A Dog's Life #Wattys2019

{One}

I didn't have a sense of feeling for about a minute until my mother guided me to her stomach. For some reason I was incredibly hungry and mother guided me to her teats. Is started to drink rich, delicious milk as I could feel wet bodies around me.

A week later, those wet bodies became fuzzy, including mine. Mother's milk was still rich and delicious. I realized those bodies were my brother and sisters. I had two sisters and one brother, and I was a boy!

I didn't have a name so I didn't know what to call myself. Weeks later, I opened my eyes and I could hear all the noises around me. Everything was blurry at first, but soon it was clear. My mother was white with black dots and yellow eyes. All of my siblings and me were white.

But my brother had one black end of his tail so I decided to call him Tail in my head. When everything became clear, I jumped on body and chewed on his nape. He growled playfully as he bit my tail and I howled.

My mother looked at us as my two sisters were drinking her rich milk. I saw a tall peach colored person walk down tall brown steps as my mother softly growled at her. I guess mother was warning the human to stay away from me and my siblings so I barked at the human.

The human smiled as she walked back up the stairs and I wagged my white tail. Then Tail wagged his tail as he jumped on me and chewed on my scruff. I just let him because I was tired and wasn't in the mood to play since the human rejected me.

A day later the human came down and mother didn't growl at her this time. I started to pant happily as the human picked me up with white hands. The hands were very soft, it felt like the dog bed, then I realized those weren't her hands. I sniffed them carefully, wondering what they were.

She stroked a place above my nose and between my eyes and oh, it felt really good! I didn't move or anything because I didn't want her to stop, but she did. What did I do? Why did she stop? I put my nose under her hand, trying to get her to scratch the place between my eyes. She did.

I wagged my white tail. She laughed as a little boy ran down the stairs and he yelled. "Mom! Can I hold one of the puppies?!" The woman nodded even though I had no idea what the boy had asked his mom.

I've heard his voice before and smelled his shoes before. They smelled disgusting, something musty like mud. I wondered how his mother wasn't cringing at the smell of his stinky shoes. She probably couldn't smell him.

She put me down on a slippery dark brown floor as I skidded around, trying to run to my sisters, mother, and Tail.  I wondered what my siblings called me in their head, probably Clumsy now since I was flying everywhere across the floor.

Then an urge went through me so I squatted down and a stink puddle began under me.  When I was through, I finally dominated the floor and ran to mother as the woman and boy started to freak out and ran around the corner of the house.

"Henry!  Get a towel!" The mother yelled as he ran to the wet spot with a white fluffy thing.  He cleaned it up as he set Tail down.  Tail was my second favorite dog since he played with me all day and mother was my favorite dog since she gave me delicious milk.

My mother nosed one of my sisters because she wasn't moving.  Then when she tried to lick my sister's eyes open she shivered.  Then 30 minutes later, my unmoving sister jumped up and started to play with my other sister.  I decided to call her Surprise since she surprised all of us.  Black spots started to grow on all of us so we started to look like our mother.

She stopped giving us her milk and it made me mad cause I loved the taste of it.  But our humans gave us plastic bowls full of brown pellets and something wet that smelled like chicken.

I was the first one who was brave enough to lick and eat the food, and the wet stuff tasted like chicken.  It actually tasted good, better than mother's milk.  Then the boy's mother took us outside one day.

The sun was bright, blinding me and my siblings for a second as we all tried to run back inside, but the door was shut.  Mother and the grown human was outside as a man walked into the yard.  The grass felt weird under my paws, it didn't feel like the blanket me and mother lay on or the hard, slippery floor.

The man was short and picked up Suprise.  She licked his dark face as he put her down.  I could sense this man had a kind of importance to him as a black thing started to talk.  It was on his belt around his waist.

I couldn't hear and the man had to leave, not taking Surprise with him.  She was whimpering as two medium sized woman walked into the yard and they walked over to me. 

I ran over to them and they smelled like roses and food.  One woman bent down to touch my head, but she didn't have a chance because I licked her hands.  They tasted like steak and metal.  She laughed as the other woman picked me up and my mother whimpered as she lied down.

I licked her face and she laughed again as she walked over to the woman with me in her hands.  "We'll take this one.  What is his name?" The girl asked.

"He doesn't have a name, and by the way he's free," the woman I'd known for my short life told these new people.  Then the two women started to stroke my head.

"We'll call him...  how about Hammie?  No, that's a weird name.  What about Night?" One of the women asked the other.  I panted since the hot sunlight was beating on my black and white fur.  "No.  I don't really like that name, what about Husk?"

"Yeah, Husk sounds like a good name.  Little husk. My daughter will love you!  My name is Amelia and this is Aunt Alice.  My daughter is Yolanda, you will love her!" One of the women said.  I think her name is Amelia and the other one is Alice.

I didn't know who Yolanda was and I looked around for her, but didn't see her.  I whimpered quietly as I was taken out of the yard and barked a goodbye to mother and my siblings.  I didn't want to leave Tail, but I had to.  And know, my name was Husk!  I was so excited for my new life.

*
*
*
*
*

I woke up in a small car as the cool air against my fur stopped.  I realized where I was, the women had took me away from my family and I was going to be staying with them now. 

I wagged my tail when I saw a little girl run out of the small house and to the car.  She was pale with a white tank top on and skinny jeans.  She seemed very friendly so I scratched at the door, excited to meet my new girl.  One of the women opened the door for me and I jumped out of the car.

I ran to the small girl and tried to jump on her but I was too short!  I licked her knees as I ran into the grass and squatted, and used the bathroom.  The women clapped, "Reneè didn't say that Husk was potty trained!" One of the women exclaimed.

I wagged my tail when I was done and the girl picked me up, "I love him!  His name is Husk?" I barked happily when she said my name.  I yawned as one woman put something hard and tight around my neck, but not too tight that it would choke me.

It was itchy so I tried to scratch it off with my back leg, but that didn't work...  Then I tried to bite it off, and I just barely got it in my mouth, but I couldn't get it off.  I whimpered in defeat.  Then they set me down on hot concrete as they tied a rope around on the hard thing around my neck.

"It's called a collar, Yolanda, get him used to the yard.  Don't let him run away," Alice told the girl.  I figured it out!  The girl's name was Yolanda, I think.  It's because that's what they called her.

Yolanda gave me a hug and got her face to close to me.  I attacked her with a bunch of kisses and she laughed happily.  "Let's take you to the fenceless backyard," Yolanda joked as she led me through he house.

She took me out to the yard and it smelled wonderful outside.  I could smell other dogs, a cat, grass, dirt, water, a storm that was south, and something coming from my rear end.  I squatted down and pooped.

"At least you did it outside," Yolanda asked and when I was done, she dragged me all through the yard.  I realized it was better using the bathroom outside then inside, so I would scratch at the door when I wanted to go out.