By Vagmi Shah, Class IX B
It was a fine autumn evening. I left our log cabin for my regular evening stroll to the bridge. The path was littered with leaves of varying shades of orange, red and yellow. As usual, I had my favourite coffee coloured coat on. After walking for about 20 minutes, I arrived at the bridge. The crystal clear water in the stream made eddies as it flowed away. I loitered around for a while before heading back home for tea.
Just then I heard a sound. I whirled around trying to locate the origin of that sound. I noticed a small brown puppy struggling in the middle of the water, trying feebly to swim ashore. Our eyes met for a moment and I could hear it pleading to me to save its life. It took only a fraction of a second for me to make up my mind. Without worrying about the consequences, I dived headlong into the clear blue stream. I swam with strong, steady strokes towards that puppy. I caught it in one arm and swam to the shore.
By the time I reached home, we both were shivering. That water was cold! My sister made us a fire and gave us a hot meal. We discussed what we could do with the puppy. We couldn’t leave that innocent puppy out there to its fate, could we? The puppy also seemed reluctant to leave my side. So, it was decided that we would keep the puppy until we find a suitable owner for it.
A few years have gone by. Rocco, is still with us. He has grown into a big and strong dog. I built a red kennel for him last summer. The same summer in which I had nearly died, had it not been for Rocco.
It was a hot summer afternoon. Who could have believed that a small spark could cause such damage? People say that it was a group of ignorant campers who had started a campfire and forgotten to stamp it out. They left, leaving the embers to feed on dry leaves. Soon a hungry fire spread its red, hot fingers farther into the forest. The flames reached our log cabin within minutes.
I was not feeling well and therefore, was asleep on the couch in my room. I wasn’t aware of the fire outside until I felt suffocated because of the smoke. I panicked as my eyes smarted and I could barely see anything around me. Suddenly, I heard Rocco barking. I could just make out his silhouette coming towards me through the smoke. He led me out of the cabin. I followed him in a daze. Somehow he knew where it was safe. After a few minutes of choking and scrambling through the heat and smoke, we arrived at the outskirts of the forest.
By this time the neighbours had arrived and the fire brigade was already at work. But without Rocco, it would have taken them a long time to reach me. Rocco had saved my life.
