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-Chapter One-Dusty
That was then, But this is now.
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Caged. I sat in a miserable small cage. I was scared. Human, human bad. Time felt like it was in slow motion.
“He is useless. Send him out. No dogs aloud.” A powerful male voice sneers. I look up to see a large man. He seemed scary and big.
“But, he is a puppy! I trained him to do-“ A little female voice was interrupted. I looked over at Emma. She was my friend. Thick wavy hair framed her tan face. Her eyes were dark and she had freckles, just like me.
“SHUT UP EMMA! We don’t want the dog!” The male voice yelled. That was the final word it seemed. Suddenly a wave of noise hit my ears. It was deafening. Tons of dogs calling out “People! Pick me!”
I returned to my senses. A soft fluffy quilt surrounded me in the corner of my cage. It was safe, it was my temporary home. I must have been dreaming again.
“Oh how cute he is! Look he must be lazy the way he is sleeping!” A loud voice yelled over all the other dogs. It was a female voice just like Emma. It wasn’t a high pitched voice but it wasn’t deep. A kind but strong edge was noticeable in it. I quickly opened my eyes. Maybe she came back for me! I looked up to see a blondish brown haired human stand in front of my cage. Close, but definitely not Emma. Emma was small but this human was a medium sized human and had friendly light eyes. A large smile splayed across her lips as she gazed down into my cage. She was dressed in a dark purple shirt with strange human words on it. Light grey jeans covered her legs and her bottom paws were orange! I had never seen anything like that before. I sighed and caught whiff of her sent. She smelled of flowers and yummy things that made my tummy growl. A hint of a different older dog was on her. Although she seemed very nice I wished she was Emma.
“Oh sis! Look at this dog! His name is Bayou!” The girl called to her side. She looked down at me once more and lifted a few papers on the clipboard that hung from the top of the cage. I didn’t bother to get up or even look at her very much. The shelter was sad. Although there were nice shelter ladies who gave me yummy snacks and squeaky toys, an air of desperation surrounded the place. It was no getting around it, it was true. A few people had looked at me before but none really had the right feel for me. It wasn’t worth getting my hopes up with this one human. I closed my eyes for a moment until i heard a different human come up to my cage. This short and slightly plump human was obviously older and more powerful although she was very different. She had an air of knowledge. What struck me about this one was her dark eyes. They reminded me of Emma.
The shorter dark haired human said as she only glanced down in my direction. I sighed. It wasn’t a big deal. “Cat, he is cute but come look at this blue tick coonhound down there. He is really pretty!” She said to the other girl. The girl’s smile turned to a slight frown and she sighed. The dark haired one promptly as she appeared, walked away.
Despite the obvious dominance gap between the two, the brown haired human looked at me for a moment. She defied her alpha to look at me! This felt right, it felt good. She bent down to my level and kneeled on the cold concrete to look at my face. She smiled sweetly and stuck her fingers barely through the cage wires. She barely touched my nose but a sensation of total warmth took over me. Over the roar of dog barks I heard her whisper a sentence. The most magical sentence I ever heard in my life to this day. “I want you doggy.” She said. Her eyes gave off a lovely feeling of hope. For a moment her face seemed to turn into Emma’s. I blinked and she turned back. The girl stood up and with a grin, she slowly walked to see her alpha.
I closed my eyes for a moment. The warmth spread through my body. From my core to my paws, I felt like I was floating among the sky. Am I sick? I thought to myself as I focused on the feeling. No I knew it wasn’t sickness now. I smiled at myself, I was being silly. The feeling was a great love.
