08/23/2025
In the realm of Colorado Springs, where the mountains hum with old magic and the rivers carry whispers of forgotten quests, there lived a giant named Oreo. He was no ordinary giant, though the word “ordinary” has never rightly belonged to giants in the first place. Oreo was a colossus of black and white, his coat marked like storm clouds scattered across snow. Yet within him, his heart often shrank to the size of a sparrow, for it was weighed down by the invisible chains of loneliness.
Giants, according to the scrolls of the Lorekeepers, were created in the First Dawn to be companions of men. They were guardians of hearth and field, joyful playfellows to children, and steadfast defenders of their chosen families. But when a giant is left without companionship, their hearts grow heavy, as though they carry a mountain within their chest. Such was Oreo’s sorrow.
He had once belonged to a family, and he had loved them mightily. But love, though mighty, is not always enough to close every rift. There were gaps, and in those gaps, solitude crept in like a thief. And so, though he lived among them, Oreo still wandered alone in spirit. For giants are not the hermits that wandering bards sing of in taverns to make solitude sound noble. No, true giants are creatures of fellowship, built for laughter, built for belonging. To be left alone without companionship is, for them, a wound deeper than any sword could cut.
So Oreo began to wander the land, searching. He slipped beneath fences as though they were no more than ribbons, wriggled through gates left ajar, and padded softly into new villages with his hopeful eyes. He sought not gold nor glory, but simply a heart that would not turn him away.
It was during these wanderings that a good Samaritan found him. There, on the sunlit road, the giant sat beside her, not with ferocity but with quiet dignity, as though he were a knight awaiting a summons. Moved by his gentleness, she called upon the noble guardians known as Animal Law Enforcement to take Oreo to the Shelter, a fortress of safety for the lost and waiting.
But the old songs warn us: Shelters are not made for giants. Their walls are narrow, their yards small, and though the keepers are kind and their hands gentle, a giant’s spirit does not fit easily within such confines. Oreo tries to be brave, yet still he feels the ache of solitude pressing down upon him. He ponders, as giants often do, all the reasons he has not yet found his destined home.
He knows he is awkward with other hounds at first and needs slow introductions as carefully measured as the turning of the seasons. He knows he has a trickster’s gift for escape, and thus must be guarded with the magic of a crate. He knows his energy is abundant, his strides built for running beside adventurers, and his heart longing for a family who loves to laugh at his goofy, galloping joy.
Yet none of these seem, to Oreo, reason enough to condemn him to solitude forever.
Sometimes, staring toward the jagged peaks, Oreo wonders if there is some forgotten prophecy etched on the mountains: This gentle giant shall walk alone until the end of days. The thought chills him. But then, like a candle guttering in the wind, hope flickers within his chest. Perhaps the stones speak of something else. Perhaps they promise adventures yet to come: long journeys on forest trails, games in sunlit fields, nights of rest by the hearth with his head resting on a beloved’s knee.
But this, dear reader, is the sorrowful truth: Oreo’s story has not yet reached its ending. The book lies open. The final pages remain unwritten. And a giant, no matter how gentle, cannot write such endings for himself. That is where you come in.
You may be the one this story has been waiting for, the companion written into Oreo’s destiny, the hero who will shatter the spell of loneliness. Share his tale across the kingdom so that others might know him. Or, if your heart feels the stirrings of fate, step into the story yourself. Take this gentle black-and-white guardian into your home, and together you will pen the ending that he has so long awaited. Oreo is not meant to be lonely; he is meant to be loved. And the final chapter of his tale rests in your hands.
https://www.hsppr.org/pet/a1745727/
