Dogs Best Friend

Dogs Best Friend
Renee Miller


The dog lay shivering on the cold hard ground. A too tight leather collar cut deeply into his thin neck.  The snow began to fall faster and heavier while he gazed longingly at the dirty, empty dishes tossed into the corner of the pen.  He looked towards the dark house expectantly; he never gave up hope.  Perhaps tonight? It had been so very long since he had any food or water. He wondered why the human had deserted him, what had he done to deserve this?

He thought about the place where he lived before this one. The humans were kind there and he was always warm and dry. His stomach didn't cramp with pain from being empty and his throat wasn't parched. He remembered the day this human came and took him away.  He heard words that he didn't understand.

"You will give him a good home Mr...,?"  "Oh, just Ben is fine Ma'am, of course I'll give the big fellow a good home. I been wantin' me a nice big dog like him for years now. Hard to find someone givin one away, most folks charge for 'um."  "Well, we just want him to go to a good home you know. We had no idea that he would get so big when we bought him for Amy. We're going to get her a nice little dog this time, one she can pick up and carry."

"Well, yes Ma'am, that'll be real nice for the little girl."

The new human had clipped a leash to the dog's collar and taken him to his truck. The dog remembered looking out of the window as the house became smaller and smaller then finally disappeared from sight.

The Ben human had brought him here, to this place.

The dog knew that he had a name at the other place, he tried to remember it.  Duke?  Yes, Duke that was it, Ben had never called him by a name. There had only been blows and savage jerks to the collar that was left around his neck but at least then there had been food and water.

Then one night Ben took Duke to another place. A horrible place.  It was bright and hot and loud.  When they walked in Duke had backed up, the smell..., it frightened Duke.  He refused to enter this bad place.  But Ben only hit him on the back with the ever-present stick then dragged him over to the ring.  It was even hotter under the lights, humans yelled at each other and at other dogs.  As Ben released Duke and left the ring another dog was released. The dog immediately attacked, his teeth cut Duke’s tender ears and left bloody trails down his back.  Duke retreated to a corner and cowered. 

It finally was over in what seemed to be an eternity to Duke. Finally Ben came and dragged him out of the ring, threw him into the back of the truck, then he was thrown here.

There had been no food or water from Ben since then.  Duke dug a hole in the hard dirt and it collected some water when it rained; the hole was now dry and empty. Some neighbors had thrown meat scraps in to Duke a few times but they were now gone.

Duke looked again towards the house.  He wished the pain in his stomach would stop. He wondered again what he had done. 

Suddenly he felt a hand on his head. A soft voice whispered to him.  "Hello Boy, I'm here.  No more pain for you, you're going home, you’ll be safe and happy.  I’ll take care of you."

The leather collar that had been cutting so cruelly into his neck came apart in her hands.  It felt so wonderful to be free of it.  She put a bowl on the ground in front of him and filled it with water from a bottle. Duke drank quickly; nothing had ever tasted so good!  A bowl filled with soft warm food next appeared and Duke ate voraciously.  He vaguely wondered why he had not sensed this human and why she had no scent.  He wondered how she came to be inside the pen without opening the padlocked gate. He didn't understand these things but they did not really matter to him.

The female covered him with a warm blanket and started to pick him up.  Suddenly Duke heard the door to the house slam and he began to tremble.  Ben was coming.

"What the hell?"  Ben slammed open the gate. "You mind telling me just what the hell you think you’re doin bitch?"

The woman simply stared back at Ben turning her head slightly to one side as though she were considering something.  She was young, small of stature and very slender, Ben noticed that she seemed unusually pale.

The full moon shown down on her face and made her eyes appear luminous, to almost glow. "I would think that a better question would be, what the hell are you doing to this dog?" Her voice was low and angry.

Ben laughed and spit towards the woman's feet.  He leaned on the gate and sneered. "Well now, if it's any of your damn business Miss Smart Ass, I'm gonna see how long it takes to starve this dog to death.  The piece of shit cost me a whole lot of money in lost bets and a big chunk of my pride so I just don't feel much like feedin him.  Hey, if he can find some food on his own, let him eat it, survival of the fittest ya know?  So you go on and get your little ass off of my property right now and maybe, just maybe, I’ll let you leave without beatin some sense into you."

Ben was surprised at the woman's reaction or perhaps lack of reaction was a better description since she merely smiled sweetly. "Really, is that so.  Well sir, I must say I am very, very frightened."

At her blatantly sarcastic words Ben reddened, "Fine Bitch, you had your chance..." He moved toward her carrying the stick he used to beat Duke.

She was on him instantly, the stick easily thrown off to the side.  His large body hit the ground hard and his head connected with a shard of broken cement stunning him.  The pain from the impact drew a sharp gasp from him. He lay flat on his back gasping for breath while she straddled him almost crushing his ribs with in-humanly-strong legs.  She held both of his arms over his head with one small hand, while she gently stroked his face with the other.

‘How can such a small woman possibly be so strong?’  He stared up at her and his terror mounted when he noticed her eyes.  It wasn’t the reflection of the moon at all; they glowed from within with unearthly golden fire.  When she smiled down at him he saw the horrible sharp fangs and his eyes went wide with shock and horror as realization began to fill him and Ben began to whimper.

"Aww, hush now sweetie, I promise, it’ll all be over in a minute.  Boy, I sure wish I had more time to make you suffer for what you’ve done to that animal you bastard, but you see,” she nodded toward Duke, “we've got to get home now."  She paused briefly and cocked her head to one side considering him then grinned, “Hmmm, looks like I found me some food now doesn’t it?  Survival of the fittest ya know.”  With that she leaned down toward his neck.

The last thing Ben saw before the fangs ripped painfully into his throat was Duke watching the scene with soft curious eyes from a corner of the pen.  Ben screamed out in agony, and then there was silence.

Duke stood up and wagged his tail.