Stephanie, 10, Tallahassee, FL
The robot and the dog first met in the city where our robot, named Brozo, lives. Like the other robots he cleans, fixes buildings, and basically helps out humans with their everyday errands. Courtney on the other hand is a street dog. This means that she just hangs around in the alleys and eats scraps of food. Brozo doesn’t like to be working so he started planning when he would run away. The two became friends when Brozo was cleaning up the ally.
Suddenly he saw a dark shadow darting from one dumpster to another. Of course, this robot is special because he has feelings, so he was definitely scared. A normal robot would usually continue with work like nothing happened, but this robot decided to explore. Courtney the hound is used to seeing robots working all day and night not noticing her at all, but with a robot following her she got nervous, so she tried to defend herself by snarling. Obviously, that made the robot even more scared, so he decided to hide and spy on the mysterious shadow. A few hours later the shadow got tired and made sure that the robot was gone so it could rest. The robot was not gone, actually. He was hiding behind some cars. Morning is where the real thing starts. Brozo was watching Courtney all night since robots don’t sleep.
In the morning Brozo decided to wait for the animal to wake up so he didn’t scare it away. When the dog (or that’s what is looks like) was fully awake he’d introduce himself. An hour later the animal was awake, so Brozo crept toward the dog. Immediately Courtney was on her toes, ready to attack. She started to snarl and growl. The robot had been through this situation before, so he just calmly walked by. He wanted to gain the trust of the dog, so he threw some scraps of food that he found while he was waiting for Courtney to wake up. The dog immediately snatched the food and gobbled it all up. Courtney was still scared, but not as scared as before. She wanted to keep close to this robot because she wanted more food. While Brozo was working he threw food to Courtney.
Weeks passed and Courtney was starting to gain the robot’s trust. One day when the robot snuck away to hide so he could get away with not working, Courtney actually sat in his lap! Brozo was so shocked he could barely believe it! Later that day it seemed like Courtney was trying to talk to Brozo. The robot obviously couldn’t understand the dog, so he just sat there and pet Courtney. Of course, the dog didn’t growl or snarl, she just barked – a happy bark. And Brozo knew that this dog was his dog. The dog also knew that this was her robot, and she was not going to leave him anytime soon. That was just the beginning of their long friendship. Brozo thought that since they were friends, he was going to have to name this dog. He thought and thought but he couldn’t get the right name for her.
Brozo thought for the perfect name until it hit him. Courtney! We continue with the calm days with the two friends. Until… One day while Brozo was working, Courtney wanted to explore more around the city. While she was wandering around buildings and cars, animal control was following her. When Courtney turned a corner, she was at a dead end! Suddenly, all of the animal control workers sprang into action trying to get the dog well behaved. There were loud yelps and barks, and then Brozo knew that Courtney was in trouble. He ran and ran in the direction of all the commotion and tried to find Courtney, but it was too late, and Courtney was already in the truck being taken to the pound.
Brozo was frantic! He needed to save Courtney before the truck reached the animal control building where she would be locked in a cage and hardly leave at all. She would be like that forever! Brozo could hardly believe this! His dog would be taken away forever! No, this could not happen, not at all!
Brozo was running as fast as he could and looking for the nearest animal control center. He was frantic! He realized that he didn’t need to follow the truck. All he had to do was to wait for the pound to close, and then he would disable the cameras and then just save Courtney! He thought that his plan was amazing, but there’s a twist: He doesn’t know how to get Courtney out of the cage. The robot was trying to work casually, as he was waiting for the animal center to close. He was really super nervous, and he didn’t want any of the robots to notice. He kept checking on the internet (in his computer brain) to see if the shelter was closed. Finally, he saw the sign say “Closed” and took off running. When he reached the pound, he hacked into the security cameras and disabled them so he could get in without being spotted.
There was a problem, though. He needed to get into the building before alarming any robots or humans. So, he quietly crept to the back of the shelter to use the fire exit, but he knew it would send an alarm. Instead he noticed an open window. It wasn’t entirely open, but he could push it open. The pushing wasn’t a problem for Brozo or any robot because robots are made to lift heavy things for construction or furniture. He got the window to open with ease. Finally, he climbed into the building and walked around trying to recognize where he was. He turned some corners and found out that there were no robots in this building. If there were, he would detect a signal, and if the robot was getting closer, the signal would become louder.
Brozo saw some workers fast asleep in their offices. He carefully walked past the sleeping workers trying not to wake them up. He tiptoed to where he was hearing a lot of noises, and sure enough he saw Courtney! He was so happy he forgot where he was going and tripped on some cables that were lying around. Brozo fell with a clank and clash, since he was made of metal. All of the commotion woke up some of the workers and immediately spun into action. They ran towards all of the loud noises to see what was going on. As soon as they reached the commotion there was Brozo standing there and Courtney barking loudly. The workers just laughed and said, “You must be the robot that we hired. You’re really early, but you can get to work right away. There is a list on the table for things that you need to do.” The robot sighed in relief and pretended to get to work. When the workers left, Brozo tried to think of a plan. He tried to think. He thought and thought until he got a good plan and got it to work.
He asked one of the workers to open the cage so he could clean it, and the worker did, and finally he saw Courtney! He couldn’t believe it! Brozo thought that he would never see her again, but sure enough now he could see Courtney!
To be continued...
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