Yet another day well spent for Fairy-Mae and her litter of 7 pups. She was a beautiful dog, purebred coonhound. Her gorgeous sleek coat shone in the light. She was an active hunter, and brought home at least one coonskin every time she was on a trail. She was a very tolerant dog, her pups were constantly tugging on her pendulous ears, and chewing on her long tail, but she didn’t mind them. She was also my mother.

There were also two humans living with us. The alpha called himself ‘Dave’. Dave was very fond of Fairy, he always took her hunting, and always showed her off to anyone that might stray by our house. “Anything related to Fairy is just plain precious…” he would say. Anything related to Fairy is just plain precious…

Alpha, or not, Dave wasn’t such a nice guy, to me at least. He would often have friends of his kind over, to show off Fairy, and her litter, us. He would always take my sisters out of the pen, let everyone play with them, pet them, show them off. I remember often hearing him say, “Oh, Fairy’s been on a break from huntin’ lately, she’s whelped another litter. Unplanned of course, but anything related to Fairy is just plain precious.” There goes that ‘precious’ again, I suppose he didn’t see me, or else he probably wouldn’t have said it. Whenever anyone asked to see ‘the little one in the corner’, he would try to change the subject, or turn it over to one of my sisters. If he didn’t succeed, he would just say indifferently “Oh that’s just the runt of the litter, the only boy. Now take a look at…”. It was really offending, I never got any attention at all except from Fairy, and even that was scarce now, since she had almost no milk left, and we were eating this mushy food now.

Dave had his favorite too, it was Penny, the first-born. She was the star of the litter, a bit larger than all of us, and very dominant. She didn’t look much like Fairy-Mae, none of us did. Dave simply hovered around her. He always said that she was a ‘real keeper’. I never got to find out what he meant by that. Dave always took her along when he took out Fairy for walks. One day when they came back, Penny wasn’t as spunky as usual. That evening I can remember Dave coming by the pen, and mentioning “Only two more weeks!”. I didn’t know what he meant by that either.

In about three days, not only was Penny not as spunky anymore, she was becoming lethargic. And so were two of my other sisters. Dave was beginning to notice their strange behavior, so later that day, he put them in a crate and took them away. He came back later that evening, staring into space, he looked shocked.

The other human in the pack called herself ‘Gabby’. When she came out and saw Dave, she looked rather surprised.

“What’s wrong? Bad news?”

“Well the vet said that it’s an infection that Penny brought in from one of those walks…”

“That doesn’t seem so bad…”

“He said that it has quite progressed, and 4-week-old puppies don’t have much of an immune system. He gave them an antibiotic, but they have only a 35%-40% chance of recovery.” Neither one of them said anything else that evening. Dave put them in a separate pen across the room, and went upstairs.

The next day after playtime came naptime. I remember being almost asleep when I suddenly looked over to the pen across the room. Dave wasn’t home yet, he never was at this time. In one corner, lay my two sisters, cuddling for warmth. None of them seemed to get any better from that medicine stuff. In the other corner there lay Penny, listless, she had not moved since that morning. In the other corner there lay Penny, lifeless.

I had just fallen asleep when I was awakened by a scream.

“Penny!” This was Gabby. I watched drowsily as she went over to the phone. Soon Dave was home, and they were both grieving over her. By the next morning there were only four of us left. I remember, Dave hovered around our pen all morning. He even forgot to walk Fairy, so Gabby took her, not to disturb Dave.

Sometimes I myself wonder why I spy on those people. They make no sense to me, one minute they’re dancing around trying to make the next person laugh, and the next they’re crying their eyes out, not even necessarily with a reason. My sisters always thought it was weird, they could care less what the people are doing.

“Get rid of then by the end of next week” Dave suddenly stopped, and ordered Gabby with a straight face. I knew that Gabby didn’t care about us, she didn’t care for dogs in general. She had a guinea pig upstairs that she would sometimes bring to our room so that we can ‘socialize’. Dave and Gabby went into the kitchen to rant about something, probably us. I didn’t hear much, but I did catch a “I don’t care how or where they go”.

The next morning, after we were fed, we were put into a large basket. Then Gabby took us to the park, except she didn’t let us out. We were to sit in that basket all day long. It was a clod, and rainy day. We were all shivering. Almost no one came to the park that day. The next day was pretty much the same, except it was even colder.

The day after was bright and sunny. It was pretty warm too, and many people were around. Everyone wanted to pet the puppy, I never got so much attention…ever! I was really beginning to like this until the lady took one of my sisters away. She handed Gabby some greenish slips, and just took her. I started to voice out my opinion at her, but everyone just laughed, and Gabby pushed my to the back of the basket. Then they took my other sister too. Where were they taking them?

It was just me, and my last sister. It was so lonely in the pen. Fairy doesn’t bother with us anymore, she’s got no milk, and we got no other business with her. The next day, Gabby took us to the park again. Things went slow for a while, I was just laying there thinking about….stuff. I thought of how I was never given a name. Then I though, what would happen if my sister was given away, and I was the only one left? What would happen if I were given away? Where would they take me?

Just then a little nerdy looking boy dragged his mother over. He pleaded and begged her for a puppy. His mother with a straight face, said a calm ‘No’ every time he stopped for air. Then he made an offer she couldn’t refuse.

“But you said I deserved a great reward for winning the science fair!” He grinned somewhat, knowing he had gotten his way. His mother turned to Gabby and asked “How much?”.

“Thirty,” Now it was Gabby’s turn to grin. She pointed to me “That one’s the boy, the other’s a girl.” The lady handed Gabby some more green slips, and the boy picked me up. His hands were so little compared to any other that’s ever picked me up, I thought I was going to fall any second. They picked me, no one’s ever picked me before. I don’t know what feeling came over me, I was so young, I couldn’t describe it then, and I still can’t describe it now. I was happy, and proud, and sad to leave, and plenty o’ other stuff as well. That was the last time I ever saw Fairy-Mae, or any of my sisters.