STRAYS

They watched the chocolate drip down past the stick and onto her hand. When the girl stretched her neck and picked it up with her tongue, they collectively gulped. It was just 1:30pm, but they felt a day’s worth of stress.

They’d tried hiding under cartons and garbage bins in the alleyway but that had done nothing to keep them cool, instead, it made it even worse for them to cope with the heat.

The city was famed for the sweltering heat during this time of the year. It was a stark contrast to what the strays were used to in the outskirts. The temperature there was usually milder this time of the year, but the trade-off was a drastic reduction in the food supply.

A majority of strays resided in the outskirts of the city, but from time to time they came to the city to give life there a go. Many a stray had hit it big in the city, and they all hoped that fortune would smile on them. They just had to be in the right place at the right time, and all their dreams would come true. If, however, they happened to find themselves in the wrong place, and the wrong time, they would spend an indefinite number of days at the dog pound. There were many stories about life at the dog pound constantly spreading around the alleyways of the city, none of them were pleasant.

Since the alleyways were unbearable, they turned to the sidewalk for respite. The humans were also having a hard time staying indoors, the population of people sitting under umbrellas outside the restaurants that lined the sidewalk were more than double the usual number. A stray would know. They depended on the occupants of the umbrellas for a decent meal, and if they chose to show no mercy, it was back to the garbage bins to search for scraps. 

“Sometimes I can’t help but wish I was a human,” Woof said, thinking aloud. “They have all sorts of tasty and delicious meals which they can have at any time, and they have such short hairs on their bodies!”

“Those short hairs…” Fluff replied, a sensuous look spread across her face. “I could use some of them right now. My body is killing me. If I could trim off all my fur, I would do it in a heartbeat.”

“Me too! I wish us dogs would develop these types of food services that the humans have,” Woof said, dragging the conversation back to the topic that interested him. “Then a dog could just walk into one of those establishments, eat to his fill, and go off into the sunset.” He had a dreamy look on his face. 

Fluffy smacked his face with her paw. “They pay for those, you dummy.”

“They pay?” he turned his gaze to the humans with a look of horror. “Why would they do that? I’ve seen where their food comes from, it comes from the soil! They don’t pay the soil to produce those crops, do they? So why should they pay for food?”

“Their world is a different one from ours, Woof. I’ve seen them exchange some things that look like strips of paper whenever they order those meals. No paper, no meal. I don’t want that for us dogs. A dog should have the right to eat whatever it finds!”

“Yes, I agree.” Woof replied before he turned back to the Popsicle. “But it doesn’t always work that way. If a dog could eat whatever he finds, that young girl wouldn’t be the one enjoying all that chocolate goodness.” He licked his lips. His stomach grumbled, he hadn’t had a decent meal in days.

Fluffy licked her lips too. “If a dog could eat whatever it finds, there would be a war going on right now over that Popsicle.” She turned her gaze to the other dogs watching the little girl relish the melting Popsicle. There were ten pairs of eyes trained on the girl, all waiting and hoping she would make a mistake. One misstep, and the Popsicle would tumble to the floor. That would be their cue. 

It wasn’t so much the sweetness of the Popsicle as the coolness of it. Their regular source of water was the water that leaked out of the pipes running through the alleyways of the city. As the temperature of the atmosphere increased, so did the temperature of the leaking water. It wasn’t undrinkable, but the level of warmth made it unpleasant to drink. Unlike the humans, they didn’t have any means to cool their water down, so they had to settle for what they could find, or steal.

Woof felt a pain in his stomach as it grumbled again. The sound was getting louder, and if he didn’t do anything soon, he would suffer unbearable pain. He turned to the little girl and made some calculations in his mind. If she wouldn’t make the misstep on her own, perhaps he could help her along.

“Cover me, Fluffy.”

“I don’t like that look in your eyes.” She said, anxiously.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures.” He jumped out of the shade of the potted plant and pounced on the steaming sidewalk. He didn’t have a solid plan in mind, but he knew he had to do something to get the Popsicle. There could be no more waiting. If he waited till the girl dropped the Popsicle – as she always did whenever the bigger humans brought her to this restaurant – it would be too late. He would have ten other dogs to contend with, eleven if you included Fluffy. Better to act now.

He charged towards the table beside the one the girl and the bigger humans were seated at, and once he was close enough, he began to bark as loudly as his growling stomach would let him. His bark startled the girl and drew her attention, just as he intended. His plan was to pretend to be chasing something and barking at it, and if she dropped the Popsicle, he would cut the pretense and pick it up.

Sure enough, the Popsicle slipped out of the girl’s hand. She redirected her attention to it and tried to grab it with her other hand, but it was too late. It slipped off and fell towards the ground. Woof reacted quickly, he switched directions and made it just in time to snatch the Popsicle from the grip of gravity before it reached the ground.

He stopped for a brief second to savor the taste and coolness of the Popsicle, but the warning in Fluffy’s voice pulled back his attention. “Woof, run!” he looked around and noticed the other dogs in the neighborhood were already on the chase, and they were all headed in his direction.

He ran down the street as fast as his legs could carry him, but somehow, Fluffy managed to catch up. He moved the Popsicle in his mouth and motioned for her to take a bite. The other dogs were bigger than they were, so it was only a matter of time before they caught up to them, better to consume the Popsicle while running. Fluffy signaled him with her eyes and they took a sharp corner into an alleyway. He knew the destination she had in mind, they’d raced there many times in the past. 

They’d made it almost half way through the alley when an imposing figure appeared from the shadows and blocked their path. Both dogs stopped in their tracks. It was Billy the Bulldog. He was the leader of a gang of bulldogs and they were in control of the alleys in this region of the country. His gang protected the dogs in their region at a price.

Every Sunday, the bulldogs took a portion of the food they found during the week to the bulldogs as payment for their protection and permission to live in the region. The bulldogs called it “the weekly tithe”, and it had to be paid, otherwise there would be fire and brimstone. The food taken to the bulldogs each Sunday was enough to keep them full for two weeks, an endless supply of food and very little work had resulted in excess weight and droopy flesh.

Woof turned around, hoping Billy hadn’t seen the Popsicle He was about to begin running in the opposite direction when the dogs pursuing them crowded into the alley from that direction. Both exits were now blocked, there was no way of escape.

“Well, well, well… What do we have here?” Billy said as he began to approach Woof and Fluffy. He was now surrounded by the six other members of his gang. “Looks like Woof brought us a present.” Woof retreated as Billy advanced. He shook his head. He had gone through a lot to get the Popsicle, he had no intention to share it with anyone. “Smells like chocolate… Mmmm, my favorite flavor.” The other bulldogs chuckled.

Woof turned to Fluffy. Billy was already very close, if they didn’t make a move now, they would have to submit to him. Fluffy scanned their environment but she couldn’t find an escape route, so she did the only thing she could think of. She pulled the Popsicle into her mouth and she swallowed it. Woof followed suit immediately.

The sudden disappearance of the Popsicles stopped Billy in his tracks. He turned his gaze from one dog to the other, and back. “You’re both going to regret this.” He snarled.