Puppy Paws

Another Day

I do my business on the ground in the middle of the mess of dogs barking, wagging their tails, and doing their business. My stomach growls and my nose feels cracked and dry.
"Hey kid, how ya holding up?" asks Larry, coming up to me. I huff.
"Not so well. That cage makes me feel so trapped,"I say to him, lifting up my sore paws and inspecting them for damage. One of them has a small cut on the pad with dried blood clotting it. I wonder if it's the same cut from when "Master" dropped me at the edge of the woods. I don't think of him as my Master anymore, really. More just someone who used to be part of my life. There is a jingling from the gate of the enclosure and I glance up. The dogs fall silent, waiting. A human walks in holding a big bag and a jug. It heads over to a couple of troughs in the corner of the pen that I hadn't noticed before. The human pours little brown pebbles--kibble-- from the bag into one trough, and water from the jug into the other. The dogs tense. I can feel nervous energy coursing through the air. The human steps away and we surge forward. I am swept up in the rush and find myself shoved toward the food and water. Dogs are wolfing down the kibble and slurping up the water. I spot Carazo on the opposite side of the troughs. He is so much bigger than the other dogs, a majestic black wolf in the middle of the scrawny mutts. I look down to see that the food is dwindling, so I stick my head in and eat. The food is bad. Not nearly as good as the Meat in the wild. The water is warm and tastes weird. I drink as much as I can, dipping my nose in the water and swishing it around. It feels good, no matter how bad it tastes. The dogs quickly disperse after the food is gone. I pad over to where Mama is licking her lips and shaking her fur out.
"When are we taken back in?" I ask her.
She looks up.
"Now," she says.
I look up too to see a big human heading toward the cages. He picks one up and takes it out, then heads back in and grabs a little black mutt by the neck. The mutt goes in the cage and the human and the dog disappear around the side of the building. I stretch my legs for what I guess is last time in a while. The dogs are going fast. Amber is grabbed. Then Alice. Rogo. Larry. Skitter. Carazo is pulled into a cage because he can't be lifted even by the biggest humans. A human reaches for me and I am taken off the ground. I see a cage get opened and suddenly I'm in it and the door is shut. I scramble over to the bars and peer out at the grass and Mama standing there. She looks so beautiful against the ugly landscape. A human ruins the scene by taking her away and shutting her into a cage. I am jarred from my view by the cage swinging wildly as the human makes its way back into the low brown building.
Once I am settled in my cage in the corner, I lay down to sleep. There is really nothing else to do here.
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I think it is nighttime because it is eerily quiet. I lift my head up from my long nap and the room is silent except for the occasional scratch of a paw on a cage. It is dark, too. I'm scared. I huddle up in the corner of my cage and peer into the darkness. I can barely make out the sleeping form of Carazo in a cage next to mine. It reassures me a little to actually see another dog. My eyes keep drifting shut but I strain to keep them alert for scary things. I wish I could cuddle up to Mama. Finally I can't control my eyes anymore and they shut.

I jerk awake to the sound of many human voices. I open one eye and to my surprise, the long room has humans  not dressed in long white coats roaming around it. I sit up curiously and pad to the front of my cage. There are no humans from Mama's cage to mine, but further down the room where all the other dogs are the humans are grouped together, chattering excitedly. The dogs are in a frenzy too. I can hear them yipping and jumping and swishing their tails. One human stands up and goes out of the door. A little while later, he comes back with a human like the ones that carry the cages. The two humans talk to each other and I can only catch little bits of their speech.
"I love... How much?"
"Not... Glad you... When can you take him?"
"Soon... Thanks!"
I wonder what they are taking about.
"Carazo," I hiss to the still sleeping black form next to me. I see him stir.
"Look at the new humans!" I say.
He jumps to his feet and looks out.
"Strange," he says. I nod in agreement. I'm hungry and thirsty and I need to pee. I wonder if this is all there is to life here. Sit in a cage, get let out, eat, drink, sleep in a cage, start over. I sigh. The humans are dwindling in numbers, I notice. The one human that was talking stays, though. He crouches down in front of a cage and I hear a dog whimper in joy. Then the human gets up and walks through the door with a smile. The long coated human who is still in the room nods and picks up a cage next to him. I guess we are going out. Another day here begins and I miss the clearing more than ever.