Life as a Show Dog

Chapter 8

       "What now?!" I growled to myself as angry barking arose from the camp. I stepped outside and gasped to see a dog from the other pack right in front of me. I immediately jumped at him and we both tumbled down the rock my den was on. The second we landed I raked my claws across the other dogs face and howled, "Thats for Hailey!" as the dog backed off whining. Around me everyone else was fighting. The dog I was fighting ran off howling in pain and I lunged for the next dog near me. I barked in rage as I through myself on a bulldog  and bit one of his legs. I held on till the other dog raked his claws across my ear and my back. I released him and aimed for his neck, only to be pushed over by a pit bull. I snarled and batted my hind legs over the she-dogs stomach. She returned the gesture with a blood-curling howl. I snapped at her jaw and she backed off for a moment, only to jump at me once again. The battle went on till sundown and the other pack slowly ran off. 

        As the last dogs retreaded Shaylee suddenly burst out of her den, weak as she was, and launched herself at a nearby dog. I ran over to help and saw that the dog was holding one of her puppies. I wasn't fast enough though. The dog through Shaylee off and ran away before I could reach them. All the emery dogs had now left the camp and Shaylee barked madly. 

"Noooooo!" She howled, "Not my puppies!" I put my held down knowing there was nothing I could do. 

"Which one was it?" I whined softly. 

"My only girl!" She barked at me, her teeth barred with anger. She dragged her feet as she went back to her remaining puppies. 

"Nooooo! Why!?" She howled again. I ran over to where she was to see a horrible thing. Her runt was laying on the ground dead. He had a giant scratch running across his whole body and blood stained the ground around him. 

"I'm so sorry." I whimpered. "We will have him buried when your ready." I added on. Shaylee nodded her head in reply then sat next to her dead son to mourn for him. When midnight came I trotted out of my den and sat with Shaylee to mourn for the pup too. 

"You can bury him at sunrise." She whimpered. 

"Would you like to come?"I asked gently.

"No." she simply relied. "His name was going to be Carson." She added on. "I was going to do everything I could for him to bring him back to good health."

"We will get your daughter back one day."

"No." Shaylee growled. "It's no use, the other pack has her and that's that."

I said nothing to reply.

"Cloe told me about your talk with her. You can just go. I'll be fine on my own."

"No, Shaylee, we will stay with you, maybe you could even come live with me and Cloe."

"Really? You would let me do that?"

"Yes."

"I'll think about it. You know I had an owner once too. Her name was Kiara, I was going to name my daughter after her. But maybe if I come live with you then your person could name my pups. I will give them some temporary names till they get a name from your person. What will happen to the other dogs in our pack though, Jake?"

"Maybe they could come live with us too."

"Could your person take care of that many dogs?"

"I don't know."

We chatted on till sunrise then was the sun had risen fully over the trees I went and buried Carson. 

"Goodbye." I whispered as I cover the last showing parts of him.  I entered the camp and stopped to tell Scout that I had successfully buried his runt. "Maybe I should invite him to live at my place when we return home?" I thought to myself. Scout noticed that I had something going through my head then asked, "Anything else?"  

"Yes." I replied. Then I started the long conversation about home.