Ode to Soft Fur

This ode actually has a very interesting story to it. I was second year college, still hated English classes for the most part and really wasn't any good at writing odes. In class, we read "Ode to an Orange" and were told for homework, we had to write one of our own - sounds like a typical assignment, right? Well, as I describe in the Ode, I really was sitting at the computer staring at a blank Word document when Cookie, our family dog, who really was only a year old at the time (she's 5 now), did exactly what the Ode describes.

Now, I ask: don't look at the picture UNTIL you've read the ode!

Ode to Soft Fur
Oh, the color of a loving creature, the soft black, light brown and gray of a sweet young dog. I speak and she looks up, eyes full of unconditional love, ears pricked. I scratch her between the ears and the lashing, feathery, tail stops wagging. I try to do my homework, she sits on my foot preventing me from going anywhere as if to say “do it right.” She is unhappy, I’m told, when I leave for school but overjoyed at my return. Her deep brown eyes say “I love you, play with me, please!” I do play with her and watch her bounce happily after whatever toy I throw for her to chase. It has been said dogs have a goofy, carefree attitude. Not this one. If I am sick, she barely leaves my side. If I am upset, she is there wanting me to pet her and feel better.
If you did not know her, her face would look like one of a bandit. Black fur surrounds her beautiful brown eyes interrupted by two small bands of brown giving her an almost angered expression. The black follows the bridge of her black nose, hemmed in by the soft brown. Oh, to stroke this soft fur is to stroke an angel’s wing. The fur on her back is several shades of black with the darkest in the shapes of symmetrical spots, thus how she earned her name of Cookie.
This is my loving one-year-old Australian Shepherd dog, Cookie.

I turned this in and my instructor just stood in front of my desk reading it. When she finished, she asked to read it to the class, whose collective reaction was "AWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" I showed off a picture of Cookie and the "AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!" was even bigger. Both the ode and the picture were passed around the room before any other ode was read that day. That instructor has since become a good friend and she's the one who took my C grade level writing in English 152 to an A in English 101. If published, she gets top billing in the dedication of my book Dream Angel, which has a preview chapter posted here on hubpages.