Gotcha Day
The day everyone is rescued
Mom woke me up early for breakfast and only let me play in the yard for a little bit before she was hustling me into the car. We pulled up in front of a store where a lot of people were outside talking and laughing. As I jumped out of the car, the people all turned around and smiled at me.
“Okay, sweetheart,” my mom said. “Be a good boy today, okay?”
She kissed me on the top of my head, and then a woman knelt down in front of me and smiled. “Oh, you adorable sweetie,” she said in a high singsong voice. “Let’s put a bandana on you.”
Whatever. I didn’t mind the bandana, especially since everyone was smiling at me and telling me what a good boy I was being. I didn’t even notice Mom had left. I wanted to meet everyone, wanted everyone to see what a big deal I was.
It wasn’t always this way. The people I lived with before rarely smiled at me. I was “that damn dog” more often than I was “good boy.” I tried as hard as I could, but I never knew what would make them happy. I protected them by scaring off strangers, but that made them toss me outside in the backyard. To tell the truth, I did not like that, so I dug some holes, ate some plants, and then killed a bunny. And then one night, they shoved me in the car and drove for a while, and then we got to this dark building. They stopped…
