At some spontaneous moment, my heart began to overflow with warmth, sweet warmth. With eyes closed, I heard the sweet melody of dawn wafting through the fresh breeze. Inhaling deeply, I tasted the sweet loamy air of the forest, of home. My mind alert, I lay still as the warmth of the sun soaked into my shirt and jeans, waiting. After a few brief moments a rustling noise came from a nearby bush, and then it stopped. Bending my knees, and pressing my hands against the ground I pushed myself off of the ground with a graceful swiftness, but was too late. The brown mass collided into me and pinned me back to the ground at the base of the tree where I had been laying. I struggled, but could not move the weight off of me, and suddenly my face was attacked by it's slimy tongue. Giving up, I let my body go limp and laughed. Then, a wet nose pressed against my forehead, and as I opened my eyes I saw two smiling eyes staring back at me, and a happy brown tail wagging. The emptiness in my heart was gone, I finally had my companion back, my lifelong friend.
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