Roog

Roog was the first short story ever sold by author Philip K. Dick.

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"Roog" tells the story of a dog named Boris, who observes his masters carefully store food in large containers outside of their house day after day. Unbeknowst to the dog, these are the human's trash cans for garbage. The dog is later horrified to witness some food being 'stolen' by other humans, trash collectors or garbagemen. The dog comes to know these thieves as 'Roogs', and tries to warn his masters of each 'theft' with cries of 'Roog!' 'Roog!'. The humans, unable to comprehend the hound's message, think the dog is just being rowdy, thus they attribute the sound the dog makes to be the sound that all dogs make when they are excited: 'Roog!' 'Roog!' The tale concludes with the animal being somewhat distraught, barking "ROOG!" very loudly at the garbagemen before they make off with the trash in their garbage truck.

Short story: The short story is a form of short fictional narrative prose. Short stories tend to be more concise and to the point than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Because of their brevity, successful short stories rely on literary devices such as character, plot, theme, language, and in...

Philip K. Dick: Philip Kindred Dick (16 December 1928 ? 2 March 1982), often known by his initials PKD, and sometimes by the pen name Richard Phillips, was an American science fiction writer and novelist who changed the genre profoundly. Though hailed during his lifetime by peers such as Stanis?aw Lem, Dick receive...