Finnegan Ferguson was a large, long-limbed dog with a lot of feelings.

Growing up gangly and sensitive in a life of hard knocks had left those feelings always simmering just below the surface of his perpetually shedding fur.

Perhaps it was having so many bubbly feelings pushing against his fur that caused him to shed like an exploding polar bear.

Finny wasn’t sure about that but he was sure that at the handsome age of 5ish or so, his life seemed to have come full circle in a most unhappy way.

Once again, he had found himself back at the shelter. Once again, the humans around him seemed to have given up on him.

It didn’t seem fair. Finny never gave up on humans, no matter how many bad choices they made or that they never seemed to give him nearly enough eatables.

And so he tried calling to them from his shelter kennel. He barked and arroooed and jumped and twirled around in a raucous display of flailing limbs and protruding ribs and canine exuberance.

But the humans kept passing him by. Sometimes they’d smile and shake their heads at him but rarely did they stop. Even the day the lady said she wanted him, she didn’t stop. She slowed and smiled and pointed at him and told some other humans that she wanted that dog. They even said okay! But it wasn’t until later that they came back for him.

Finnegan had thought this meant he’d get to go home with the lady and be her dog but what it really meant was a whole team of humans was going to start “training” him. They came to see him every day and brought him eatables and toys and took him places. He learned so many new things and sometimes, he got to go to their houses for visits.

He got to go home with the lady who’d said she wanted him the most. Still, she was slow and didn’t understand that he needed to stay with her. After her visits, she’d take him back to the shelter and tell him she loved him. And then she’d leave.

One night, there was a winter icepocalpyse coming and the lady decided to take Finnegan on a sleepover. Finnegan seized his moment and turned on as much look at me I’m your dog charm as he could. He thought it must be working because he got to go on more and more sleepovers.

But still, in the morning, he always had to go back to the shelter. Until one day. He had a new neighbor who was barking and barking and barking at him. Finnegan was very scared and even though he was listening to the lady and doing what she asked, he was shaking the whole time. The lady looked at him and he looked at her and she started to cry. That was the first big moment.

They left straight away and the lady told the shelter people that he was her foster dog now. This was great because he got to live with the lady and snuggle her and play with her and work on charming and loving the manhuman too. But he knew if he really wanted to stay he’d have to make friends with the other dog who already lived in the house. He was called The Muppet. That was a very tricky thing for Finnegan Ferguson because even though he was a dog, he much preferred humans.

So while Finny & The Muppet worked on their relationship, he kept going to meet other families who thought they might like to call him theirs. Then one day he had a date and the lady panicked. That was the second big moment. The one when the lady realized he’d been her dog since she first passed him in his kennel at the shelter.

And so Finnegan Ferguson was adopted for at least the second time in his life. He joined the lady, the manhuman, and his brother The Muppet and they became his family. Things still weren’t always easy for Finnegan on account of his many bubbly feelings, but that was okay because he and his family loved each other no matter what. And so they lived happily and awkwardly and perfectly for them ever after.

Finnegan Ferguson & The Muppet think adopting dogs like them is the best. ❤

These books are not yet published. Interested in publishing or illustrating? Email amy@soulbeaststudios.com!

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