Journal 2 - Animal Hospitality

The once was two best friends, the Little Fox and the Little Labrador. The two animals always played together in the woods and would stay and play until dark when the Labrador would go home to the Red House and the Fox would go home to the burrow in the meadow. One day the Labrador invited the Fox to go to his house and spend the night. The Little Fox was very excited at the prospect of going to the Red House with the Humans and all of the farm animals. But being the responsible animal he is, the Fox told the Labrador that he had to go tell his Mom that he was going to spend the night at the Red House. Together the two friends raced off to the Fox burrow. When the burrow was in sight the two friends slowed down and caught their breath. The Fox told the Labrador that he had water inside and while he was asking his mom, the Labrador can help himself. The Fox approached the burrow and jumped through the opening. The Labrador hesitantly approached the opening, wiped his feet, and softly stepped inside. The Little Fox has four little siblings and they were watching the Labrador's entrance and murmured among themselves. "Look at Little Fox's friend!" "What is he doing?" "Why is he going so slow?" "Look! He cleaned off his feet!" The Labrador didn't hear any of the remarks, and walked to the kitchen. Inside he found a large bowl of water. Instead of putting his head in the bowl and lapping up water like he would do at home, the Little Labrador found a smaller bowl and poured some of the water into it. Then the Labrador drank up the water in his smaller bowl. Little Fox's siblings watched him drink are wondered among themselves why he was doing that, instead of just drinking from the large bowl, but then remembered that they were supposed to be nice and polite to guest no matter what they do. Mama Fox raised her children well. None of the young Foxes commented on the Little Labrador's strange behavior. The Labrador exhibited what he knew to be polite and courteous. Even though his family customs are different then the Foxes, the smaller Foxes showed their polite behavior by not saying or making fun of the Labrador for his different ways. The Mama Fox gave her permission to the Little Fox to spend the night at the Red House. Then the Labrador and the Fox ran off through the woods to the Red House where Little Fox was polite and said please and thank you when Mama Labrador gave him some food. Both friends may have been raised differently, but are polite when in someone else's home or in an unfamiliar place.