Help Needed - One Dog

Ooh boy. Where do I start?

Like any of us, I was brought into this world with a litter of brothers and sisters. You see, we were born for a very important task. So important. Crucially important. We were born, to use our noses.

Yes, that's right. Our noses. Because there are bad people in this world, and all the bad people? They have something we in the business call "crunchyband."

Crunchyband is easy to smell, and we have to try our best to smell it over all the other smells of the world. When we smell it, we find it, and our Humans in Blue take the bad people away.

Basically, those Humans in Blue needed my help, and my big ol' nose.

That was my life for a while. Straight forward. Easy. Find the crunchyband, get the treats. The pats are the best, but the treats fill my tummy.

Then, there was a problem. It was quite dramatic, all things considered. You know that nose I was born to use?

Bitten by a spider. Nasty things. You take one - maybe two or three - sniffs at them, and they sink their tiny little fangs into you. Seesh. Talk about rude.

It was a pretty scary time. My Humans in Blue had to take me to get treated by the vet, and my nose grew so large it hurt!

When I was all better, my nose looked a little funny. It still looks like that, to this day. See, look -

- all weird and dry and scratchy. That's not the worst part. It grew so large and got so bad that, well, I don't smell as good as I used to.

All that crunchyband? I couldn't make it out from the treats they were feeding me. They told me - Frankie, you're not gonna be such a good sniffing dog anymore. We better find you a family.

Everyone was really sad for me, but I didn't get it. Sure, I couldn't smell the crunchyband anymore, but people still needed my help, and nothing was going to stop me from helping out!

My Humans in Blue found me a family to help. Two grown up humans and a smaller human. I don't exactly remember what they told me I needed to help them with - maybe raising the little human?

I really missed my Humans in Blue. They taught me so well and made me feel so smart. Then it was so scary when they were moving me to my new home. I had to sleep on the ground and it felt like it took days!

But eventually, my family couldn't take it anymore. They needed my help so bad they came to get me! It was a really great day. My new family, my Family of Humans, they took me home and gave me so much love and attention, and I hadn't even helped them with anything yet!

My new life was hard - well, no, it was actually very easy - but I didn't know what to do. Without any crunchyband to smell, I didn't know how to help.

Then I thought - hey, I can bark really well. The Humans in Blue taught me that - to bark at all the bad people. If I can't smell the crunchyband, maybe I can just...bark the bad people away?

Unfortunately, that didn't seem to help. My Family of Humans didn't appreciate the noise one bit! It's really hard figuring out what some humans need. They're so picky!

The little human spent the most time with me. Oh, she was my best friend! We played and I showed her how fast and cool I was - I showed her all the tricks that I learned from my other home and she showed me what I could and couldn't chew on.

But...I just couldn't figure out how to help my Family of Humans. No matter how many bad people I barked away, they just kept getting cross with me. It made me sad sometimes.

I must have done a really bad job, because eventually they stopped letting me inside. I tried my best to bark away all the intruders from the backyard, but sometimes people would go into the house and I wouldn't know who they were. I got confused and sometimes got angry when I shouldn't have.

Helping humans is so hard sometimes!

Eventually, another pair of humans came and met me one day. I didn't know it then, but these humans - they needed my help most of all. See, it wasn't even a week later that this pair of humans asked if I could come and live with them.

It was very sad, leaving my Family of Humans behind. I felt somewhere in my heart, though, that they would get the help they needed. My help was so obviously needed elsewhere. This Pair of Humans, they brought me home right away.

They made me have a bath. It had been awhile since a human made me do that. They brought me right inside. I sniffed the premises intently. My funny nose and years of age might be getting to me by now, but I still gave it my best to find any crunchyband in the house.

But it wasn't crunchyband or bad people I needed to bark away. It seems this Pair of Humans didn't need the help at all.

It's my new younger sister that needs the help. All the help she can get.

She's a puppy, but she's bigger than me! The energy, too. I can't keep up anymore. I can tell why I'm needed here. This puppy - she needs a helping hand through life!

I don't bark too much anymore. My sister does the barking for the both of us, and I'm allowed to investigate inside the house these days. It makes me feel a lot safer, and I bet my Pair of Humans appreciate it too.

All in all - it's a hard life, being a working dog. I'm tuckering myself out just telling you this story. I'm going to go have a lay down now - I've only had two so far, and it's already noon.

If there's any morale for you to take from this story, it's that you should keep looking. Keep sniffing for the crunchyband, and bark, bark and bark again, until you find the exact people who need your help.

Because then, you'll always be able to find a forever home.