The family brought me a beautiful red collar and a thick leash. After papers were signed at a tall counter we left. I now had a family. I got to ride in a car that was not cold. In the back seat I sat tall and proud next to the baby. The man and woman in the front seat could not see her face because of the position of the large plastic safety seat. She faced me and through the mountain passes, across the Sacramento Valley and over the Bay Bridge, I watched her all the way home.
My new home was better than anything I could have conceived. I had a big fluffy dog bed in every room. Each day began and ended with a walk. When the baby was not in a bundle, she was in a stroller and I got to walk beside the stroller down busy streets in the City. Everyday I felt a stronger bond with my new family, they were mine.
The baby soon started spending time on the floor near me. She crawled. It was fun to watch. Sometimes she would crawl over to me and I would lick her face, she giggled.
Walking was next, as she walked, I knew I had to protect her. I followed her like a shadow. My new job made me nervous. One day I accidentally knocked the baby over, she cried and the woman of the family yelled. I ran back to my favorite bed. I tried again the next day, following the baby to make sure she was not in danger. Again I knocked her over, again I was scolded.
The next morning I listened to the man and woman talk. They were drinking coffee at the kitchen table and I was laying underneath. The baby was still asleep.
"You need to take her back," were the ugly words I heard.
"You love this dog!" The man said.
"The dog is going to hurt the baby, she has knocked her over at least twice, what if she knocks her own the stairs?"
I heard nothing else. I shut down. Soon I was in the car. Me and the woman, no baby to watch over. Quietly, we rode over the bridge, across the valley and over the mountains and back to the cold place where nobody heard my bark.
I no longer had a home.
Read: Chapter 3
