Benji and Me- A Picture Prompt

So I found this website that gives picture prompts, and I'm posting the one I did. Hopefully there will be more to come.

Benji and Me

There it was again. That dog, a golden lab, some people called it, was in front of my house again.

“Ma!” I called. “Ma, that stray’s in front of the house again. Can we keep ‘im?” My ma never answered me, only ran out to the porch and hollered at it, telling it to scram. But today she held the broom from her sweeping of the house. “Ma? What’re you doin’ with that broom?” She still ignored me, and ran to the porch, waving the broom like nobody’s business. The poor stray ran away from her, tail between its skinny little legs. “Ma, can we feed it if it comes again? It’s goin’ to die if we chase it away like everybody else.” She just shook her head and shooed me out the door to catch the ratty old bus to school.

When I got home, I saw the poor dog standing outside the house again. I ran up to it, yellin’ at it. “Dog, you gotta go! My ma’s gonna get you in trouble if she sees you here!” The dog looked at me sadly. “Aww, shoot. Don’t gimme that, dog.” It kept watching me.  “Fine. Here, boy, go get it!” I tossed an old baseball to it, and it ran off. “Don’t come back, dog!”

A day or two later, and I kept seeing the dog. I’d chase it away each time. Then a bay came up to me one day. He looked sad. “Girl, have you seen a golden lab around here? His name’s Benji, and when we moved away from this house my da left him here. I can’t keep him, but I wanted to bring him to the animal shelter so he can get a new home.” I gave the boy a look.

“Yeah, I seen him. My ma keeps chasin him away, though. Maybe if you ask, she’ll let him stay here.” I finally knew what the dog wanted! He wanted his owner, who I learned was called Paul. Just then, Benji ran up. Paul screamed and ran to the dog, burying his head in its soft fur.

Eventually, my ma let me keep Benji. And not only did I become friends with Benji, I also got a friend in Paul. He came over every day after school to see the dog. Eventually he came over to see me, too. And he always said this: “Shay, you and Benji are perfect together. Me and him used to be perfect, but not anymore. I left him when he needed me, but you came through for my boy.” And every time he said that, Benji always put his head down, his paws still wrapped around that one baseball.

Here's the website, click 1 to see the picture I used!