My master gave me a pat on the head as we walked down the forest path behind the house. He limped nowadays, and wasn't as fast as he used to be. He carried a long cane to help him stand, and I had to walk slowly to stay by his side. We had long been friends, and I believed we'd be together for many years yet.

The late autumn leaves crunched under our feet, and the calls of the many crows echoed around us. The sky was dark, and a storm was rolling in. My master paused and looked up at the sky. "Well, boy," he said, "I reckon we better be headin' back b'fore the storm hits." I looked into his eyes and gave a yip of approval, and we turned back. We passed up everything we had passed on the way there, and soon we were back at the clearing. The house was not far from here, but I continued to walk at my master's side. I refused to run off and leave him. I never would.
When we got back into the house, my master was exhausted, as was I. I guided him to his rocking chair in the den, and lay down at his feet. He sighed and looked down at me. I sat back up and rested my head on his lap. "We ain't what we used to be." If I could have spoken, I would've agreed. I remembered the old days, when my master would throw sticks for me and I would run to catch them. I'd leap high into the air and grab it with my teeth, and then run back and give the stick to my master again. We played for hours at a time. We could never do that anymore.
Day after we sat together silently. I rarely left my master's side, only doing so to get a drink of water. Seasons passed, but our bond never weakened. It seemed years went by every day.

One day a woman came to our house. She and my master talked for a while, and I noticed a sad look on my master's face. I could not under stand what they were saying, but I knew it couldn't be good. My master gave the woman a hug and a kiss and she dashed out the door and drove away. My master turned fell back into his chair and looked at me with a worried look in his eyes. "Times are only gonna get rougher, old boy."

A few days later, the woman came back. This time, she took my master with her. I was left alone in the house, something that hadn't happened in years. I sat in front of the door and waited for my master to return. I barely moved. I couldn't move. I had to wait for my master to get home.

I waited for hours, until finally a car pulled up in the driveway. A great weight was lifted off of me, it seemed. By then it was nighttime, and I could barely see anything outside. I saw the silhouette of someone coming up to the door. My heart sank when the person opened the door. It wasn't my master. It was the woman who took him away. "Come on, boy. You're coming with me," she said, and grabbed me by the collar. She pulled me outside into the cold night, and forced me into the car. I didn't know what to think. Was she taking me to be with my master, or was it something else? As we drove down the winding street, I stared out to the dark woods that sped by outside the window. My mind was blank. I didn't know whether to be scared, excited, worried, or sad. We drove far, and I silently watched as our surroundings changed from forest and farms, to buildings and streetlights. We soon turned down a side-street and pulled up in front of a small house. The woman once again grabbed me by the collar and pulled me out of the car, and walked me up the doorstep of the house.

She rapped on the door and the doorknob twisted. Another woman came out and took hold of my collar. She made faces at me and said in a cutesy voice things like, "You're gonna have lots of fun here!" and "You're such a nice doggy!" She than turned back to the woman who drove me there and said, "How long do you think I'll have him?" The other woman replied, "I don't know, depend's how long Dad's in the hospital." My skin crawled at the word "hospital". I had heard many things about them before. My master once told me a story about the time his wife was taken to the hospital, and never came home.

The woman who brought me let go of my collar and hopped back into the car. I stared after the car as it drove away into the night.

I was lead into the house by the woman holding my collar, and taken into the kitchen. She let me go and picked up a gate lying against the wall. She stood it up in front of the doorway. "No going into the living room for you, mister!" she squealed. I couldn't stand her voice. It sounded like a pup in terrible pain. She stepped over the gate and sat down in a chair in the living room, leaving me in the kitchen alone. I stared at her for a while. She wasn't going to come get me, so I got up and lay down on the carpet by the sink. I closed my tired eyes and drifted off to sleep...

The next morning when I awoke, I had forgotten I wasn't at home with my beloved master. My heavy eyelids lifted, and I quickly remembered this. I let go of the night and it's happy dreams, and let reality come flooding back in. I lifted my head and pushed my body up and stretched. A squeaky voice soon chased oout any remaining weariness. "Good morning, mister! Would you like some breakfast?" I stared at the woman with a look of disgust. Being a human, she assumed I had said yes and placed a bowl of food on the ground in front of me. I sniffed it, and being quite hungry, I devoured it within a few minutes.
Days soon passed, and the same routine began to become monotinous. I would rise, eat, be let out and come back in, lie down and wait for my next meal, and go to sleep. This was nothing like my days with my master. Every day was different with him. In the mornings, we would sit on the swing out back and watch for birds and deer. We would than rest and go back out later, if my master was feeling up to it. We often would take long walks in the forest. I was beginning to wonder if we would ever be able to do this again.

One morning I was woken by the shrill ringing of a phone. The woman dashed past me to pick it up. I watched her put the phone to her ear and say, "Hello." Her cheerful expression soon faded into a frown, and soon tears began to roll down her cheeks. I pushed my ears back in fear, many horrible ideas flashing through my mind about what was making her cry.

Two days later, I found myself in a car with the woman and two other people, including the woman who drove me to my caretaker's house. The car was in a parade of many other cars. All the cars were black, and all the people in them were also dressed in black. The line of cars soon turned and began it's way onto a dirt path cutting through a park. This park was very different, however, from other parks. The green grass was dotted with square stones pushed into the dirt. There were bouquets of flowers on some of the stones, and flags on others. We drove down the path for a while, until we came to stop next to a large hole in the ground. All the people got out of the cars, and the sounds of weeping filled the air. The sky was dark, and rain was on it's way.
A long box was lifted out of one of the cars, and set down next to the hole. All the people, as well as my caretaker--who was holding me by a leash-- walked up to the box. The top of it was lifted off, and my heart jumped for joy. It revealed my master! I tried to run to him, but the leash held me back. I whined and barked, but the woman wouldn't let me greet my master. I calmed down, and noticed something strange. My master just lay there, pale and silent.

A man stepped up and said a few things from a book. After that, the weeping grew louder as two men put the lid back over my master. I felt like leaping up and attacking the two men. Why were they taking my master from me, before he even got to say hello to me? The men lifted up the box and began to lower it into the hole. This puzzled me even further.

I soon found myself back in the car and moving back down the path. I didn't have any idea what had just happened, or if I'd ever see my master again.

We arrived back at my new caretaker's house. Once we were inside, I put my tail between my legs and slowly walked into the kitchen and lay down. No later than that, I was fast asleep.

My rest was filled with dreams that night.

My master and I played fetch with a long stick. It was the perfect fetch stick. It was smooth and without protruding branches. It was straight and not curvy, and easy to grasp. It flew far when my master threw it, and I had to run swiftly to catch it. My tongue flapped in the breeze as I ran, and my eyes stayed on my target. When I was close enough, my legs propelled me into the air, and my teeth than wrapped around the stick. My front feet hit the ground, and I whipped back around to return the stick to my master. I dropped it at his feet, and stood up on my hind legs. He reached down and scratched me all over, and I gave him a big kiss on the face. I looked into his eyes and reassured him I would never let him down or leave him. I let him know I'd always be his best friend. I reluctantly rose the next morning, wishing I could have stayed in that dream for the rest of time. I refused to eat my breakfast that morning. I no longer had the inspiring notion that maybe my master would return today. My caretaker said in her squealing voice: "Guess what, mister! You're gonna have a playmate to play with today!" I didn't know what she meant by "playmate." I soon would find out.
A few hours later, there was a knock at the door. The excited woman ran to it and opened it. A foul scent filled my nostrils. A scent I had never smell before. At the door, there was another woman, holding something by the hand. It appeared to be miniature human. It had long, golden hair and had it's thumb in it's mouth. My caretaker took the creature by the hand, and the other woman kissed it goodbye and dashed away. My caretaker brought in near me and said, "This is Megan! She's going to be your playmate today!" "Megan." Is that what it was called?

The Megan pointed at me. "Doggy!" she yipped, in a voice almost as ear-piercing as my caretaker's. "Yes, that is a doggy! Good girl!" she replied. She let go of the Megan's hand, and it started to waddle towards me. I panicked, of course, and backed off a bit. To my surprise, the creature sat down and stared at me. "Doggy?" it uttered. I sympethized with it, and slowly approached it. Step by step I inched closer, until finally I was standing over it. It reached out it's tiny hand and I sniffed it, and everything seemed okay. It was a human, just a bit smaller than the ones I was used to. I sat down next to it and stared up at my caretaker. "Aw, I think you two'll get along just fine!"
My caretaker walked out of the room, leaving me alone with the Megan. It kept looking up at me with it's big blue eyes in wonder. I started to feel a bit awkward, so I walked away and sat on the other end of the room. "No!" it screamed, and came running up to me. It grabbed my collar and pulled my ear, which was quite uncomfortable. It yanked at my tail and continued to pull my ears. I remained calm for a while, but wen I realised it might not stop doing this until something was done, I decided to take action and discipline this pup.

I lifted my lips and let out a low growl to warn the Megan it was getting too rough. It simply let out a squeal of delight, and grabbed my nose. This was truly a bold creature! I had no choice but to take further action. I bared my teeth more and growled louder, but it still would not cease to pull my appendages. Did this "Megan" not understand what I was telling it? I had wanted to avoid needing to go an extra step, but it gave me no choice. It reached for my nose again, and I gave it a light bite on the hand.
At that exact moment, my caretaker walked in. She screeched and pulled the creature away from me. I sighed a breathe of relief. My caretaker had saved me from the Megan's torture! At least, this is what I thought at the moment.

My caretaker aggressivly grabbed my collar and pulled me into the kitchen. She began to shake her finger at me and say things like, "No! Bad dog! You no bite!" She than did a horrifying thing to me, something that had never been done to me in my life. She raised her hand, and struck me across the face. I sqealed in pain, and slunk off to my carpet. I lay down, and my caretaker stomped off to pay attention to the Megan. I was heartbroken, and I didn't want to live here anymore. I wanted to be with my real master.

Days went by, and little attention was payed to me. When it was, it was negative. Whenever my caretaker would come near me, I would back off. Sometimes I would even give her a growl if she got too close. She would ignore me. I grew used to it. I was only fed once a day, so I went to bed hungry, and woke up hungry. I had to wait until mid-day for food. Life was miserable.

One day, I was forced to get into the car early in the morning. I was beginning to hate cars, since something bad began whenever I was taken in them. We drove far, and passed many things I had not before seen. Soon we pulled into a large parking lot behind a huge building. My caretaker got out of the car, pulling me with her, and we began to head towards to building. I did not know what was going on, and part of me didn't want to. So many horrible things had already happened, it was hard to imagine anything worse could now.

We came to a pair of huge glass doors. My caretaker pulled the handle of one and pushed me inside. A man met her at the door, and took hold of me from there. She stood there and looked at me for a few seconds, and we stared into each other's eyes. "You shouldn't have bit her, bad dog." And with that, she walked out the door.
The man led me further into the building, and my ears filled with the sound of many dogs barking. My nostrils filled with the scent of them. They were scared and pitiful. I could tell from the mere scent of them. What was this horrible place?

I was led into a giant room, which contained rows and rows of cages, all filled with dogs. As the man walked me down the aisles, I got to see up close what horrors this place held. Some dogs were pouncing against the doors of their cages and barking at me, some were curled up in the backs of them, silent with fear and agony. We soon came to an empty cage, and the man pulled out a key and stuck it in the latch on the door. It swung open, and he pushed me inside and removed my collar and leash. "Good luck," he said, with a bit of sarcasm. My eyes stayed on him as he walked away. Was this finally the end of my road?

Many days and nights passed, and I lay in the back of my cage. People walked by and glanced at me many times, and kept walking. The other dogs' howling rung in my ears, and the stench of stale urine burned in my nose. It had been so long since I was last stroked by my master, and I longed for his gentle touch. In those long days in the cage, I looked back on my life. It had been wonderful, until the day my master left. From there, everything had gone downhill. I felt I no longer had a reason to live.

One day, a woman came up to my cage and opened it. She didn't say a word to me. She slipped a collar over my head and brought me out into the aisle. She led me away from my cage, and past all the others. Though she said nothing, she seemed much kinder than the man, my caretaker, and every other human I had dealt with after my master left. She gave me a pitiful glance, and walked me up to a small room. We went in, and I saw a table and counter with many strange objects and bottles on it. She closed the door behind us, and lifted me up onto the table and layed me down.
From there she grabbed a long needle and one of the bottles. There was a liquid in the bottle, which she sucked up with the needle. She approached me with the scary object. She stroked me with her gentle hands. They were calming and kind, and felt better than what I had grown used to. The stroking reminded me so much of my master, and the way I would lay my head on his lap and he would stroke my head until we both fell asleep. But than, she began to bring the needle closer to me. My heart began to race again, as she pressed it against my fore arm. The sharp end began to sink into my skin. I didn't feel pain, but I was terrified. She held the needle there for a moment, and than pulled it out. What had just happened?

I suddenly began to feel drowsy. My muscles were weakening, my eyelids were feeling heavy. It suddenly was harder to breath, and my sight began to grow fuzzy. The last thing I saw was the face of the woman, and the tear that ran down her face. I wanted to give her a calming lick on the face, but I couldn't move at all. And soon, everything went........black........