T-NINE

Chapter one

My love for dogs was non comparable,at the age of five I had already grown fond of dogs. I also remember seeing friendly photos of I and puppies at very tender age. There was this connection between me and dogs that one understood including myself. Even stray dogs would befriend me, a rare occurrence.
   Everywhere and every time I was usually accompanied by my dog T-NINE,the name  t-nine was a family  lineage  name and t as a short form of Tommy Nine. In other words you could say Tommy number nine.
   My great grandfather was the one who coined the name, because there were predecessors t-one,t-two,t-three and t-four were owned by him.
   My grandmother had told me  stories about him, he was a hunter who used his dogs to hunt. She also narrated how he came to me calling his dogs Tommies. Tommy was a name of a friend of him who they used to hunt with he died on a hunting trip. In order not to preserve his friend's memory he named his dog Tommy.
  T-five, t-six and t-seven belonged to my grandfather. He had followed footsteps of his father, hunter and dog keep.
    In this dog series my father was skipped or he had no interests with dogs. Am told since his childhood he hated dogs and he was in   always in disagreements with his father for mistreating the innocent animals. He had a cold heart towards the dogs.
   I,my  grandfather made me love dogs. I spent my childhood at his place, by that time my parents marriage had a lot of mistrusts and wrangles. My grandfather would  come and pick me every time he had knowledge that they were arguing or even fighting.
  During stay at my grandfather's house a loved  him a lot,I admired his character also. I wondered where my father sourced his character traits,maybe they are not genetic has it is claimed. A person develops  traits of his or her own with no effects from environment or anything else.
  My grandfather taught me how to take care of puppies, how to monitor their behaviours and most important how to hunt with their help.
   Before he died  had told me that I was the one to inherite the dogs. And when he died I took over full control. My fondness to dogs grew to a point of what I can call as a sketch of emotional love.
  There was a time when a neighbor run over t-eight with her car and killed it. I mourned for a whole week.  I would skip meals I was very disturbed by the death , but that was not the last my father went to ask for compensation,he was compensated but I got nothing. That surprised me more he never cared where the dogs slept or what their fed on. I termed him as an opportunistic.
  Life continued. Promising to take care of  t-nine to the end.
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  At the age of seventeen I had already learnt much about dogs. I had also read about a infection that would be passed from one dog to another through and this same disease would affect even human beings. I had no knowledge of it name but to me it was a dangerous infection. I hoped that my dog will remain safe everyday.
    In my family of four people I,my parents and my younger brother I was the only interested in dogs. My  father hated dogs with passion he would everyday tell me that my used to eat his chickens but there was no evidence to validate his claims. My mother was another type she never cared. My brother feared every animal.
    In my family everyone minded his own business.
  Sometimes I and my schoolmates would go hunting in a nearby forest and I would always accompany my dog. I remember  one while hunting  t-nine was injured by a stray cat and everyone would make fun of it the whole month.
  That made me become a celebrity, I would be referred to has the girl with  dog, neighborhood knew that.
   My character was allied to t-nine, my description would never exclude the dog.