“Humm! Humm! Humm!” whined Don. He really was the largest and strongest of the litter of puppies, and perhaps that is why he seemed to come first.
“What’s that you’re saying?” asked his mother. For you know, doggies have a language of their own. They cannot speak as we do, but they can understand when we speak to them. Dogs are smarter in some ways than we are. They can understand, and know, what we say to them, but we can only guess at what they say, when they bark, growl or whine.
“What’s that you say?” asked Mrs. Gurr, of Don.
“Humm! Umph! Wee-wee!” went Don.
“Oh, you’re cold, are you?” asked Mrs. Gurr, who had this name because she sometimes made a noise that sounded that way—“gurr”—away down in her throat.
“Yes, I’m cold,” said Don, shivering.
“Well, cuddle up close to me, and you’ll soon be warm,” said the mamma dog. So Don, and his brothers Spot and Prince, and his sisters Violet and Ruby, crept still closer to their mother, for she was a big dog, and her hair was very warm.
For over a week Don and the other little dogs could see nothing, because their eyes were not open. They could hear strange noises going on outside their kennel, but they did not know what they meant.
Don especially, had many adventures, and a great many strange things happened to him. In this book I am going to tell you all about them, how he ran away, and was locked in a freight car, and how a bad boy tied a tin can to his tail—but there—I am getting ahead of my story. Those things did not happen until Don grew to be big. So I shall have to start at the beginning.
And the beginning was when Don still did not have his eyes open.