A Dog's Life #Wattys2019

{Three}

I was a puppy again! I could feel wet bodies around me and I realized those were my siblings. I didn't know if I had all brothers or all sisters or a mixture of both. I could smell the milk in my mother so I clawed my way over there to her. I was on a soft blanket this time also again. But I was confused, what about Yolanda? What about Amelia? What about Alice? I would miss them, but not my murderer.

I guess I was living another life, but then I couldn't hear or see anything. Weeks later, I opened my baby blue eyes and realized my mother was Roxy! My mother was Roxy! That means Yolanda was next door! I wanted to run out the door and to Yolanda and lick her face but my legs were too feeble to crawl.

I kinda stood awkwardly and tried to lick my mother's face, but she growled.  I never knew Roxy was pregnant, but she was close with the other dog to the house next to her.  Maybe he's my father.

If he was my father, I would be part German Shepherd, part husky.  And I thought I was since I had black and white fur.  It wasn't black spots like the last time I was alive, it was big splotches of black. I decided I was hungry and I crawled to my mother to suck at her teats for milk.

A month later, my mother stopped giving us milk and I realized the humans that lived in the house. Polly, the mother, Jason, the father, Cheryl, the daughter, and Chicago, the son. Chicago loves to hold me and my brothers. We had one sister, but she died soon after birth.  I called her Death in my head, since that was the first death I've ever known, besides myself.

They gave us hard metal bowls that didn't taste very good. The first time I saw one, I chewed on it, and it smelled very weird.  But soon we realized there was wet food in there that tasted like chicken!  It tasted like the food the woman and the boy gave me when I was Husk.

Then a month later, Cheryl put a green and white collar around my name with an imprint on it, but I didn't know what it said.  It was probably my name when Cheryl said, "Come here, Brandy!"

My name was Brandy I guessed.  Cheryl led me into something called a bathroom, then she shut the door.  I was scared, I'd never been in this part of the house and my mother wasn't with me, even though she didn't really pay attention to us anymore.

"Okay, Brandy, I'm giving you a bath because people are coming to take you to a new home tomorrow!" She sadly said.  I was taking a bath, yay?  I've never took a bath before and I knew it was something associated with water.  And I loved to swim! 

Then Cheryl walked over to a large white tub and turned the knob on something.  Sprays of water began to fill the tub as Cheryl picked me up by my black and white stomach.

She put me into the tub and everything below the water was slippery, then Cheryl began to wet my with hot water and it felt so good. I lied down in the water as she turned it off as she squirted something pale purple into her hands. She rubbed it on me, and it felt really good.

She called it soap, "This is soap, Brandy. It is a floral scent, and will make you smell wonderful!"

I didn't nod or do anything, I just lay still, hoping she rubbing my body would never stop. But she did stop, then the hot water sprayed on me again. Once I could tell we were done, I jumped out of the tub, shaking my fur, sending water everywhere in the room.

Cheryl laughed, then put a white towel around me to dry me off. The white towel looked chewable so I turned around and started to play tug-of-war with Cheryl as she shouted, "Bad dog!"

She was angry now and I sensed she wasn't in a playing mood so I gave her the towel back and let her continue to dry me off. It felt good as she ran the towel down my stomach and back, back and forth.

Soon the next day, people came to the yard and started to take us away....