Eventually, he worked his way far enough in that he could reach through to the dog. The dog barked softly, as if in greeting. “How in the name of Eight Rattlesnakes on Roller Skates (one of his mother’s favorite expressions) did you get in there in the first place?” Danton asked. The dog ‘whuffed’ and tried unsuccessfully to move forward, but as the dog shifted, Danton saw how he must have gotten into this mess. He had dug himself a hole under an old wire fence which appeared to run through the woods and into one end of these brambles and out the other. The dog had come right up into the middle of them and was somehow caught in the twisted branches. “It’s all right, puppy. Hold still and I’ll get you out.” Danton began pulling carefully at the long thorny limbs. But, try as he might, he couldn’t get them loose. “What’s with these blasted things?” Danton muttered. He sat back on his heels and wiped the sweat from his face. As it often did, the voice of their science teacher, Mr. Ross, came into his head. Look more closely. Danton bent forward and looked more closely. Now he noticed what he had not noticed before. There was a mess of tangled fishing wire snaking through the branches and wound around the dog. Some meathead must have tossed it in there. Danton hated this stuff. Edward (who liked this kind of fact) said it could take fishing line 600 years to decompose. But besides that, it was menace everywhere in the park. The water fowl were always getting their webbed feet caught in it. The nesting birds sometimes foolishly used it in their nests. The dog, trying to work his way out, must have gotten tangled in it as he tried to get through the bushes. It was wound so tightly around his abdomen and neck that it was nearly hidden in his fur.
Deleted Scene - An Alternate Beginning to The Tiltersmith by Amy Herrick Page 6 Page 8