30 Days & Counting - Sanders Sides

Day 27

Trigger Warnings: Mentions of Animal Violence

"Come on Logan. It's been your turn for a solid five minutes! Just guess a letter and move on!" Roman whined. Logan was staring at a small whiteboard in Patton's hands. We were playing hangman and losing. Horribly. Currently, he had a head, torso, and two arms. We've deduced the word has no C's, T's, G's, or H's. It was two words with seven letters on the first word and five on the second.

I was completely lost. Damion seemed to have an idea, but got lost after seeing there was only one A. Patton was beaming with glee, seeing as he finally stumped us. Roman was still waiting for Logan to finish his turn. Even I'll admit, I was getting impatient. "Logan, just choose a letter!" Remus groaned, twirling Damion's hair through his fingers.

"I just don't understand the point to this game. Like, why does the letter I choose effect whether or not another part of his body is added?" Logan rambled. I chuckled, feeling myself lose my mind. Only Logan would get confused by something so simple. Logic: A man's best weapon and greatest downfall.

"It's just a fucking game!" Damion laughed.

"Do you guys give up?" Patton squeaked. We all nodded, getting fed up of waiting for Logan. "Alright, I'll tell you!" He took back the whiteboard and started writing the answer. Before he could show us, Dr. Picani walked into The Healing Room. Everyone's attention snapped to him and his smiling face.

"Hey guys." He said, fully walking into the room. "So, I know that a lot of you are close to leaving here. And I know some of you are just starting your stays here. Either way, we're excited to have you here and we wanted to get you guys an easy and much more fluffy type of therapy."

I was a little confused but then, Picani opened up the door and a sea of dogs came rushing in. My eyes lit up with childish glee. Each dog wore a Therapy Dog vest and had a collar with their name on it.

One dog came over to me, greeting me with a sloppy kiss. Roman laughed right before getting french kissed by a pomeranian. I scratched the ears of the happy dog in my lap. She was a type of Golden Retriever with one brown eye and the other being a bright blue. "Hey girl." I laughed, feeling her hot breath on my face.

I looked at her collar, reading the name: Vanilla. "Hi, Vanilla." I cooed, watching her face light up. Roman was still dealing with the kissy pomeranian. Remus had a grey hound in his corner while Damion had a dalmatian. Patton and Logan were playing with two beagles that appeared to be siblings and play fighting.

Roman finally got the dog off of him, his mouth full of giggles. He examined the dog's collar, "Hello there, Raspberry." Roman whispered, petting the dog. Raspberry happily barked as she enjoyed getting petted from Roman's gentle hands. I smiled, loving this joyful side of Roman I've hardly seen before.

"Oh, look at this one. His name is Hershey!" Damion laughed, rubbing the dog's stomach.

"Mine is Harriet. She's adorable isn't she!" Remus cooed, letting the curious dog sniff his crotch. I rolled my eyes while Roman's face lit up.

"She looks like Molly!" Roman exclaimed, getting an excited nod form Remus.

"Molly?" Patton asked, letting his face get soaked in kisses.

"Yeah! A dog from one of our old houses. She was a great dog. Sure, she bit me and peed on all of Roman's things but, we got used to it!" Remus shrugged.

"Yeah, only because you were no better than the dog!" Roman commented, making us all roll over with laughter. Patton and Logan's dogs ran over to me, causing Vanilla to step back. I saw their collars: Maxie & Oliver. Both of them were boys.

"Aren't the siblings cute!" Patton gushed, laying himself on the floor and watching Hershey run over to him with a tide wave of love. I smiled, feeling a warm feeling inside me. For once, I felt amazing. Like nothing in the world meant anything. My problems were nothing.

"I remember when our family had a dog." Logan said, adjusting himself to sit on his knees. "She was a Golden Doodle which we named Syrup. She was super playful and loved to run around our yard. She got me through some of my darkest days." Logan smiled, petting Harriet. "I really miss her."

"We had a dog at some point too." Damion chimed in. "I don't remember much about him considering I was probably only seven when he died. He was a husky which my oldest brother named Avalanche, but sense I was young and couldn't wrap my head around how to say 'Avalanche' I just called him 'Big dog.'" Damion said, chuckling at the fond memory.

"Sense we changed houses so much, we didn't get super attached to all the animals our foster homes had. One house had three dogs that we weren't allowed to go near. Another had some goats and a dog. One house bred gerbils so there would be tiny gerbils running around like dogs all the time!" Remus told. "And, of course, Molly."

"Even though I was allergic, my mom had a cat. His name was Uma and he hated me!" Patton said, rubbing the back of his neck. "He scratched me, bit me, peed on things. Heck, I took care of him most of the time and he still hated me!" We laughed at Patton's story.

I couldn't help but feel slightly excluded now. My family never grew up with any animals in our house. Well...we had a stray cat that we fed, but one day, we got home and Father said that the cat wouldn't be around anymore. His gun was warm on the coffee table.

I shuddered at the thought. I never asked for a pet after that day, too afraid of what Father would do with it. I noticed little Maxie whine in my arms as he begged for my attention. I snapped back into the room, seeing my friends, laughing and chatting to each other. I smiled, rubbing Maxie's head.

We played with those dogs for hours after Remy brought in some toys for them. Remus was trying and failing to sniff a dog's butt upon a dare from his brother. It was funny to watch, but gross to see when he finally succeeded.

The dogs had to leave towards the evening which meant the day had come to an end. We all walked to the cafeteria for dinner, our uniforms practically stitched with dog hair.