I Among Dogs

Chapter 7: Melancholic Revelation

It had been two days after I met Stripe and his family and with them now acquainted and comfortable with me living in their world, it was getting slightly easier for me to get accustomed to living with bipedal dogs. Unfortunately, any other dog that caught sight of me would immediately turn and walk the other way, many of them giving me distrustful glares as they did so which only reminded me of how lucky I was that Bluey and her family were more welcoming of me, even to the point of letting me stay with them until we found my parents.

To repay them for their hospitality, I'd always help out with any chores around the house should I see Bandit or Chilli doing either. I always appreciated the grateful smiles they gave me whenever I helped them. Speaking of which, I was currently cleaning out the front garden by picking up any dead leaves on the ground into a trash bag. Since it was during the morning, Bluey and Bingo meanwhile were at school whilst Chilli was at work, leaving me and Bandit the only ones at the house, which he even joked about us being the "Men of the house".

My current focus on my task was suddenly halted as I heard a grunt near me accompanied by what sounded like something falling onto the ground, making me look over to see a small dog, possibly around the same size and age as Bingo laying on his stomach on the ground. With the tan fur and curled up tail, it was very evident that he was a Pug. As I put two and two together, I came to the conclusion that he had must've probably tripped and fallen over. Concern quickly took over me as I rushed over to the fallen puppy and helped him onto his feet, just noticing a mild scrape on his knee.

"Are you okay?" I instinctively asked as the little pug looked up at me and his eyes immediately widened with fear as he laid eyes on me. He began to whimper a little as his face creased with growing terror until at last I could see small tears glisten in his eyes.

"MUMMY! WAAAAAH!" The pug suddenly cried out as he ran towards a larger pug, obviously an adult and no doubt the younger pug's aforementioned mother who held her arms out and wrapped them protectively around him before scowling at me through her green semi-circle glasses.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-!"

WHACK!

I quickly tried to apologise for accidentally scaring the younger pug, slowly approaching the mother in the process. My attempt to atone however was interrupted as the mother yelled out and pulled out a handbag. The next thing I knew, I was knocked backwards onto the floor with a feeling on my cheek that felt like I had been smacked across the face with something made of fabric. It didn't hurt, but the unexpected outcome of the situation did leave me in shock as I watched the mother pug quickly make off with her child, leaving me sat on the ground.

I sighed sadly as the lingering feeling of mild impact on my face soon dissipated. Up until now, I had forgotten about my encounter with the basset hound who tried to shoot me several days ago and what I had experienced was enough to remind me that all the dogs in this world sans Bluey's family and her friends were so afraid of me that they weren't above defending themselves with brutality if I got too close for comfort. The fact that they didn't trust me was still discouraging, it was almost like I was never going to fit in.

...Now I know how Edward Scissorhands feels.

I looked back at the trash bag and then the front garden itself to find there were only a few leaves left to pick up. Figuring that getting back to what I was doing would take my mind off of the nasty event, I stood back up and put the last few leaves into the bag before taking said bag to one of the dumpsters at the curb.