NOTE: This chapter was too long to put in just the Instructions so it's in two parts. Read this one first, and then the section in Note & Credits. Also this is so good! *** “My human,” Mother would say. “Was a little boy. He had yellow hair and green eyes.” “Yellow hair?” My sister Cath would ask. “Yellow like the sun?” “Yes.” And she would go on to tell us all about her human: what he wore, what he ate, what his favorite things to do were, everything about him. And then she would say “Some day, my pups, your human will walk into our store. And you’ll know.” Marcus, my older brother, was worried. One time he asked “Will we see you again?” “No,” She had said, and I saw sadness in her eyes. “but you’ll have your human, and she or he’ll be like a new Mother to you.” We were just pups, too young to be sold. Yet. At first, there were five of us: Marcus, Cath, Peanut, me, and Buttercup. Poor Buttercup, she wasn’t very strong. One day, Marcus pushed her when we were playing Wrestle, and she fell funny, and didn’t move. The Man who owns our pet store picked her up and took her away. I smelled his sadness, and he patted my head gently, murmuring something about ‘dead’. I didn’t understand that word then, but I do now, I think. ‘death’ is when you fall down and don’t ever get up again, when you hurt yourself so bad you can’t heal. I miss Buttercup. She was yellow, and smaller than the rest of us. Sometimes, when Mother thinks we are asleep, I hear her sniffling and whining in Buttercup's empty bed. She always looks sad the next day. After the Man took Buttercup away, Mother told us even more about our humans. “Some of them,” she said, “will be different. I know a pup who got a man who couldn’t see.” She went on to describe how the dog she knew would push elevator buttons, guide his human, and even (I found this odd) fetch things the human had lost. Apparently, humans are always losing things. I went to bed each night and dreamed of my human. The odd thing was, I couldn’t ever remember my dream-human's face. Two months passed, and then we were officially old enough to be sold. I saw the Man put up a sign in the Window that read ‘Check out our new puppies!’ Peanut got very excited after this, and asked every single person who entered the shop ‘Are you my Human? Are you? Are you?’ I guess she forgot that humans can’t understand Dogspeak. Her little brown ears would flop back and forth and she’d put her white paws up on the mesh of our cage. She was the most eager of all of us, so of course she got picked first. A jolly-looking human man with bright red hair and a big stomach picked her out of the pen. “Why, look at the wee lassie!” He boomed. “Perfect for my son, Davie!” She was sold for 69 dollars and fifty-two cents plus tax. I don’t know what ‘plus tax’ means, and Mother didn’t do a very good job of explaining it. I just got more confused. Marcus was next to go, to a girl with yellow hair (like Mother’s Person) and grey eyes. She looked Marcus right in the eye and said, “Mommy, I think this is the right dog.” Mother was quiet for the rest of the night. Three empty beds now stood in our little pen: Buttercup’s, Peanut’s and Marcus’s. Only me and Cath remained, and Mother looked at us sadly, too, as if we were already gone. I nudged her with my nose. “I’ll remember you.” She kind of smiled, but her eyes were sad. It’s hard business being her, I guess. I’ll try to make my human let me visit her. About a week after Marcus was taken, the doorbell rang.
It was a crisp autumn day, and through the glass front window I could see that the leaves on the trees were turning red and orange and yellow, all kinds of delightful colours. Two girls, a small boy, and two grownups walked in. “Hello,” The girl-grownup said. I think she was the kid’s mommy. “Mr. Maki, can we please look at your pups? We read the sign outside and would like to see them.” The man (Mr. Maki, I think), nodded and pointed to the cage. Cath bounded from her bed and started furiously wagging her black tail. “Mom,” The oldest girl said, “do you think it makes the mother-dog sad to see her kids being sold?” The other girl was occupied in keeping the small boy AWAY from the fish-tanks, because when he got near one he banged on the glass and scared all the fish. I watched the girl’s mother with interest. She pursed her lips, and then said, “I don’t know. Maybe?” I know. I thought. It really does make Mother sad. Sad, in a happy kind of way. Happy that we’re growing up but sad that we’re leaving her. The girl looked disgruntled, but she walked over to our cage. Before, the buyers had always been interested in the bigger pups. Not me. So I didn’t know what to do. Cath wagged her tail and looked adorable. She knew how to make buyers go ‘aww, what a cute dog’. I just sat there, feeling like my paws were to big for my legs and that my head was too big for everything. The girl (as I had begun to think of her) did something I wouldn’t have foreseen in a trillion years: she ignored Cath and looked straight at me. “Hello, Little Dog.” I tilted my head, staring into her bright green eyes. She had an undecipherable expression on her face, but we dogs are very good at reading eyes, and here’s what I saw in hers: galaxies. I learned that word when the Man turned on his little TV and watched a show about planets. Galaxies means lots and lots of stars and ‘solar systems’ orbiting a Black Hole. I saw those in her eyes, and she looked like someone who was magical. Her eyes sparkled, and shone, and she reached out a hand for me to sniff. This human knows her manners. In the dog world, it’s a grave offense not to let someone sniff your rear before greeting them, and because human rear ends are too high up for most of us, it’s good manners for them to extend their hands and let us sniff that instead. I sniffed, and she rubbed my back. “Do you want to come with me, Little Dog? Do you want to be my friend?” This time, I knew what to do. I wagged my tail and gave a small yip. She laughed. “I’ll take that as a yes.” I turned to Mother, and told her “Don’t be sad. See? I’m growing up, I’ve found my human. Isn’t that nice?” She nodded slowly, and then I felt the girl’s hands wrap around me and lift me gently out of the pen. *** By @JansenTheCreator Also, I don't really like stories told by animals point of view as much, but this one blew me away. I loved it.
