This Dog's Life, River Cities Tribune, Marble Falls

He was fourth. Before he came out two brothers and one sister entered the world before him. After him one more sister made her way into the world.

The little puppy squirmed around as his mother, a German shepherd and Rottweiler cross, licked him clean. Her tongue tugged at his ears. He struggled to get away from the giant wet tongue at first, but after the first few strokes found it refreshing and comforting.

The little puppy was greeted into the world by a plethora of smells and sounds. His littermates and he tried to struggle with all the new sounds. Something barked a little ways off in the distance. The puppy instinctively snapped his head in that direction but couldn’t see anything. It would still be a few days before he could fully make out the shapes and sights.

The puppy was depending fully on his mother to take care of him. She would gently push the puppies in the right direction when it was time to nurse.

As his senses came fully in tune, the little puppy began making out the things around him. His home was a small wooden structure with a big opening at one end where the sun glared through and warmed during the day. Hay covered the ground of the little house and scratched the puppy’s nose.

He and his littermates spent most of their days wrestling and tugging on each other.

As the days passed the puppies ventured further from the house and their mother, checking out everything. A big calico cat sat on a low window pane at a nearby house surveying the bundles of fur. If they got too close, the cat hissed at them.

This usually brought out the mother dog, who gave the cat a low, menacing growl.

The days turned into weeks and the puppies put on size and weight. The third-born pup had black fur with a tan underbelly. His face was black except for two patches of tan around his eyes. The small boy who came out and fed the puppies in the evening would call this puppy – Coon dog.

One day a man came out to the little dog house. He carried a large box. The man pushed the mother dog out of the way and grabbed up each of the puppies by the neck and tossed them into the box.

Coon dog could hear his mother barking as the man carried them off. He and his siblings whined and yapped for their mother. But it didn’t seem to matter to the man, who tossed the box into the back of his pickup.

The puppies bounced along in the bed of the truck until it came to a stop. The man picked the box out of the truck. It was dark now.

Then he turned the box upside down and shook the puppies out of the box. The puppies, including Coon dog clamored after the man but he hopped into the truck and just drove off.

The puppies huddled together, whimpering in the dark.

They stayed near that spot chasing after cars driving by but none stopped and took them home. Finally a woman in a blue car stopped and gathered up the puppies. She placed them in the back of the car and drove off. Coon dog and his siblings jumped over each other trying to draw the woman’s attention.

The car came to a stop and the woman got out after awhile. Coon dog waited. They all whimpered a little more. Finally the woman returned with another person. They gathered up the puppies.

Coon dog and his littermates licked and snuggled up to the people the best they could. The people petted the puppies and made soothing sounds. Then they put the puppies in different cages. Coon dog shared one with his brother.

Over the next several weeks, other people came in and looked at all the puppies along with several other bigger dogs. Coon dog watched as some people took several of his siblings. But nobody took Coon dog. They only stuck their fingers through the cage and tickled his ears.

Then one day one of the people who saw Coon dog every day opened his cage and picked him up. Coon dog spun around and tried to lick the person’s hands. The person just put her other hand over his head and kept walking.

The person set Coon dog down on a table in a room. It was a cold room. Another person came in and moved around the room taking some things out of a cabinet. The first person said a few things to the other person and then picked Coon dog up.

The second person rubbed Coon dog’s head. This person then took something and poked it into Coon dog’s leg. He yelped a bit but the pain was only momentary The person holding Coon dog stroked his fur. He turned and looked at the person holding him. But suddenly he felt very tired.

His eyes grew heavy and he tried to keep them open but he couldn’t. So Coon dog just shut his eyes.

The last thing he saw was a tear rolling down the face of the person holding him and stroking his fur.