A Dog's American Tail Prologue

The late 1890's was the time of dreams. All over the world people were emigrating from foreign nations to live in the promised land of America. To these immigrants what awaited them was paradise compared to the tragic existences they'd left behind desperate to start anew.

The most likely place one would find these new citizens entering the continent was at New York City. Those who managed to pass the inspection on Ellis Island after their long passage were granted access to New York City and all the other lands beyond. Many choose to leave the city for other places that lay beyond in order to make their fortunes

while others chose to remain there in order to make their way.

When times got tough family's were forced to leave in order to find greener pastures when they could no longer afford the expense of living in such a place anymore along with the typical American dream not being as easy as they'd first thought.

Unfortunately when this occurred some individuals were left behind, particularly the pets.

One such pet was a dog named Dawncloud. She's a young female small, slender, and graceful huskie and for a while she lead a happy life with her family. That is until they up and moved again.

The family was heading out west so the husband and father could get an available job with a logging company that he'd heard about. They needed to leave then and there or else the man would lose out on it. They were desperate so they had to take it. Trouble is they couldn't afford to take Dawncloud with them. Of course the children of the family, two boys, were devastated, but it was out of their hands.

Dawncloud too was heartbroken as she watched them go. She chased the train they were taking until she reached the edge of the platform. The last thing Dawncloud saw of the children were their tearstained faces pressed to the glass of a window as they sped away from her.

Just like that Dawncloud was left alone turned out onto the street to fend for herself as an unwanted stray.

So Dawncloud did what she needed to survive. Scrounging for scrapes and, though she deplored it, stole from humans when they weren't paying attention to their surroundings. Dawncloud slept in whatever sheltered spots she could find that weren't already occupied by other canines.

One day when Dawncloud was foraging she came a cross a fat orange cat digging through her favorite bins. Dawncloud barked to announce her presence letting the feline know she was there. Then she got into an attack position growling in a threatening manner. She sword the cat almost shed his fur from fright. His fear scent was overwhelming. He was absolutely terrified of her.

But before Dawncloud could do anything two mice came out from behind the cat speaking and throwing stuff at her in his defense. One was a tall lanky mouse while the other was much smaller standing barely a little taller than the top of the elder ones waist.

The aggression and malice Dawncloud felt inside her faded as she watched them instead replaced with curiosity and intrigue as she watched them together.

Dawncloud wanted to know how a friendly relationship came to be with two species that should've been enemies.

With this one singular step the friendships she would eventually form with these individual mice and that cat would ultimately alter Dawncloud's life forever for the better. She just didn't know it yet.

Authors Note:

I bet you can all guess who those two mice are. Ha. Ha. ;)

I don't know about you guys, but I absolutely loved the American Tail movie franchise growing up. It made things so much easier sometimes compared to what we all go through each day in everyday life.

Anyhow I thought of this idea as I was watching some of the movies a while ago. When I was going through American Tail A Manhattan Monster it hit me that maybe a dog could be included this time around actually friends with the mice.

I just had to get it up here.