THE CUR: Sent
Follows The Cur, Vin's Dog, Lucky and Fallen Angel.
Ok, it's remotely possible I made a few mistakes along the way. But He could have given me better instructions. I mean, long hair, He said, long hair. He didn't say what color, or anything else, just the one with long hair. Lucky for me I ran into one of the good guys before coming across some loser with long hair. Lucky for him, I guess. The good guy, I mean.
He could have dropped me a little closer to the target, too. It was quite a walk from the hills to town, some pretty big, mean looking critters out there, and then I had to check out each building along the way. Some of them had some pretty good smells to them, too. It was a nice day for a walk, real pretty and just the end of spring, beginning of summer, but He didn't give me a lot of energy to get there. I saw him right away, sorta gave him the once over, then kept moving along, because I wanted to be sure I got the right one.
I went back to him later. Turns out we're alike in some ways. He's quiet, I'm quiet, not a yappy type mutt like some are. I figure, keep your mouth shut and look sad. Always worked for me. Seems to work for him. I'm not sure that it's an act with him, though.
We spent a lot of mornings together, sitting out front of that place they all seem to hang out. The really big man was pretty nice, so was the dark colored man. Not pushy, like the other long haired one. The one I was "supposed" to have come for. The man with the hairy face was too busy with the ladies to notice me much, and the man who was mine's friend was kinda scary. The fancy dresser hardly came out of the noisy place, so I don't know him at all. He did call me Ginger a few times. Nice try, but noooooo thanks. Ginger! Really! Get some dignity, man!
I had to get out of there when a lot of people started coming around. It was just too loud and people kept coming up wanting to pet me. I didn't like that much. Never had a whole lotta that in my life, and I've done ok. I'd keep an eye on him from wherever I was. Wasn't too hard, because he seemed to like to get away from people, too. Guess he doesn't like getting petted and baby talked to all the time, either. I could follow him wherever he went. He smelled great and was easy to track.
I didn't like to get too far away from town, you would not believe how big some of those wild dogs are! And rabbits are a lot faster than they look. Plenty of those people in town gave me scraps to eat, some better than others, so I stuck pretty close.
I did follow the two long hairs out one day, mine and the pushy one. The pushy one was nice, always looking out for me, called me Lucky (hey, it was better than Ginger) and I guess if I had known he was the one I was after, we'd have done alright together. But mine was just, well, mine.
We went to this nice, quiet house with a nice older lady at it. She fed me very well. She fed us all very well. The two long hairs made a lot of noise from the top of the barn (one of my all time favorite places to hang around, a barn) and then came down and we played for a long time. It was fun, and we chased this bird around, and it was squalking and squeaking and making noise that just made me crazy, and I jumped in to help mine catch it and then everybody got quiet. Real quiet. Well, as a dog, I know that most times when people get quiet like that, they're not happy. But the older lady came over and they talked and everybody kind of smiled and nobody got hit. So that was good. I guess they did want to catch that noisy bird after all, because I didn't get in any trouble.
This one morning, it was right before the sun made the sky light, mine was sitting on his chair and I was laying there, just enjoying the quiet, just the two of us and he got up and came over and sat down at the edge of the wood part, didn't say anything, and I got up and went over and leaned up against him. He put his hand on my head, and we sat there together and it was nice. He was looking out away from the noisy place, and I thought we were going somewhere, but it turns out we were already there.
It was a good summer.
Then some trouble came. I think the trouble was why I came. There was a lot of noise, loud noise, and mine fell down and didn't get up. I wished he'd just get up by himself, but finally I went over there and licked him and whined a little bit (just a little, I'm not whiney, really, I'm not) and he looked at me funny. Well, it kinda scared me the way he looked at me, so I lay down close to him, because he was starting to get cold and I just hate being cold. And then there was this man came up to him and I knew he was going to do something bad to mine, so I growled to warn him and he shoulda just backed off right then. But he didn't, some man people are just stupid, so I bit him and he just kept right on being mean and I bit him again and again and then there was more loud noise and the scary man came but I was glad and then the big man picked me up and carried me away from mine.
I didn't see mine again, but He said I did real well, considering I had the wrong long hair from the beginning. I'm telling you, He needs to be more specific when he sends us to do these jobs for him.
So, anyway, the big man carried me away and held me and then took me up to a quiet spot where there weren't any big mean wild animals and I could see town from there and he left me. He said I was a fallen angel.
Really! Fallen angel! I didn't fall anywhere, I was sent!
END
Next story: Ginger