"Beware of Dog"

--This story is dedicated to one of my friends, who's name I will not share--

The massive fist swings at my face, but it's too slow. I nimbly leap out of the way, before using my jaws and clamping on his arm. Not hard enough to break skin, he's got a jacket in the way anyways, but hard enough to hold him. He hits my head with his other hand, he kicks me, but I hang on.

Suddenly, a sharp pain erupts from my back side, and my paws start to feel weak beneath me. Slowly, I feel my body start to go numb, and an intense exhaustion sweeps over me. I relax my jaw a little too much, and the man gets free. I look over at the small, bare body laying on the ground a few feet away. I try to crawl to it, but am stopped by a rope being put around my neck.

Soon I am hoisted up into someone's arms, but I am too tired to care. Unintentionally, and stressfully, I fall into a deep sleep.

When I wake up, I am in a cell. The top half of the door has bars, but the bottom is a solid piece of plastic. I curiously stand on my hind legs to see what's outside my cell. There's a long hall, and I can hear other dogs in it, but they're separated from me. By a fence, that says 'beware of dog.'

It all comes rushing back. The screams in the alley, the big man, taking advantage of the small girl. The fight, and the unnatural sleepiness that followed.

What happened? I was helping her. He was taking advantage of her, in a way I knew wasn't right, so I leapt on him. He swung at me, lunged at me, hit me, but I was too fast. I would escape his swings right before he was able to land them.

When I was a pup, the man who raised me was a gentle caring man. He had a small daughter, who adored me. She would put little things on my head, and I would sit at her little table with her and her dolls, and play this thing called 'tea party.' she had a tea party almost every day.

One day, when I was about, oh, seven dog years, my owner took me to an obedience class. I never misbehaved, but he wanted me to know the main commands. He seemed stressed about something.

The classes were easy, and I passed with 'flying colors' as the trainer put it, but my owner still seemed upset about something. One day, he started messing with me. He was being very rough, and I could tell he was just testing me, apparently to see what I would do. I yipped, and growled a little, but all in play. He pulled my tail, and twisted my ear, but it didn't really bother me. He even poked the underside between my legs. I kinda just looked at him funny, wondering why he would be doing this.

I never felt aggressive at all. Not once. So if that was what he was trying to get me to do, I wasn't doing it. I was trained by him for tea parties, not fight clubs.

I watched him sigh, before he went and got me a treat, which I accepted happily.

I noticed a change in him, a few days after that happened. He started to get weaker. His face drooped, his hair got thinner, and thinner, and he started to lose weight. I watched him cry and hold his head in his hands, looking over papers that the mailman had brought. They looked important, but not the good important.

On those nights, I would rest my head in his lap, and comfort him the best I could. It seemed to help a little.

He would always smile when he saw his daughter though. That was the only time I ever saw him happy anymore. He would play with me and take me for walks, but he never had any joy in it.

Soon, he stopped eating. He started drinking these shakes, because he was so sick, he couldn't eat them. I heard him say something over the phone to one of his phone friends, something about cancer. My heart dropped. Was I going to lose my best friend? My dad?

He sat on the couch one night, staring off into space, absently stroking my head as I laid it across his lap. I fell asleep there, and that was the last I ever saw him alive.

I woke up the next morning, and found him dead, laying across the couch, near where he was sitting just the night before. I howled in agony, causing his daughter to wake up.

She started crying, begging her dad to wake up. Soon she picked up the phone and called some numbers, and before long, there were sirens and lights. People in big white uniforms came in, storming the house, and messing with my deceased owner.

They then put a rope around my neck, and acted as if I was going to eat them, but I just quietly followed them, whimpering. My little girl ran up to me, sobbing, but they pulled me away from her like a rabid animal. They tore me from her arms, without even a kiss goodbye.

My life ended that day.

Before they got me into the truck, I slipped from my noose, and ran. I ran from everything. I could have run to my girl, but she was already being driven away in a car. So I ran into the woods outside my house.

I was always raised to be a good dog. I am a good dog, I saved a little girl. Of course it wasn't my little girl, but it was a little girl, no more than... 8 human years I would guess?

I lay my head down on the scrap of blanket they gave me. Suddenly the door opens, and a fat old woman with a mole on the side of her cheek came in with a small cup of food.the words "Nasty animal" fell from her dried, disgusting mouth before. She literally threw it in my cage, it scattered everywhere, but most of it made it in the water bowl, making the food soggy with rust filled water.

I kinda just laid my head down and kept thinking.

I was on the run for three years before the incident. I had encountered animals I couldn't even imagine, most of them friendly, but some of them just straight up mean. This one animal, I remember in particular, was very sharp. The spikes lined it's back. I had approached it, and got into the play bow thinking it wanted to play. I was wrong. It swung its tail at me, and hit me in the nose. I managed to get the spikes out, but it still hurt more than anything I have ever endured.

Another animal, similar to a black cat, but only with a white stripe all the way down it's back, wasn't the most pleasant. It was very nice, but I accidentally scared it, so I got sprayed in the face with the most awful odor. I smelled horrible for weeks.

Suddenly I hear the gate swing open. I lift my head, and see a different human. This one is a man in a uniform. Next to him, is the girl I saved. I am immediately on my feet, my tail wagging. I let a soft whimper.

"Lilly, are you sure this is the dog that saved you? He's a pit bull!" she looked deep into my eyes for a moment, before nodding.

"Yes sir. He's the one." the man opened the cage and gently put another rope around my neck, and he took me out, being gentle with me. I wiggle my butt and tail, whimpering as I cuddle into the girl. I needed to know she was okay. She giggled and patted my head, saying "good boy" which only made me wiggle more.

I knew then, that everything was going to be okay.