I was a good dog who had learned No Barks but I barked now, urgently. We needed a person!
After I barked both Dutch and I looked at the big glass doors, but Sylvia did not come outside. The machine hummed and dripped, the kittens cried, and the box tilted to one side as they moved around within it.
Then a small gray kitty appeared at the top of the box, clinging to the edge, looking terrified. She clambered for purchase and the box tipped wildly, spilling her into the pool. She went under, and then popped up, sputtering and trying to swim, batting her front paws at the surface. Chloe howled again.
I dove in. The splash swept over the top of the little kitty’s head, but I swam with strong strokes and was there in an instant. I gently snagged her behind her neck with my front teeth, holding her up into the air, and turned back to the edge of the pool, where Chloe was waiting anxiously. I placed the kitten onto the cement and Chloe began licking her.
Taking care of cats was something Lucas and I just did.
When I turned back the box was now floating on its side. Panicking, two more kittens had plunged out into the water. One of them was swimming strongly but the other had gone completely under. I powered forward and ducked my face, my mouth open, grabbing the tiny cat and hauling her to the surface. I swam to the side of the pool, the kitten hanging limply from my mouth, but she came alive when I placed her next to her mother. The little kitty mewed plaintively and Chloe carried her off to safety.
The tiniest member of the litter was barely able to keep her nose up, struggling feebly to survive. I grabbed her and took her to her mother, and then went after another one.
The box was now empty, but two little wet balls of fur had made it to the side of the pool and were anxiously bobbing along the edge, making barely audible peeping sounds, unable to climb out on their own. They fled from me as best they could when I went after them, but I tenderly snagged each in turn and lifted them up onto the cement, and they ran squalling to Chloe.
That was the last one. The kitties were wet, but safe. Chloe was tending to them. Dutch had gone back to looking glum.
I swam to the side of the pool, hooked my front paws on the cement, and struggled to lift myself. As I rose, my back arched, and my rear legs cycled uselessly beneath me, finding no purchase. Trembling, I held myself there for a moment, straining with all my might, water dripping down, and then I fell back.
I coursed back and forth, trying to get out, but it was no use—the side of the pool was too high. I made another effort, but simply could not haul my body out of the water. I was like the kittens, swimming around the edge of the pool, unable to save myself.
Time passed and I was getting tired, but I could not stop swimming because when I slowed, I could feel my body settling tail-first deeper into the water. Dutch was watching me, panting a little. I wondered if he could feel that I was becoming afraid. I swam and swam, back and forth, back and forth. I did not know what to do.
I swam to the box and tried to climb on top of it, but it just collapsed under me.
Chloe was under a tree, licking her kittens. Dutch lay by the side of the pool and let out an anxious, barely audible whine as he watched me. I swam and swam. My legs were aching. Water filled my nose and I sneezed.
If my Lucas was there he would come in and get me. He would put his arms around me and lift me out. He would take care of me. But Lucas wasn’t here. I had failed to Go Home and now I was having trouble keeping my face above the surface. My muscles were so, so weak now.
I felt like a bad dog.
Twenty-one
I was barely moving, water in my ears and flooding my nose, when I heard the sliding glass door open. “Dutch! What did you do?” Sylvia scolded. She came out and stood looking at Dutch with her hands on her hips, and he hung his head. She came down to where I was swimming.
“Bella? Why are you in the pool? Come out of there!”
I heard the word “come” so I tried one more time to climb out, my forelegs on the cement, but I quickly fell back, utterly exhausted. I looked up apologetically at Sylvia.
“Oh, sweetie, no, not there. Come here, come here,” Sylvia called, clapping her hands as she walked to the other end of the pool. I used what little strength I had to paddle in this new direction. She kicked off her shoes and stepped into the pool, sinking only to her ankles. “The steps are over here, Bella. You have to use the steps.”
I heard my name and wondered what it meant. My back end was sinking, pulling me down. Then my rear legs struck ground, my front paws following a moment later. I no longer had to swim to keep my head above water! “Okay, good girl, good dog.”
I was a good dog but my legs were shaking and I could not manage to climb any higher. My coat was heavy, raining a steady stream of water into the pool. I was barely strong enough to stay upright on what seemed to be underwater steps.
“What’s the matter, Bella? Are you sick?” Sylvia leaned down and looked at me and I beat the water with my tail a little. “Come on, now.”
I just wanted to stand there and recover, but Sylvia slapped her thighs and I obeyed. Forcing my reluctant legs into action, I heaved myself out of the water, shook, and lay down right there in the sun, feeling warmth from the cement. Sylvia went to untangle Dutch.
I knew that I would be asleep within moments, but before I could do so I felt a tiny touch, and then another. I lazily opened my eyes and there were the kittens, sniffing at me, their small noses bumping against my side. I was too fatigued to even wag my tail.
*
When the kittens were a little older, they left, departing one at a time. Sylvia would come into the yard and scoop up a kitty and we would never see it again. I could not tell how Chloe felt about the slow reduction in her family, though I did notice that with every parting she seemed more attentive to those offspring remaining.
I thought about Big Kitten, who probably did not know I was living with Sylvia and Dutch and Chloe’s cat family. What would she think of such small kitties? I wondered if Big Kitten missed me, which made me miss her.