Dog"s Ear

“From your mouth to dog’s ear.” 

No, that’s not a misprint. Didn’t you know that ‘dog’ is ‘god’ spelled backwards? 

It was a crisp October morning; the sky was clear and the breeze that stirred the multicolored leaves whispered that the first frost of the season was soon to come. Mitzi picked up her dog’s leash and called, “Want to go for a walk, Skippy?” As the little Maltese scampered towards her, Mitzi bent down to clip the leash onto his collar.

Suddenly, she felt her right arm tingle, then go numb. The leash fell from her hand and landed on the tile floor with a clatter. “Am I having a stroke?” Mitzi wondered, and told herself that she’d better get to her phone. But, her body wasn’t cooperating. She couldn’t stand. 

Terrified, Mitzi started crawling across the room to the telephone. Each inch gained seemed to take an eternity. Five feet to go. Four feet. She focused on the phone, sitting in plain sight on the coffee table. Three feet; now two. The phone seemed to fade out of focus and began to pulsate, growing larger and smaller. Just beyond reach of her goal, Mitzi’s world went black.

Skippy, wondering what this new game was – and what happened to his promised walk – ran over and nudged Mitzi’s hand. No reaction. He nudged again. Still nothing. Whimpering, Skippy began to lick her face, stopping now and then to give her another nudge. Finally, Mitzi stirred, and opened her eyes to see Skippy standing over her.

With a desperate surge of willpower, Mitzi heaved herself to the phone and dialed 9-1-1. “Help!” she gasped. “I’m having a stroke. I need help. Please… hurry…..”

‘From your mouth to dog’s ear’ is an expression that some consider blasphemous. But don’t ever tell that to Mitzi.


©2013 Phyllis Entis. All rights reserved.

A Note of Explanation: For this prompt, each participant was asked to share a favorite word. We then were told to write a story that included one or more of the words on the list. The list of words included: enchanting, egregious, serendipity, joy, brilliant, god, introspection, reflection, eternity, fabricate, wunderbar, Sunday (or sundae), idiosyncrasy, and chocolate.