Once the pack got used to me, I was able to visit with Shadow through the wires of the cage. It didn’t upset the other dogs for him to be near me so he slept by my cage for comfort.
“I’m sorry, boy, we’re going to get out of this, don’t you worry. We’re smart, we’ll find our break and we’ll make use of it.”
“Why do you talk to that dog?” Marissa asked wearily.
“Because he’s mine. Stern stole him from me, hoping I’d go after him. I didn’t, but he managed to get me anyway. He’s a smart dog. He sits, lays down, stands up, fetches, jumps hurdles. He can do lots of things.”
“At least he’s nice. Do you think Teague will make him mean?”
“No, I don’t think Shadow has a mean bone in his body. If anything the treatment will just make him fearful. He’s already become fearful living with the other dogs picking on him.”
I shared my dog food with Shadow since he wasn’t getting his share when the pack fed. I’d tell him to sit and then I’d toss the kibbles through the holes in the wall and he’d catch them one at a time. He was a good catch. I tossed them gently so they would always land within reach.
During the day Stern came to the barn and worked with the dogs. Sometimes he placed the pack in cages and then brought out two veteran fighters. He would sic the two dogs on each other and watch them fight, taking notes of their injuries and tactics as if he was planning a big fight, matching up opponents. Sometimes he wore the padding and would enter the ring with a chosen dog and shock it until it attacked him in a rage. He seemed to want the dogs to hate him. The more they hated him, the more he would dote on them, punish them and shock them. A hate-filled dog only meant money to him.
After each work session with the dogs he approached me and asked, “Are you ready? Come on Cassidy, show me what you’ve got.”
“No.” I almost said stick it, but then I thought he’d take it literally and I’d be in even more trouble.
“It’s just a little thing.”
“So why would you want to see it?” I asked sarcastically.
The conversation varied a little. The results of my refusal varied a lot depending on his mood and how well the dogs had preformed. I now understood how Marissa felt when she tried to straighten up. A couple of times I had been jerked from the cage and shoved up against the wall. Stern’s anger was unpredictable. A simple no could result in a fist to the face. Once I ducked and he slammed his fist into the wall of the barn. That earned me a fist to the stomach.
Another day, after Stern had been in the pit with two veteran fighters, he had a hard time returning the dogs to their cages. He had a pole with a loop on the end for moving the dogs from place to place without being bitten, but the dog charged him and he wrestled it down the row of cages. After Stern left I finally saw it, my break! The scuffle must have uncovered it. In the dirt of the floor a short screwdriver with a yellow handle was half buried. If only I could reach that tool, I could free myself! That night I called Shadow quietly to my cage.
“Shadow, come. Come boy! Good Shadow, good come! Now jump! Come on jump UP! GO UP! Come on boy, what a good dog! Shadow JUMP!” He paced nervously, whining, looking at me, wanting to obey but frightened to do so. Finally, he tensed nervously and then, to my great relief, jumped and hauled himself unsteadily onto the top of my cage. He didn’t like being up off the ground. The chain link was hard to walk on and then Tyson went nuts lunging and barking. That scared Shadow. “Good boy! Now walk! Walk, Shadow! Good boy!” He tried to bolt but his feet kept falling through the chain link. He struggled to get his leg loose, then walked unsteadily and fearfully across the roof of my cage and jumped down into the walkway. Yes! “Good BOY! What a good dog! Good Walk! Now, get the tool! Get the tool boy, good tool. Go get it!” Shadow started looking around on the ground for a tool. He found the screwdriver but he couldn’t pick it up because it was buried in the dirt. He scratched at it, and then stepped on the tip lifting the handle out of the dirt. He picked it up and carried it to my cage. Yes! Yes! I had a tool! I reached through the wires and took the screwdriver, then went to work on the wires of my cage. They were thick and bent slowly. I worked feverishly while trying to hide my progress from Stern. When I heard a noise I would hide the screwdriver, sliding it down my sock and under the leg of my pants.
In the morning when Stern came to feed us Shadow was sleeping by my gate.
“Cassidy, how’d your dog get loose?” he grabbed Shadow by the scruff of the neck.
“Leave him alone! He only wanted to be with me. You hurt him and I’ll, I’ll…” I didn’t know what I’d do, but it wouldn’t be nice.
He released Shadow, opened my cage and dragged me out. “Come on Cassidy. Why do you have to be so hard headed? I’m not asking much. Show me.”
“You’ll get nothing out of me!” I replied. “You can do what you want to me, but I will not strip for you!”
Shadow started bounding around us happy to be free. Stern grabbed him and shoved him into my cage, slamming the door shut. Tyson and Brutus went nuts, lunging and snapping at the walls of the cage. Shadow paced frantically, looking for an escape.
“I can do what I want? You don’t know what I am capable of or you wouldn’t tell me that. Come here.” He grabbed me by the arm and hauled me around to the gate of the pit. He put padding on my arms and legs, none on my torso, then he shoved me through the gate. The pack charged across the arena snarling, lunging, working themselves into a frenzy. I was glad they were just rookies, mostly attacking the padding. I blocked and kicked at them, anything to keep them away from my sides and face. A large dog lunged and knocked me over and I cowered as they went for my face, hiding in the padding as they jumped all over me, yanking my hair and tugging at the padding on my arms. Stern laughed. When he thought I’d had enough he yelled at the dogs, then waded in with the cattle prod forcing them to back off. He hauled me out of the pit and removed the pads from my arms.
“I can do anything I want. And I’d rather be nice to you so, now, Cassidy, show me.”
I looked him straight in the eye and said, “No.”
He removed the padding from my legs and the screwdriver fell to the ground.
“Where’d you get this?” he accused.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied.
He backhanded me. “You lying bitch, where did you get this?”
He snatched the screwdriver from the floor and I started backing away. He raised the screwdriver like he was going to stab me with it but I dodged around him and made a dash for the door. He threw the screwdriver at me, hitting me on the head. I grabbed the doorknob, but it was locked. Stern grabbed me and spun me around, but I planted a fist right into his nose then stomped his instep. His eyes narrowed and he dragged me off tossing me into a different cage. I lay there shaken, no food, no Shadow, no water, no screwdriver, just two more angry dogs and a furious Stern.