A Dog's Way Home

“You want, you can wait in the car with the dog.”


We rode for a time in silence. There was a stale smell of ashes in the automobile’s interior, so I kept my nose at the window. Eventually we slowed, making a few turns, and then stopped. The motor stopped running, all vibrations and noises ceasing. I went from one window to the other in the backseat, but could not see any reason for us to be parked here with a few other cars and no other dogs.

“So do we just go in with her?” Dude asked.

“I dunno. No, let’s go in and tell them, see what they say. Maybe there’s a reward’s been posted,” Warren said.

“Right. You said that.”

“Stranger things have happened.”

The window suddenly slid down, so that I could stick my entire head out!

“Why did you do that?” Dude demanded.

“Because it’s sunny. Obviously we’re not going to bring a deputy out here and the dog is all closed up in a car,” Warren said patiently. “That’s like a known animal abuse. Even on a cool day like this, they can overheat.” Warren reached over and rubbed my head and I licked the meaty taste off his palm. “Okay, girl. You stay here, okay? You’ll be okay. We’re going to come right back. We’ll help you find your home, okay? Everything is going to be fine.”

I did not understand the words but the tone was familiar. When people left their dogs, their voices often carried the same inflection. When Lucas did Go to Work, he sounded like this. I felt a sharp pain, remembering.

“What if nobody comes to claim her?” Dude wanted to know.

“I’m sure somebody will. She’s a beautiful dog.”

“Still. What then?”

“I guess … I don’t know. Maybe she’ll get adopted?” Warren said hopefully.

“Or put down. Like, we’re taking her to the gas chamber.”

“Well, you got any better ideas? You were going to shoot her.”

“I never would really have done that.”

The boys got out of the car. “We’ll be back, I promise,” Warren told me.

I watched through the front window as the boys approached a big building, opened a door, and went inside. I remembered the glass doors of the place with the crates of barking dogs; these were similar.

I now understood something. Many people were very nice, but that didn’t mean they would take me to Lucas. In fact, some of them might take me away from Lucas. They might feed me and go for a car ride, but I needed to Go Home.

I stuck my head out the window, and then my front paws, dangling them toward the ground. I wriggled my rear end, pushing forward, until my back paws were scrabbling in the air and I was falling nose-first toward the pavement. I was out of the car and off leash. I shook myself off, lifted my nose, and trotted away toward the smell of food.

*

There were automobiles and people and buildings, so I knew I was in a town, but it was a different one from where Jose and Loretta took me. As I followed my nose some people shouted to me from car windows and open doorways—they seemed friendly, but I did not believe they would take me to Lucas so I did not approach them. I did, however, smell something sweet and sticky on the sidewalk and I ate it quickly, crunching on some dry bread lying next to it. What a nice place, to leave such treats out for a deserving dog.

My empty stomach kept me focused on finding a meal despite my need to Go Home. I tracked aromas, hoping I would stumble upon more sidewalk treats.

I caught whiffs of many dogs, usually separated from one another, and I heard barking and saw a dog on a chain, but then I changed course because I sensed several canines moving together. I made my way toward them, and when I rounded a corner, I came upon a pack.

There were two males, both very dark in color, one large and one small, plus a short female with long fur. They were sitting behind a store from which poured a delicious bouquet, staring at it intently, but when they felt my approach they whipped their heads around.

Small Male ran straight at me, then pulled up, raising his snout as he stopped. I turned and we sniffed each other. Big Male also examined behind my tail. I moved rigidly, not prepared to play bow with two males on either side of me, but wagging a friendly greeting. Big Male lifted his leg on a post and Small Male followed suit and I politely appraised their marks, noticing that the female had not moved from the back door of that store.

Small Male play bowed and we wrestled for a moment while Big Male continued to mark, and then Big Male trotted over to us and we stopped playing because his presence changed the situation.

When the back door opened, a cloud of cooking meat poured out and I saw a woman standing on the threshold. “Hello, pretty dogs!” she sang.

The males ran over to the woman’s feet to sit, so I followed suit, though I held back a little, careful not to crowd the other dogs. I was unsure what was about to happen. I could sense the female canine tensing at my presence but her eyes were focused on the woman, who had a wonderfully greasy paper in her hands. The paper rustled and gave off succulent aromas as she reached in with her fingers and plucked out fatty pieces of cooked beef. Starting with the female, she went down the row of dogs, handing each of us a large chunk. All of us were licking our lips in anticipation, scarcely able to contain our excitement. “Are you a new friend? What’s your name?” she asked as she extended me a delectable slice. I daintily lifted the treat from her fingers, chewing quickly so none of the other dogs would try to take it away from me.

“That’s all I have tonight, lovies. Be good dogs!”

The woman shut the door. We all sniffed the ground to see if any of us had dribbled any morsels. Female came up and investigated me suspiciously, and Small Male bowed, wagging. We milled around for a moment, appreciating the meat scents on each other’s lips, and then the pack moved on. I was part of it, so I followed. It was good to be with other dogs.

We were walking down a narrow street behind the buildings. There were no cars, though there were several large metal containers that clearly contained scraps of edible things I would have liked to explore, but the pack didn’t pause other than when the males lifted their legs to mark.

We eventually stopped at a square plastic bin from which rose a riot of enticing odors. Big Male was able to knock the lid off of it, and I inhaled deeply, hungrily aware of cheese and grease and sweets.

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