They wake up in the morning and say bow-wow. When someone comes to visit Mommy and Daddy they say bow-wow. I want to say bow-wow, but it just comes out moo. Maybe I need to practice some more, but for now it keeps coming out moo no matter how hard I try.

The bow-wows go in and out of the house, so I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t too. When Mommy or Daddy leave the front door open to air out the house I just walk right in. After all, just because I can’t say bow-wow, doesn’t mean I don’t want to say it. It just comes out wrong. Mommy laughs and then leads me back outside.

"Come on big black dog," she says, "You don’t need to be in the house."