BLUE GENTLY SET THE PUPPIES DOWN.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you! “ they yipped. “We love you, you’re our friend.” Eager to please, they licked her snout, their tiny tails wagging back and forth. One was a female, a black lab with a small patch of white on her ear. The other, a yellow male with oversized paws, seemed to glow with excitement.
Blue shifted her paws uncomfortably. She wasn’t used to enthusiastic pups. For a moment she thought, Maybe I can just leave them. But she knew she couldn’t just walk away.
She sighed. “Yeah, sure, whatever,” she said, as she tried to get them out from under her legs, and herded them into the back of her den. Safe, the puppies fell asleep almost immediately.
In the morning, they woke her up by licking her nose and eyes.
“We’re hungry, hungry, hungry!”
Blue rolled her eyes. But her own stomach was growling too, so she crawled out of the den to survey what might be available. The puppies wobbled after her.
Their first target: two boys eating burgers. Blue contemplated for a moment. “Maybe I should leave them with the boys. Boys like puppies, right?” She shook the idea out of her head as she watched the boys stabbing bugs with abandoned wire hangers.
Instead, Blue slowly stalked the boys, building up foam around her mouth before she leaped out, looking fierce and terrifying, using “Rabies” again.
Surprised, they dropped their burgers and ran. Blue picked the burgers up, and dropped one in front of the puppies, who had been following behind her. The golden lab momentarily left it alone.
Spoiled brat. Blue started to growl. Both puppies only wanted to play, jumping and leaping on each other and Blue. In the midst of the play, one of them nipped her hard with sharp puppy teeth.
“Ow! You worthless ca-!” Blue cut herself off. Don’t curse in front of the pups.
“Okay…both of you come here.” The pups sat down, their floppy ears perked. “Let’s get some things straight. Don’t jump. Don’t talk. Don’t touch. Don’t laugh. And don’t bite.”
The puppies cocked their heads, trying to pay attention. It didn’t last long, and within seconds, one was biting the tail of the other, and they each started pushing around a tin can on the pavement. Blue let out another long sigh. “You know what? Never mind.”
Later, herding them together, she tried a different tactic.
“What are your names?”
“What’s a name?” the golden one yipped.
Blue rolled her eyes again. These pups are idiots.
“Okay, you have a name. You have a mother,” she said in irritation. “You need to find her and annoy her instead.” At her wit’s end, she started pushing them down the alley with her snout. “Now go. I’ve given you food, get on home.”
After nudging them to the sidewalk, she turned around to catch a nap in her den.
The puppies trotted behind her. She glared at them. The golden puppy realized Blue wasn’t playing.
“Please don’t leave us right now,” he whined. “We don’t know where our mother is.”
“Fine,” Blue said. “Just don’t annoy me.”
Maybe their mother will come looking for them today. I’ll stick it out with them just a few more hours.
Besides, as she watched them play with old potatoes and other trash from the alley, they were—well, cute. Okay, they were really cute.
As dusk approached, Blue realized that no one was coming for them. They, like her, were without a mom—alone. But she knew she was in no position to take care of two curious, careless babies in this world. Sadly, she knew reality would harden them soon.
However, watching them some more, her heart softened. She decided to take on this burden. But the moment they could care for themselves, they would have to go.
The three slept well that night, cuddled together, warm and happy.
The next morning, everyone was in a good mood. Blue maked sure the puppies understood their “territory,” and went off to find food.
She came back, excited. Today, the coffee shop had dumped a bunch of gluten-free breakfast sandwiches in its dumpster. Apparently humans didn’t love them as much as the shop owners thought they would.
As she turned the corner to the alley, she happily barked, “Come here, fleabags! I’ve got food!”
She found them frozen in fear.
A mere foot away from them was a Mastiff on her turf. One she had never seen before.
He was missing an eye, with only a torn socket in its place, and had scars on his neck.
“Pups, run,” snarled Blue.
The pups ran toward their den. Before Blue could give any more orders, the Mastiff charged her, slamming her to the pavement. She bit hard into the Mastiff’s shoulder. She heard the puppies snarling and biting his legs with their sharp puppy teeth.
“Get off of me,” the Mastiff howled before grabbing the black lab by the scruff and throwing her into the wall.
The puppy whimpered once, fell to the ground, and did not get up.
Something snapped in Blue. “Why, you CAT! I’ll take out that other eye, you ONE-EYED CAT BRAIN!”
She felt a strange tingling in her muscles, as if every fiber of her being had suddenly come alive with power and strength.
Blue shoved him into the wall with an ease that startled her, slamming him with such force that the concrete began to crack.
Blue relaxed her grip, allowing the Mastiff to fall unconscious and limp to the ground.
She ran over to the pup still lying motionless on the ground. “Please don’t die, don’t die, don’t die.”
The pup turned her head toward Blue, and looked up at her, quiet and calm. She nuzzled Blue before sighing, and slowly closing her eyes.
Blue howled in rage. The golden lab, confused, tried to comfort her. “She’s just tired, and taking a nap,” he said with big-eyed innocence.
“No, no, no! How can you be so stupid?” Blue snarled at him, before realizing he could not be expected to understand what had happened. She turned away briefly to regain her composure, and to try again. The male puppy now retreated in fear.
Blue softly called the puppy back. She and the puppy then found an abandoned coat near a dumpster, which she gently wrapped around the black puppy. Then she slid the wool coat into a brick alcove—hidden from the world, and safe from wind, rain, and the cold. It was peaceful and serene. It was the best she could do.
She called the golden lab over to her.
“I’m calling you Max,” she said.
Looking down at the still body of his sister, tucked safely in the folds of wool, she said sadly, “And I’ll call you Destiny.”