Shadow & Shaver

Once upon a long time ago, when Maya's Mama was a little girl called Julie and Maya's Uncle Richard was a little boy called Richard and Maya's Granny was a young mother called Mom, Julie and Richard and Mom all lived on a homestead in the woods outside of Fairbanks.

On this homestead, there were fourteen dogs (some grown and some pups). The dogs loved living in the woods, and they wandered freely about and explored the world and had a great time. Julie really loved it, because there were always lots of dogs to play with her when she wanted to play with dogs.

Now, there were also lots of ravens who used to hang around the homestead and share the dog food with the dogs. And one spring, a young raven named Shadow started hanging out with the others. Shadow was a very large, strong raven, and he really liked dogs. Shadow particularly liked puppies, which were just little white balls of fur that ran about and played and barked. One of the puppies, Shaver, made special friends with Shadow, and whenever Shadow would land on the ground, Shaver would play chase with him. First Shaver would chase Shadow, and Shadow would run on the ground for a while and then fly up into a tree, and then Shadow would chase Shaver, and Shaver would try to fly into a tree. But, because Shaver didn't have wings, he could never make it off the ground at all. Finally, Shadow took pity on Shaver, and because Shaver was just a very young puppy and therefore very small, when Shadow chased Shaver he would fly over him and grab Shaver by the scruff of the neck and lift him eight or nine inches off the ground. Shaver loved it! It was just like flying! Shadow liked it, too. It made him feel so strong to lift a puppy into the air!

Well, summer came and all of the ravens left the homestead to do whatever it is that ravens do in the summer. Shadow didn't come to visit for months and months, and during those months Shaver grew and grew until he was a full grown dog.

In the fall, the ravens came back to the homestead and there were now fourteen full grown dogs. All of the dogs were as white as white and as fluffy as fluffy and they all looked almost alike. And all of the ravens were as black as black and as smooth as smooth, and they all looked pretty much alike. But even though all the dogs looked alike, Shadow immediately recognized Shaver. And even though all the ravens looked alike, Shaver immediately recognized Shadow. Oh, what a joyous reunion! How happy they were to see each other. Shadow ran along the ground, and Shaver chased him and then Shadow flew into the tree. Then Shaver ran and Shadow chased him, but when Shadow grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and tried to lift him off the ground, Shaver didn't budge a single inch! Over the summer Shaver had grown too big for Shadow to lift. Shadow tried and tried, because he could remember very well that he had been able to do this before and he really wanted to do it again. But it didn't work. And Mom (who later became Maya's Granny) watched and laughed and laughed.