Story 30 Wire Dog and Ellen Go Hiking

Written by Ellen Walters
Illustrated by David Walters

One day Wire Dog and Ellen were very bored. They had already played with all of their toys and watched a few movies. They were trying to think of something to do. Wire Dog looked out the window and noticed how nice and sunny it looked.

“We should play outside!” he suggested.

“Okay, let’s go for a hike!” said Ellen.

“What is a hike?” asked wire dog.

“A hike is when you go out into nature and follow a path somewhere,” Ellen answered.

“Okay let’s go,” barked Wire Dog as he wagged his tail with excitement.

So, Ellen and Wire dog packed their bags with some water and snacks and headed out to adventure. Soon they came across a trail to hike along. On their hike they saw lots of trees, rocks, plants, and even a waterfall!

“I like hiking!!” said Wire Dog.

The trail took them all the way to a big lake. At the lake they saw some beautiful wildflowers growing.

“These flowers are so colorful and beautiful we should pick some and take them home,” said Ellen.

But just as she was about to pick the flowers a voice said, “Wait, stop! Don’t pick those flowers.”

Ellen jumped up and looked around to see where the voice came from. She turned around and saw a big, white, mountain goat.

“Oh, you scared us!” said Wire Dog.

“I’m sorry to scare you. My name is Billy. I live here on this mountain and so do those flowers,” said the goat. The goat then explained to Ellen and Wire Dog that the lake and the mountain were the flower’s home and that if the flowers were picked they would soon die. Billy also explained to them that if everyone who came to the lake picked even just a few flowers, that there would soon be no flowers left.

“Oh, I am so sorry I didn’t even think of it that way!” said Ellen.

“Why don’t you just take a picture of the flowers?” Billy suggested.

“Good idea!” said Ellen and Wire Dog.

After taking some nice pictures of the beautiful flowers, the lake and the mountains, they said goodbye to their new friend, Billy and headed back home very excited to show their friends all of the pictures from their hike.

The End

About the Author: When Ellen was 9 years old her parents wouldn’t let her have a real dog so she made a little dog out of wire and wrote the first Wire Dog story for her dad on Father’s Day. Since then Ellen has graduated from High School and now studies nutrition at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. She wrote this Wire Dog story last summer when she worked for Parks Canada in Waterton Lakes National Park.