Every person has a story.  So does every dog…

Socialization

Snuggling against my mother’s warm body felt safe. My five littermates squirmed close by.  In the distance, I heard a human voice for the first time and I delighted in the kind caress that the human hand extended. The outstretched human finger softly stroked under my fuzzy chin.

“You’re going to be a strong , healthy pup” it said. I sensed the sound coming from the human was good. I felt safe.

I was getting bigger now and my eyes could focus on my surroundings. As I peeked out of my big box, I wagged my tail when I saw human approach. Two big hands reached toward me and lifted me into the air. I knew those kind secure hands by heart now. They never hurt me.

I felt suction with a sound on the top of my head (kiss) followed by a warm soft voice. Every day, new humans touched my furry head, tried to cuddle my squirmy body and made funny little human sounds. I liked humans!

Food and Water

Weeks passed and my tummy rumbled a lot because I was growing so fast. The humans now put down pans of food three times a day. My littermates and I always scrambled to the pan, bumping and shoving each other for the best spot. Life was fun. I played, explored, learned, competed and chewed on….ummmm….everything!

One day, a lot of humans visited our home and my littermates slowly started disappearing and I missed them.  I searched for them everywhere but they never came back.  The following morning, I decided to search for them so I squeeeeeeeeezed under the gate and escaped into a vast area of rock and tall weeds.

Wow! Freedom!  I had not seen anything like this before. I trotted up a hill, jumped into a puddle (slurp  slurp   slurp), rolled down a hill, jumped over a big rock, squeezed between tiny places, and ran some more. There was so much to see and HEAR. As I trotted and trotted, my tummy started grumbling (chomp, chomped on some flowers). I was hungry and ….. where was  I?

OH NO!  Nothing looked familiar! I started getting scared as the sun started to set. It was getting dark. It was getting cold.  I was alone…

©Woof and me

 

Identification

The next morning, I felt the warmth of the sun on my back as my eyes slowly opened. Human touch stroked my back.

“Good morning!” The new human spoke and I thought the words were kind. Then he lifted me up off the ground and tucked me into a soft place next to his beating heart. I felt warm. I peeked out from the warm jacket and bounced to the rhythm of his walk for a long, long time.

We finally walked into a little house and the human reached into the jacket and pulled me out, sat me on the kitchen floor and opened a can of food. I wiggled with excitement and my insides felt warm with the welcomed food . I drank the water the human put down too.

The new human made those funny little kind sounds. “Hey buddy!  It’s going to be hard to find out who you belong to since you don’t have any  identification!”

I just wagged my tail really, really fast!  Is this my new home?

Just then I heard a scary sound. “HHHHIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSsssss”.  My body tingled with fear… What was that sound?

©Woof and me

 

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