What It Means To Be Me

I Will Heal You. I Will Hurt You.

~Tanner~

Peanut budder.

I could see it, right there up on the counter. No one was around to get it for me, but maybe I could get it open myself... Cole was in the shower, as I'd come to learn was the name of the large white thing. The smaller white thing was called a toilet, and evidently it is 'bad' to drink out of. Hmph.

After a few weeks of living there, I'd managed to gain a decent understanding of how things worked. My vocabulary was expanding, but I still only spoke to Cole. His friend, Rowin, had tried several times to get me to say something, but I just didn't feel comfortable around him. He was the one who was home more often, though, so I did have to keep myself in line and not growl at him for being there. Cole trusted him, so I was doing my best to tolerate him. Anyway, back to my peanut budder. Cole had made us sandwiches earlier and left the jar out...so now it was mine. I just had to get to it.

With a woof of concentration, I shifted my weight onto my back legs and lifted my front paws to the counter. My broken leg was doing much better, and the bar and pins were actually coming out sometime soon, so I could use the limb decently well, though I still stumbled once in a while. Right then, it was doing what I needed of it and holding me up so I could swipe the peanut budder jar from the counter.

The plastic jar went flying when I hit it on my first try. It dropped to the tiled kitchen floor beside my back paws. I was on it like white on rice... or at least that's what Cole had said before. I quickly snatched the thing up in my jaws and took it to my room. Just to make sure I wouldn't get caught, I even squirmed partially under the bed before beginning to tear the jar apart.

I didn't hear the shower turn off, but I did hear Cole's feet on the hardwood floor in the hallway. Err... I abruptly stopped chewing the destroyed jaw and began licking my lips...right as my haunches were grabbed and pulled, forcing me out from under the bed.

Tanner was good. No bad. I shouted to him mentally, afraid that he would think I was being bad. I hadn't been. He snickered as I stood up and faced him, trying to put on my best 'I'm innocent' face, because I was. He had left the peanut budder out.

"That might have worked, but one, I know you. And two, there's peanut butter all over your face and paws."

Okay, well, since he already knows... I quickly turned and dove back under the bed, only to be yanked out right as I grabbed for my destroyed jar of peanut budder.

"You little brat. That doesn't mean go back and keep doing the bad thing."

But Coleeeeeee, I whined to him mentally, honestly not understanding.

"It's Alpha now, pup," he reprimanded before continuing, "And it's time to get you back to the vet to take out that splint."

Noooo vet. No. Vet hurts.

"It won't hurt that much. He'll put you to sleep again and give you some medicine for afterward."

That medicine worked decently, but it wasn't nearly as good as not hurting at all.

No no no no!

"This isn't up for discussion, Tanner. You need to get the metal out of your leg, or it will begin hurting much worse than it has."

That had me pausing. It will hurt more...? While I was thinking, he quickly reached down and snatched away my broken peanut budder jar.

Hey!

"This wasn't yours. What have I told you about taking things that don't belong to you?" he chided, making me pout as I tried to grab the broken jar from him.