Week 6 Story: No Clear Winner

No Clear Winner

“You two get to come inside today since it is so snowy and cold,” said Penny and Buddy’s owner.

 The two were normally outside dogs since they were slightly on the larger size and were both very playful. Penny and Buddy were best friends who loved to do everything together. Even though they were best friends the two also were very competitive with each other. They couldn’t play fetch without the game turning into a race to see who could get the ball first. They couldn’t play tug-of-war without a clear winner. Most certainly, they could not wrestle without a clear winner as well.

Buddy and Penny fighting on a normal day. I found this image on Wikimedia Commons.

By getting to come inside, the dogs really didn’t know how to just sit there and behave. Penny would try to jump on the couch which would make her owner mad. Buddy would try to chew on a shoe which upset the owner as well. After trying to be good dogs for a while in the living room, it wasn’t before too long that Buddy decided he would pester Penny. He decided to playfully bite her as he did before most of the times the two would wrestle, so Penny knew what was going on. She then decided to claw at him in return to approve that she wanted to wrestle as well.

As one can imagine it wasn’t too long before the dogs began running around the living room tackling, biting, and clawing at each other. There owner kept telling them to stop but didn’t sound as serious as he did earlier when he got onto them. This meant that the two kept going until Penny tackled Buddy into the sharp part of the chimney. As Buddy was struck with pain, he showed no sign of weakness, and instead became very mad as he growled and barked while he simultaneously lunged at Penny and bit harder than usual.

Immediately, the two were no longer just having a friendly competition, but instead this became a true fight between them. They were growling, biting, and clawing with all of their might causing a huge scene in the living room to which upset their owner. As their owner grew upset, for he was tired of having to deal with the two misbehaving dogs, he decided to grab his newspaper from the coffee table.  

WHACK! WHACK! Before either dog knew it, they were struck with the newspaper so hard that they both forgot what they were doing in the first place. The owner grabbed buddy by the collar, who was on top of Penny, and dragged him to the washroom. He then came back for Penny who was trying to find a place to hide before she too was being yanked by the collar. He put Penny in the guest bathroom before she could even try to resist.

Then loudly he yelled “SINCE NEITHER OF YOU CAN BEHAVE OR PLAY NICE, BOTH OF YOU WILL BE LOCKED UP FOR THE REST OF THE DAY!”

It was then that both dogs started whimpering to come out which lasted the rest of the day. Although neither dog would admit it, they both realized that they can go a bit too far with their competitions, and on this day there was no clear winner.

Author's Note:

This story is based on The Contest from Mahabharata in which Bhima and Duryodhana are competing with each other. The way they are competing in this story is through a fight that really wasn't too serious at first. However, as the two continue fighting they both begin to become more prideful and the mock fight turns into a real one. As the two are now fighting with anger involved, a third challenger, Arjuna, enters the fight. Arjuna is clearly a better warrior than the other two and with his bow and arrow he ends up completely dominating the two for a victory. In my story, I wanted to make a more playful, modern version of a playful fight turning serious. In my story, Penny and Buddy represent Bhima and Duryodhana. I had the two be friends because I felt this added a more personal connection with the two wanting to win especially when they got too aggressive and the playful wrestling turned into an actual fight. Instead of having a third warrior enter the fight, I decided that it would have the dog's owner be the person who ultimately wins the fight between the dogs, as did Arjuna between the other two warriors. I felt that this was a good way to show that sometimes we can get too serious in out play with others, and there is someone else who can always ultimately beat you in whatever competition it is.

Bibliography:

The Contest from Mahabharata, Epic of the Bharatas, by Romesh C. Dutt (1898).