Once upon a time, a dog named Porpoise lived in a very large, very nice house. He wasn’t the cleverest dog ever, but he was loyal and fierce and had nice shining fur, so that was okay.
Sometimes, when Porpoise had no intruders to scare away, or dog food to eat, he liked to explore his big nice house. He almost always found something he’d never seen before, or at least something he’d found once and forgotten about.
One day, he was exploring a new room when, passing by something shiny and silver, he encountered something he’d not seen before: another dog.
It was most certainly a male, a brown dog with black ears and a fluffy tail. But it was snarling, and looked ready to attack.
Porpoise began to growl back, but was interrupted when his owner came in, patted him on the head, and laughed about him growling at the mirror.
As he left the room, he was sure he saw the mirror dog turn into a hippopotamus.
The following day, he walked back up to the mirror, where the dog was waiting. But this time, his smaller owner came and made him go outside and play. This time, the dog thought he saw a rhinoceros watching him leave.
But that night, Porpoise made sure no one else was awake when he returned to the mirror. And the mirror dog was there, waiting, and it seemed to smile.
Porpoise barked and he growled, and his hackles went up, and the mirror dog just snarled and growled and paced.
Not knowing what else to do, the dog took his favorite toy, a light blue kitty and hit it against the mirror.
There was a thud, and a thwack, and a small crack appeared on the mirror. And the mirror dog ran away with its tail between its legs. As it ran, the dog thought it saw it turn into something smaller and softer, with sharper claws and pointy ears.
But his job was done, so Porpoise went downstairs, and slept on the couch until the sun came up.
The End
© Beatrix Cottonpants Original
