Shadow Tails - Voodoo Killer

One of my most favorite things to do is to fly my model airplanes at our huge park. Of course, there is no way to go to the park without the Shadow and her Frisbee. It is my job at the park to throw her Frisbee until she gets tired. She is so fast that she can keep up and catch in the air the farthest throw. After I have done my job throwing her Frisbee untill she is tired, she lets me finally fly my planes. As past president of our city model club and with a whole wall of ribbons, you might say that I am a fanatic. I would only say, "So many planes, so little time!" Model airplanes are wonderful. Not only do you get to do something with what you carefully build, you get to go outdoors for hour after hour and just enjoy the beautiful days.

Shadow really only likes my gliders. I stretch out my sixty-foot-long rubber band which will pull my glider way up high. They can stay up for hours if I am careful to find the right updrafts. After getting the glider flying well, my new job is to become Shadow's pillow. As soon as the glider is going, she will come lie next to me and lay her head on my lap. She watches me very careful making sure I don't make any mistakes. She even barks if I should get too lazy and fall asleep.

Of course, the gliders are so slow that sometimes I pick one of my other planes. She does not like my gas planes at all! Before we leave home, she growls at me if I choose one of my gas engine airplanes instead of a glider. She always covers her ears with her paws whenever she hears one of those noisy engines. Still, I don't even consider leaving her home as she knows it is her duty to protect me from those noisy fast-moving things. The couple of times I tried to leave her, she bullied right past me into the car and sat right on my airplanes turning them into so much plastic and broken sticks.

One day when she was still very young, we went to the park with my VooDoo. A VooDoo is a really fast flying wing with two tails. It runs in circles with two strings connected to a handle I hold. Tilting the handle toward me makes it shoot up and spin in tight little loops if I am not careful. Tilting the handle down makes it loop downward, or crash if I am too close to the ground. The VooDoo was Shadow's least favorite at all. When I was really concentrating on flying, I lost track of the Shadow. Turns out she was in stealth mode slowly sneaking down the gully invisible. She flashed up faster than lightening and touched that VooDoo as it was going around. Unfortunately, it touched her too just barely grazing her nose with the propeller. Although she was cut, it was very tiny and she was fine.

Of course, you would have never believed that from her. She exploded in a squeal and howl that awoke all for miles around. Upset me so much I crashed the plane running over to see if she was all right. If looks could kill I not only was a goner, I had just been turned into dog food. She really was quite upset I forgot to tell her about propellers. She went sulking away going over to the bushes unloved and unwanted. I did not know whether to laugh or cry, so I fixed my plane and kept flying.

For about four flights she followed that plane with her head as though her life depended on it. She was getting really dizzy from all my loops and looked so wobbly I laughed. She was still pouting hard and not going to give me any attention at all. I figured out a new figure eight move and was having fun making that plane spin and spin when out of the green grass the shadow launched again. This time she got it right in the middle of the wing with a huge chomp. The plane pieces went right into the ground. Shadow's tail went straight up and she gingerly pranced off proud of having ridded the world of that noisy nuisance. I could only laugh until I was crying. The big brave shadow had gotten even.