As a child I would play in the back yard much like any other child, obsessed with spades and buckets, diggers and everything I could reach in my dad's garage. I had a dog since I was a young boy. His name was Pepper and he was an old English sheepdog, the muchos hairy variety and we loved each other dearly and would play everyday. Every day at five o'clock my parents would take Pepper away and I wouldn't see him again until the next morning. Looking back I'm not sure why I didn't question where he was going or why he didn't sleep with us in the house.
Eventually I was old enough and wise enough to follow my parents as they led Pepper up the garden path to a small bungalow at the end of the cul-de-sac. I had been told never to venture down there and up to this point had obeyed my parents.
I knocked on the door. A frog went ribbit in the undergrowth. There was a brief silence and then a friendly voice. "Come in." I pushed the door and stepped into the hallway. There was no hallway just lino, it was wet. "I'm just feeding the dog, come on through." Slowly I edged up the wet lino towards the kitchen to see an old man hunched over a table. He turned his toothy grin towards me but I looked past him at Pepper. Pepper raised his head as if he recognized me. To my horror I could see the lower body and two large legs of a frog protruding from his mouth. The old man appeared to be feeding Pepper live frogs.
I screamed and remembered nothing more.
My parents explained that the old man was to ill to look after Pepper during the day and that we couldn't keep him cos Mum was allergic. I told them about Pepper's diet and they confirmed that he did have a rubber frog which he played with at home, the old man had been preparing his tea on the table.
From that day I renamed him Dogfrog and he was just as obedient under that name as he was as Pepper since that wasn't he real one either.
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