RED

            The soft smell of mother’s milk surrounded me and my siblings as we roughhoused in our nesting box. The smell didn’t appeal to me much anymore, now that we had been introduced to a new and tastier food called “puppy chow”. It offered a sense of comfort though. It gave us the courage to be bold and explore because it meant our mother was near and nothing could hurt us. Everything was well in the world.

            It wasn’t long before we started having visitors of the human sort. One by one, my brothers and sisters were adopted off to nice looking families with warm smiles. There were maybe four of us left when Vito came to our home. He was a big man and smelled strongly toxic with an underlying sickly sweet. He watched as I tackled my brother in play, nipping at his ears.

Vito’s dark eyes were thoughtful as his gravelly voice said, “How much for the red one?”

My human female replied, “Thirty dollars each, due to the fact that they’re pit bulls. Unfortunately they’re hard to sell… They’re great dogs though. Wonderful with kids.”

 None of this made any sense to me. All I knew was that I was suddenly scooped into two large, scarred hands and that was the last time I saw my mother and my remaining three brothers.

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The first few weeks at my new home were scary. There were always lots of men stomping around. A lot of the times, they were yelling. The smell of fear and stale beer had taken the place of the comforting smells of my mother and clean laundry. I was nearly always on edge. The big men frightened me and I didn’t like the sweet smelling things they smoked late at night. It burned my sensitive nose.

            I’d cry when I got lonely which would only make Vito yell at me. The food he gave me was stale, hard, and too big for me to chew, but I made do with what I could. I figured out that if I soaked the food in my water dish first, I could eat it easier. As I grew bigger, it became easier and easier to eat the dry pieces of kibble Vito put out for me: not that I became any fonder of its stale, bland taste.

            At night, Vito put me in a cold, hard, kennel. There were no blankets or cushions to lay on, just the hard metal floor. Late one night, a huge black pit bull was brought into the room where Vito kept me. I sat curled in the back of my kennel, watching warily as the men undid the other dog’s leash. As soon as he was free, it was like some unholy demon was set lose within the room. The monster roared and went straight for my cage.

            His teeth gleamed like ivory razors. His orange eyes glowed like coals in the dim light of the room. Saliva flew from his jowls as he crashed into the door of my cage over and over. Snarls ripped through his chest with every inhale and every exhale barked insults and threats. His massive club like paws battered at the cage door. I pressed myself into the farthest corner of the cage, and wailed for my mother.

            After several long minutes, the demon was pulled from his attack, leashed, and ushered from the room. I remained where I was, shaking, unable to move. I couldn’t help the little whimpers that escaped with every terrified breath. I had lost control of my bladder some time during the assault and I now sat in a pool of my own urine. I didn’t dare move unless the fire eyed demon came to attack me again.

            I don’t even remember when I fell asleep but when I woke up, it was to ice cold water blasting me from the cage door. I howled miserably until the water ceased. I was soaking wet, numb with cold, and exhausted from the night before. I was clean though, which I guess was what Vito had in mind with his icy cold assault.

            When I had dried, Vito scooped me out of my cage and took me to the living room. He flopped down on the greasy red sofa that crouched before the television like a bedraggled, moldering pile of laundry. He set me on his lap and turned on the television. I didn’t care about the flat, grainy figures that moved across the screen. I was too scared to jump down, but I really didn’t care much for the smell of my new owner… or the couch for that matter.