To Raise Dogs

“How can you be so calm?” The young pit bull looked up at his companion, a sable German Shepherd. He bowed his head, wincing and pulling his ears tight to his skull. “I wish this rain would stop.”
“How can you be so worried, dear?” She replied, plopping onto her side. “The noise wouldn’t be so bad if you weren’t under that bush.”
He gazed toward the ground, bracing against the sounds of rain beating down on leaves.
“Sshhh. Listen. There, did you hear that?” The shepherd sat up, supporting herself on her one remaining foreleg. “There it is again.”
“Ugh, I can’t hear anything over this rain.” He pressed himself against the bush.
The shepherd stood up, pressing her ears forward toward the sound. A coyote appeared from the trees, its head hung low, examining the strangers.
The pit crawled from under the bush to the shepherd’s side. The coyote looked similar to his companion, almost a lankier lighter colored version of her. Funny looking shepherd. “Hey, how are you? I’m Pig and my stoic friend here is Raven.” He jogged up to the animal. He was halfway to it when it lunged at him.
The shepherd leapt over the pit and grabbed the coyote by the rough of its neck, hurling it into the air and slamming it to the ground. The iron rich taste of its blood filled her mouth and she released it.
“What did you do that for?” Pig inquired.
“He attacked you. It’s OK now.” Raven hopped to Pig, licking his cheeks. “There now, it’s fine.”
“He was fine! You think everything is dangerous. Like that kid that came over to play with us.”
“The one that opened the gate? He was dangerous.”
“He just wanted to play! What do you think he could have done?”
“I don’t know what his intentions were, just that they were bad. Adrienne locked the gate after that.”
================================================================================
Raven lay in the thick grass, taking in the light breeze and sunshine. Pig lay a few feet away, chewing a stick.
“Someone’s here.” Raven leapt up and hopped several paces toward the gate.
“I didn’t hear any….It’s a kid! Looks like he wants to play!”
A child looking to be about 11 years old unlatched the fence gate and opened it as wide as it would go. He held out a small morsel of food and walked away, toward the street.
“I told you so! Let’s go! Ow!”
Raven nipped Pig on the rear leg. “Don’t go. He’s not right…”
“Whatever.” Pig ran through gate toward the boy.
“Adrienne! Adrienne, get out here! Boy, go away! Pig, you idiot, get back here!” Raven barked.
“Look at all the fun we’re having! Are you really not coming out?” The boy leaned over to hand the pit the food in his hand.
“Don’t eat that!” Raven yelled from the yard. A door opened, Adrienne looked out of the house at Raven. “Adrienne, quick, look what Pig is doing!”
Adrienne stepped out of the house and walked to Raven, following her gaze. Her eyes widened at the sight of Pig leaping around the boy who had opened the gate. She ran to grab the dog’s collar and made noises that could only be the human version of growling. The boy ran to an old van parked on the curb and leapt in the back. The van peeled away, fan belt squealing. Adrienne brought Pig back in the yard, closed the gate and kneeled by Raven. She let Pig go and scratched Raven behind the ears and under her jaw. Her hands smelled of dust and cardboard. Later that evening, Adrienne placed a chain and lock around the gate’s latch.

====================================================================================
Adrienne Clark stepped back into clutter of boxes and piled junk that currently defined her home. She grabbed her phone off the kitchen counter and pressed the first number that appeared.
“Grab a lock while you’re out, someone just tried to steal our dogs!”
“Calm down, start over, what happened?”
“I was just starting on the kitchen when I heard my dog barking, a serious bark, not just ‘Oh look a person,’ but a ‘hey, there’s something bad out here’ bark. So, I go out there and she’s standing there with her head lowered like she’s stalking something, but her nose is outside the gate; it’s open. I walk out there to see what she’s looking at and there’s your dog, Pig, dancing around some boy like an idiot. He had to have let them out. I went out there and grabbed Pig and the kid ran off. I think I’ve seen him around here before, but I’m not sure. He wouldn’t give me his information to call his parents.”
“That’s not good. I’ll grab a lock. We have a chain in the garage already. I’d heard there was a group letting dogs out. Apparently one, usually a kid, will walk around and release the dogs and someone else will drive around playing dog catcher. Supposedly, they’re collecting them for dog fighting rings.”
“I guess a cowardly pit bull and a crippled German Shepherd look like good bait dogs.” Adrienne sighed. “Thanks, Carl. I wish I could let them in, but Pig would just stay under my feet or jump on the furniture while I’m not looking.”
“Yeah, it sucks, but we need to pack. Just be keeping a close eye, he probably won’t return anyway. I’m about to check out, I’ll see you soon. Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
“Bye.”
“Bye.”
Adrienne was now standing in the living room, staring at a framed certificate that read

THE AMERICAN KENNEL CLUB
This certifies that
RAVEN
owned by
Adrienne Tanner
successfully passed the Canine Good Citizen Test

"Thank goodness my baby girl is with it or they'd both be goners." Adrienne walked back to the kitchen and placed the phone where it had been earlier. She looked at the stack of empty boxes designated to be filled with the kitchen appliances. She picked the phone back up and set a timer for thirty minutes.
=============================================================
“We’ll move when the rain stops, yes.”
“You don’t want to wait? I mean, that’s what you’ve always suggested before. You’ve never liked tracking Adrienne when she leaves us.”
“This is different, she doesn’t know where we are. We’ll find her.”
“I’m not so sure; we don’t even know where to start.” Pig paused for a moment. “I miss home.”
“Get some rest.”
“It’s impossible to sleep with all this noise,” Pig whimpered. He looked up to see Raven stretched out by the bush, eyes closed. The rain grew lighter and Pig slept, visions of plastic boxes and speeding cars tormented his sleeping mind. One of the cars honked, startling him awake.
“Wake up!” Raven’s eyes gleamed gold in the afternoon light. Her top coat was partially dried from the morning rain. Pig yawned and tried to shake the water from his thin fur, but he was still drenched to the skin.
“I’m so hungry…” Pig grunted.
“Breakfast was served last night. Hurry so we can get going.”
“Ugh, you don’t mean…”
“The same.”
Pig glanced at the corpse of what he had hoped would be a friend. “I’ll pass.”
“Then let’s get going.” Raven hopped into a speedy trot.