Warm Sunlight (Open)

[Punktestern]

Arista’s Goldset’s Astrophel Fields


Astro padded softly beside little Sarah, standing at about the same height as the five-year-old. The little girl held his leach in her pudgy hands, slackening and tightening her grip at random intervals. Astro didn't mind, though, she was his human companion, along with her older sister and their parents. Leah was further along the path, jogging easily, weaving in and out of the other people. Dan and Linda walked behind their younger daughter, watching her and the gentle white dog. When they reached a shady oak tree, they found Leah already sitting under it, a picnic blanket spread out and already laden with plates.

As he neared the tree, Astro’s tail started wagging faster and faster. Yes, he was friendly to all of the family, but he thought of Leah as his best human friend. He tolerated little Sarah’s sticky hands and probing fingers, yes, but out of a sense of duty. He obeyed Dan’s commands out in the mountains when he had a job to do, yes, but he thought of Dan as the Alpha, not a friend. But Leah, she showed him in the ring, and played with him, and took care of him. She was the one that he would take care of with his best ability.

Leah called Astro over to her with a signal and undid his leash. Astro shook himself in gratitude and then padded around the blanket, waiting for his food bowl. Linda unpacked the food and then took out Astro’s traveling bowl. She handed it to Leah, who filled it with the dry, almost tasteless food that Astro associated with camping and longer searches. However, today Astro didn’t care; he gulped up the food as if he had been starving. It was just the thing, Leah’s face split into a wide grin. Astro always wanted to make this happen, it made his day.

Linda waved her hand, “Go play, Astro.” Leah nodded and made the release gesture, so Astro took off running. Soon he was lazing by a little streamlet that crossed the park, this seemed to always be his retreat. A slight sound made him turn, his white head catching the sunlight.

[Talon]

Sunshine could be said to be a strays enemy, showing the presence of the untamed animals. Most were smarter about being seen in the light, though hiding in the shadows was hard for a three year old pit bull. Kaiah wasn’t much for hiding, though humans were very terrifying creatures. They could beat you and tie you up and if you protested they would lock you up and beat you more. Now the extent of abuse this little girl went through was not the worst, though a dog fighting ring is a quite serious ordeal. A good sized female like this blue brindle would have made a great fighter, if her mind was as cruel and raw as the humans that owned her. Being this close to humans was a shattering event for a dog in such a situation, though it was just what appeared like a step forward for this young femme.

The park in daylight seemed like a stupid place for a stray to be, though beyond the people the small creek was what caught Kaiah’s interest, a nice clean drink would be something to keep her moving through the day. Large paws moved over the ground in the quietest manner possible, though stepping on a small dry stick could have given her away. It wasn’t like any of the humans were paying attention anyway, there were many dogs without collars she just added to the bunch. Sure the pit bull was a bit dirtier than the house pets, but she was still probably not to be noticed. That bit of confidence what all that drew her blue brindle body out into the sunlight. Copper brown orbs caught the sunlight as the young female tried to scan her horizon. There were humans and dogs playing about, not a huge abundance but enough to make her look less noticeable. Nostrils caught the scent of the dogs as steps approached the water, paws stepping into the cool water a couple steps before her large head lowered and tongue lapped up some water.

Catching sight of a white dog in the sunlight the young femme stood quietly lapping up her drink. Mmm, perfect. Her thoughts disregarded the fact she was out in the open and focused mainly on the water on her tongue. A deep breath, almost a sigh and the femme lifted her head copper brown orbs staring at the white dog for another moment, he was clearly the closest to her, though he didn’t seem to have posed a threat quite yet. Vocals were not shown and words were not spoken, though the young canine refrained from showing the amount of fear in her eyes. This world terrified her, humans scared her and of course, being this close to them was a horror, though the wish for a drink and maybe a scrap of food was high and controlling. This was no real place for a scrap during the day on the other hand, all the people made it hard to scavenge around for even half a meal.

[Punktestern]

Astro smiled, letting his tongue loll out in a friendly manner, “Hello there.” He rose slowly, shaking his bright pelt out. A few bits of grass and dirt flew off, leaving his pelt white as snow yet again. He looked at the pit bull that was standing in front of him. She seemed to be uncomfortable. Astro tried to put her at ease, “You know, I won’t bite you. I usually don’t.” He smiled, “Revise that, I never bite. It seems too mean.” He was totally at ease here, in the bright sunlight. His dark brown eyes scanned over the femme’s brindled coat, which was dusty and dirty.

“I’m called Astro, by the way. Well, it’s officially some long, crazy name, but I prefer Astro. Most dogs can pronounce it without tying their tongues into knots.” He smiled again. “And who might you be?” He angled his ears towards his family, but they were too absorbed in their meal to notice that he was talking to another dog. He looked around and noticed some bushes. His family didn’t like him conversing with other dogs, somehow, especially not strays. And a stray this dog obviously was. She smelled like sorrow and pain.

Astro stretched. He didn’t want to make the other dog feel uncomfortable, but wanted to know more about her. He wasn’t often allowed to talk to other dogs, and if he was, it was usually some pompous show dog. He hated those stuck up dogs, the ones that could list all their awards, as well as recite their pedigree all the way to the beginning of their breed. Astro never replied in those instances, although he could put all of them in their place. After all, he had two Westminster Best in Shows to his name and more to come. He decided to try an old approach, “May I know who I have the pleasure of speaking with this morning?” He glanced back at his family again and tried to hide in the tallish grass, but his body would not hide in the waving stalks. He sighed, but stayed put. Maybe they would let him talk this once.

[Talon]

Large face lifted from the water with the other canine’s words, soft vocals returned his quietly. ”Hello there. Her soft voice didn’t shake with fear it was not this canine in question that brought up her fear, it was the humans in the background. ”It is not your bite I fear sir.” Soft words again commented to him. The blue brindle was nothing much for your rough and tough stray or the horrid animal most people would assume her to be. Kaiah is very gentle and kind and this dog was not the biggest threat here in the open. Her small cropped ears listened to his ramblings for a moment, he must have been a show dog, and some of these must be his humans. How stupid of him, humans were horrible creatures. ”My name is Kaiah.” She soft words spoke to him again, in her mind she slowly pronounced out her name to keep from paying any attention to the humans around them.

Kaya, K-i-ah... Her thoughts messed up her mind a bit as she stepped a few more steps into the water and collapsed down into it’s cool breeze. This was the first dog she had spoken too in a very long time who had bothered to be so kind. Most canines were just out to chase her away from a meal or for whatever reason. For some odd reason she trusted the canine, the humans were a different story but they were a bit farther off. Dirty coat rolled around under the command of large muscles in the water, soaking some of the dirt away. Once fully drenched in the cold water the pit bull stood up, cropped audits keeping listen as she shook off her wet body, short coat not keeping much moisture, though she made sure she didn’t soak the long haired dog near her. Turning the brindle stepped from the water and laid in the grass on the other side.

The short grass did nothing to hide her from the humans though his large body did quite well from hiding her from his humans. The thought still ran through her mind, he had humans; he was no stray that was for sure. Brown copper orbs watched him still; his coat was clean, brushed and proper, is that how they made him love them? It never crossed her mind that some humans were nicer than others; they were a cruel animal not to be trusted, though this male seemed to have no problem with them. They ignored him now, laughing, eating. The thought of their food made her drool a bit, she only knew the luxuries of scraps, never a full meal or love of a human.

[Punktestern]

Astro smiled kindly, “That’s good. Too many dogs these days are intimidated by other dogs only because they have too many bad memories. They can’t separate us anymore; they think all dogs are inherently bad.” He trailed off, noticing that he was rambling again, “I’m sorry. I’m usually not allowed to talk to other dogs, and when I can, I tend to go on and on. Please, if I talk too much or anything, let me know.”

His ears flickered at the name. He thought he had heard it before, but wasn’t too sure. Probably his mind playing tricks on him again, “That’s a pretty name. A perfectly suited name for a young dame like you.” He smiled, not meaning to be flirtatious or anything, just trying to put her at ease. He had never felt anything for any dog before; he had learned not to think about female dogs like that.

Astro smiled as she shook himself. He noticed that she was careful not to soak him, and was thankful. Despite the watery sunlight, a cool wind was blowing, and being wet would not have been fun. His fur took such a long time to dry, he tried to avoid baths. Of course, his humans still washed him once a week.

Astro saw Kaiah drool a little, and followed her gaze. As he saw that she was watching his humans, he wondered why. Then he realized that she was a stray and wouldn’t get regular meals like he did. A good meal must be a luxury for her. He looked back at the blue nosed dog and tried to think of a polite way to phrase his idea. He decided to just be straightforward, but not to sound charitable, “Would you like me to go get some food for you? They have more than enough, and you look half starved.” His dark brown eyes searched her face, trying to judge how his offer struck her. The last thing he wanted was for her to feel that he was just giving her a handout. He truly wanted to help her, but most dogs didn’t like being offered food.

[Talon]

Kaiah’s soft eyes glanced back to Astro as he spoke, lying quietly in the grass for another moment. ”Other dogs tend to terrify me, though you don’t seem anything like the others I have met” The young canine admitted as her front legs stretched out in the grass. This dog was so laid back and clam it was easy for her to relax just a moment. ”Thank you, I think it means something.” Kaya was actually a Greek name in little difference to Kaiah, in Greek her name meant something so simple, ‘pure’. Though surely this young dog had no knowledge of this, someone kind and gentle had obviously named her, unlike her training and up bring. Her mind caught the humans again, terror and jealousy flooded her mind.

Humans were terrifying, yet they had such an abundant amount of food and Astro appeared not to share her views. Mind wandered back to the white canine as he spoke again. Food? From the humans? Something like that was unheard of in her eyes, just walking over a taking food from them? There was so many things they could do to stop him. ”You can do that? Stunned vocals were genuine in her question. ”Just take food from them?” A confused look was written all over her eyes as she looked at him again. What would happen to him if he got caught? Or would they just hand him food to give her? Surely these humans didn’t want him feeding her. Then again it didn’t seem like they had even noticed her presence.

Confusion still written all over her broad face the femme dipped her lips to the creek once more, lapping up the cool water. Eyes landed back on Astro, surely she would love food, though she didn’t quite understand how he could just go get it. Those humans must have treated him well, only once she was on the street did she ever get a taste of what humans ate, before it was just plain flavoured kibbles that weren’t so bad. The human food was so much better, like a fresh kill of a large prey. Kaiah had rarely had the taste of that either, not being much of a hunter and more of a scavenger, killing the occasional rodent if she couldn’t find scraps. Tongue reached out and licked her paw slowly, the dip in the water made her much cleaner, though her cleaner coat seemed to cling harder to her thinning body. It wasn’t that she was completely hard done by, she had learned to cope, any and all food had to be eaten, it was just not always a daily occurrence that food was found. Never before out here being a stray was it just offered up to her on a silver platter per say. ”If you could I really could no object, I am starving.” Last words as she glanced once more at the humans before their pet, eyes filled with a bit of greed for a meal.

[Punktestern]

Astro smiled, “Well, thank you, I think.” He didn’t know whether she meant that in a good way or bad, but hoped it was good. She hadn’t bolted away, at least. He raised his head a little and looked around the park, but his humans were still busy talking and goofing around. “Don’t all names usually mean something, though?” He hadn’t met many dogs, but somehow all of those that he had met, their names represented something. Take his own, for example. It meant star, although he wasn’t sure why his first owner had chosen the name. He knew that the pit bull’s name was one that was probably lovingly given, although she had obviously been alone for some time.

The great white dog sat up and nodded, “Of course I can. They’re my family, after all.” He could tell that the pit didn’t think about people the same way he did. He wondered about what they had done to her, to make her this wary of them. He shot another glance in their direction, “Luckily they haven’t noticed I’m talking to you.” He sighed, “They think that because I’m purebred, I shouldn’t be allowed to spend time with any dog that doesn’t have an extensive pedigree.” He rolled his eyes to show what he thought of that idea, “Load of nonsense.”

Astro rose to his feet, stretching as he did so, “Of course. It’s no trouble.” He smiled down, “I’ll be right back.” He pretended to be stern, “Stay here, okay?” Relapsing into his friendly tone, he continued, “If you have to go, I’ll leave the food buried here, okay? Come back when you can.” He hoped she would still be there when he got back, but one never knew. If a human were to come over here, there was no telling whether she would just run or not.

Astro turned and loped gracefully back to his family, swinging around in an arch as to not show exactly where he had been. As he approached his family, he slowed down and then came to a stop. Standing before Leah, he wagged his tail and whined, “I’m hungry, do you have any scraps, please feed me, oh I love you.” Leah smiled and took two hamburger patties and held them out to the white canine. He took them gently, then loped into the other direction, towards some bushes. Once there, he circled around, back to where he had left the pit bull.

[Talon]

Kaiah didn’t pay much attention to his starting words, she wasn’t really much for names meaning anything, it didn’t really matter on the street. Her muscles shivered under the blue brindle coat as he called them his family. How were humans every a family? Maybe they were a family but he was surely only just a pet, no matter what they saw him as she was no jealous of these people he called family. Maybe the fact that they fed him so willingly, but that may be the only bit. Nodding at his words, they hadn’t noticed, that was good. Though his next comment seemed to bother her a bit. ”Actually, I am a purebred; I do have an extensive pedigree, not of show dogs but of fighters. I was bred and raised specifically to be mean, rude and ruthless, to fight other dogs and get beaten by humans. I was supposed to be a winner maybe that is why they hate me so?” Vocals were quiet and her question quite stunning. She wasn’t what she was supposed to be, so in turn she was beaten and neglected. Her pink tongue moved slowly over the deep scar over her muzzle, her mouth had been nearly tied shut for weeks.

She nodded at his next set of words before he left to go to the humans. Lying still in the grass trying not to be a sight to see for the humans, surely they would know she was a stray, though her now dry short coat was rather clean once again. Copper brown orbs watched the white canine prance up to the humans and whine for only a moment, drool emitting from her maw as he pranced to the bushes with two burger patties and then doubled back to her. Once he had reached her, her mouth dripped with drool now being able to smell the cooked beef. Oh food, fresh food, oh it smelt so good.. Her thoughts ran through her head as she could see the food in his mouth. She might have jumped up and ripped it out of his mouth if she hadn’t had any control though she laid quietly awaiting the food coming her way. Every ounce of her body screaming at her to grab it and run, something a typical stray would do, though she just laid there quietly drooling in wait, no matter how much she wanted to ruin the human's picnic.

[Punktestern]

Astro dipped his head to her, “I meant no offense. I did not know, although they would probably consider you without one.” He sighed, “It means nothing to me, it is just a piece of paper that lists your entire family. Who needs that?” Her next comment caught him off guard, “You mean…?” He had never heard of humans beating dogs. “Not all humans are like that, you know. My family is nice, they pet me and feed me and care for me. They are like my pack, you know?” he regretted the last words. She probably wouldn’t know what he meant.

As he returned, he could see that the brindled dog was controlling herself immensely, keeping herself from attacking him for food. He smiled as lay the food down in front of her, “Here you go, madam. Bon appetite.” He smiled and backed off, moving to the stream’s bank. Yawning in the sunlight, he lay down, watching the femme carefully. He rested his great head on his paws and let the spring sunlight warm his fur as much as it would. He was amazed by the pit’s self control; especially after all she had been through. He could tell that she had had a hard life, and tried to think of something he could do to alleviate some of her pain.

As the wind change direction, he could hear Dan’s pager beeping, a far away sound that usually meant nothing to him. He raised his head and looked at the man, but it seemed to be nothing for him to be concerned with. He lowered his white head again, breathing a sigh of relief. Sometimes the beeping meant that he had to go with Dan, drive up to the mountains, but it seemed that this time it was something else. He didn’t want to go anywhere right now, not when he was actually conversing with another dog. He watched as Dan stood up and smiled down to the rest of the family, then ran along the path in the direction of the car. Astro whimpered, worried about what had called Dan away.

[Talon]

The femme nodded in agreement, a pedigree did not matter, not to strays at least, humans seemed to care so much. A pack? With humans? Unheard of! Why would any dog love a human so? They are unpredictable and unreliable. A human would have a lot of sucking up to do to win my heart. They are not to be trusted. Thoughts ran through her mind quickly, humans, how could he love them so. Kaiah didn’t understand and surely she never would. Though no comments came from that it was all about the meal ahead.

”Oh Thank you.” Gracious words were quick and muffled with the few bites it took to swallow the patties quickly. These patties were nothing but a snack for a larger canine like the pit bull, though the feeling of the warm patties seemed to settle the femme. The beeping caught her attention, orbs watching the male human check the device and run off to a parked car. ”Why is your human just leaving you?” The human the white canine claimed loved him was running off at just the sound of the beeper, striking a bit awkward to the femme. Did all humans just get up and leave like that? Then again they hadn’t been paying much attention to the male canine anyway. She wondered why that was, if they loved him so much why did they ignore him? Then again he brought her food from them and they had given it up easily, she was thankful for at least that.

Curiosity still struck on why the human ran off. If they were all a pack like Astro saw them something very important would have to happen for an alpha to run off. Though she made the assumption the human was the alpha, the humans in her life had always been the boss. Making all decisions for their canines and punishing dogs for doing wrong in their eyes. She had never really done anything right for the humans, then again they did want wrong things, a kind pit bull is not a fighting pit bull. Dogs that won’t fight are useless in the eyes of a dog fighter. The young femme was always seen as useless in the eyes of humans, though a family would be something well loved, a pack, someone who loved her, it was good sounding but humans were kind of out of the question. She was terrified of humans, this was quite close enough.

[Punktestern]

Astro could tell that the female didn’t understand his connection to the humans. Then again, he couldn’t understand her live either, so maybe it was just something that would have to be left to rest. It didn’t have to affect anything. It’s not like the humans were interfering. At the least, not yet. Astro had no doubt that they would interfere once they realized that he was hanging out with another dog, a stray no less.

As the femme fell upon the patties, Astro shrugged, “It’s nothing. I’m sorry it isn’t more.” He realized that it was nothing to her, a mere snack. She must be starving, the way she just devoured the meat.

At her next question, Astro wrinkled his brow, “I think he has to go to work.” He didn’t know exactly what Dan did for a living; just that he came home smelling like blood and sick. “I’m just glad e didn’t need me. Sometimes he takes me with him, and then I go all over mountains looking for people that were buried by snow or rocks.” He liked this job, actually. It was rewarding when the people survived, and Dan always let him go into the hot tub after a night of working. Astro grinned at that recollection, although it had a tinge of sadness to it. He wouldn’t be working for the next two weeks, Dan had said, because there was a big show coming up. Astro didn’t have anything against shows themselves, but the dogs were just horrible! Stuffy, pampered things that looked down on the breeds that looked rough. Astro tried to be extra polite to those breeds, but that sometimes made him even more enemies, instead of friends. Ah well, you can’t please everyone.

Astro rose into a sitting position, his fur gleaming lightly in the sunlight, “So you live by yourself?” He realized the frankness of his question and amended it, “I mean, don’t answer if you don’t want to. I’m just curious, probably as curious as you are about me.” He really wanted to know more about life without humans, and here was his chance. Why not take it?

[Talon]

Licking the beef flavour from her lips the femme peered back at the white canine, ”No thank you, it was perfect, I needed something, anything was good.” The fae had no idea how to show how grateful she actually was. Nodding when he spoke again, work, right humans worked to feed their families. ”You work with him? Like a job?” The femme never had a job before, well unless fighting was a job and she had been beaten up pretty rough her one and only fight. Canines in her world were not nice animals, cruel, vicious and always ready to fight anything. That was what they were taught, how they were raised it was just the way they were. Working sounded interesting, a job, like sniffing out drugs or people, doing things for people and getting rewarded for it. That was simply something the femme had never seen before.

The white male spoke again, yes, she lived alone, with no one. ”It is alright, yes I do live alone.” She hadn’t found a pack of her own. Then again she hadn’t really been looking per say. Most other dogs were cruel then again strays had to be sometimes, it was just the way it was. Everyone was trying to stay alive. ”I understand your curiosity in me, surely I don’t understand you either.” Life without humans in her eyes was better. She didn’t get beaten quite as often and nothing was pulling around her neck or hitting her. So she didn’t get fed as often, though the scar around her muzzle showed that with the wire tied around her mouth she couldn’t eat anyway. That had been a horrible week, though she was stronger now for it.

Thoughts of the past shook from her mind as the femme rolled around in the grass. She loved grass, the way it moved in the wind, the way it smelt when human’s cut it. There were so many good things about grass. It was decently warm out which made the femme happy inside and out. She loved sunshine, warm weather and grass, and to top it off beef, her favourite food. This day was just turning out better and better each moment. It didn’t matter if the beef was cooked or spiced, she could still taste it in her mouth and her tongue still licked up the drool and the beefy flavour.

[Punktestern]

Astro dipped his head, “I’m glad I could do something for you, in exchange for taking the time to talk to a house pet. I’ve known enough dogs that would have run away or refused to talk to our sort.” It was true, too. He was enjoying this exchange, for all it was somewhat awkward.

“Well, I guess one could call it a job. They call it SAR, but it is actually very… well, it’s great fun, actually.” He thought about how he could show her what he meant without her having to come into contact with his humans. He couldn’t think of anything, so he just shrugged it off. There weren’t that many jobs right now, but the season would pick up soon, as the snow in the mountains was melting, causing it to fall on a lot of people that went out there to scramble around.

Astro could not understand how she would live alone, but decided to leave the matter. He couldn’t imagine life without his family, but it must be different if one was raised to hate humans. He resolved to not question the pit bull any further, as it seemed that she had a rough life, and Astro didn’t want to bring up any horrible memories, not when the afternoon was so enjoyable. At least, it was enjoyable for him. He wasn’t too sure about the femme, having never had to understand another dogs’ expression or actions. He hoped he wasn’t boring her, it would be terribly rude of him to do so. He had been raised in a house of impeccable manners, although he slipped up sometimes and was either too direct or too long-winded.

As the female indulged in aw good roll in the grass, Astro had to restrain himself to keep from joining her. He loved rolling, but his family had a fit when he showed up with green fur, and with the show so close, he didn’t want to ruin his chances. This was an important show, after all. It was the show that would decided whether his family would be allowed to stay in their house or not.

[Talon]

Kaiah nodded as the male spoke. ”I have nothing against you I just don’t understand why you love humans.” Honesty was good right? He was being honest so the femme could as well. She had no idea SAR meant search and rescue, but a canine job was odd enough in her mind she let it slide. She wondered what else he did for the humans.

Rolling around for a moment more she stopped and looked at the white male again. ”What else do the humans make you do? Oh sorry, Umm... What else do you do with them?” The femme really didn’t want to sound rude as she looked back at him once again, his proper attitude stunned her and really left her sorry for being rude herself. Simply assuming the humans made him do stuff was rude and she couldn’t believe she was rude to such a kind canine, hopefully it didn’t bother him as much as it might another. This canine did seem pretty reasonable. Copper eyes watched the male still, he wanted to roll but restrained himself, maybe it was a house pet thing, not being able to get dirty. The femme had a hard time understand as it was, so questioning him further on the humans seemed useless.

Not being able to understand why this canine even wanted humans. They must have fed him excellent food, obviously kept his coat clean, but what did they do for him besides that? He called them his pack; the thought of a pack brought a bit of jealousy over the blue brindle femme. Maybe humans wanted her, she was a pure bred canine, but she had not seen many of her kind around. The pit bull seemed like something a lot of humans didn’t keep, females were smaller, and maybe that was a plus? No, she couldn’t look at humans that way. Human’s were cruel creatures and didn’t care. That view could never change; she could never fall into a human’s arms again. Getting beaten and tied up was not of any interest to her. She saw those other canines, walking around on those ropes not allowed to do anything but walk beside their humans. Half of them were not even allowed to look at other canines and Astro had admitted already that the humans didn’t like him talking to other dogs. Kaiah liked to be free to do as she pleased, even if most other canines and their humans terrified her. Strays were a bit different for sure, not always so nice.

[Punktestern]

Astro nodded. He was glad that she didn’t have anything against him, and of course she wouldn’t understand. From what she had told him, humans had only hurt her and commanded her around. He could also understand that she wouldn’t she wouldn’t know what he did, what he called a job. That was a partnership, not with the human leading. The human asked for a dog to lead them to another person, and the dog did it, to help save the other person.

As she asked him about what else the humans made him do and then corrected herself, he grinned a little bit, “No, it’s all fine. My life with them is more of a partnership… Um, like when two dogs work together to hunt or so.” He tried to make an analogy that she would understand, but then regretted the attempt. She probably wouldn’t know that either. She seemed to work alone, he chided himself. Trying to cover the awkward moment, he continued, “Well, they take me to a ring, and then I walk around with some other dogs, and a person looks in my mouth and at my legs, and sometimes they hang a ribbon around my neck. The humans call this a show.”

To explain his not rolling, he continued, “I have a show coming up, actually. They,” he nodded towards his family, “probably wouldn’t like it if I turned my fur green. Grass is so hard to clean off.”

He shot another look towards his family, but they had all finished their food and were now dozing around in the sunlight. He looked back to the brindled dog, gauging her expression. Was he boring her, or was she just thinking about how his life was? He didn’t know himself, and so decided to ask another question, “So humans abused you? I can’t think of my family ever doing anything like that.” He thought about it, “Maybe there are good and bad humans, like there are good and bad dogs?” He was defending his family, he knew that. He didn’t want the pit bull to think they were the kind of people that abused dogs.