Once upon a time, there was a pound in the large city of San Francisco. This pound was not your average pound and did not always treat animals the way they necessarily should be treated. There were four dogs in particular that everyone loved. They had been at the pound for almost twelve years and they were all born in the same litter, so they were brothers. The dog’s
names were Yudhishthira, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva. The man that named them
had a very particular sense of humor.
These
dogs, just like all of the other animals living at the shelter, dreamt of one
day escaping the place. There was an evil gatekeeper, though that ran the pound
and refused to let the animals be adopted or go anywhere else. He sometimes
refused to give them adequate amounts of water and food and he did not always
take them for walks outside in the dog park.
When
these four dogs were left on the side of the road as puppies, they did not
expect much from people anymore. They did, however, expect to be treated
humanely. After twelve years, they were finally ready to leave. They had put up
with this nonsense for long enough and surely the outside world offered them a
better life than being stuck inside a kennel all day.
After weeks
of planning, they finally staged a breakout. They were ready to leave the pound
and start anew. However, one thing stood in their way to freedom. The
gatekeeper.
As they slowly crept out in the night, they were careful not
to make any loud noises. They made it all the way to the dog park in the back
of the pound when suddenly, the gatekeeper sprang up out from the sprinklers!
“Ha ha! I’ve finally caught you! I know you have been
plotting to escape for a long time now, but I will make you a deal. The deal is
if you can make it through a series of challenges that I decide, you will be
free to leave!”
The dogs looked at each other and thought it over. It did
not take them very long before they decided they could do it. First, Nakula had
a hot dog eating contest ahead of him. He could not make it through all of the
hot dogs within the time limit so he was sent back to the kennel. Net up was
Sahadeva, who had to dance while wearing a hula hoop. The hula hoop fell and so
he was sent back to the kennel. And so it went with Arjuna. When Yudhishthira
came to his challenge, the gatekeeper asked him a series of riddles that he had
to answer patiently and with speed in order to gain freedom. He answered all of
the riddles and the gatekeeper was stunned.
The gatekeeper promised
Yudhishthira his freedom and the freedom of his brothers. He also vowed to
never rule the pound with an iron fist again! From that day forward, the animals roamed free and were able
to be adopted and do as they pleased! The end!
("The Pound" from the Real Scratch Pad Blog at Wordpress)
Author's Note: I honestly do not know how I came up with the idea for this story. I think it was a combination of it being a late night and also my conversation with my sister. I was talking to my sister tonight and she recently adopted a puppy from her local pound. Somehow this idea crept into my subconscious and influenced my story! I decided to use the same names from "Riddles at the Lake" for the animal characters in order to make my retelling of the story less confusing.
Bibliography: "Riddles at the Lake" by Donald A. Mackenzie, from Indian Myth and Legend (1913). Web Source:
PDE Mahabharata
