Tank, The Bestest Boy

It was still hot out here. When Harry and I went for our walk eariler today, the concrete burned my paws so much that I licked them all afternoon laying on my couch while he stayed in his office. He once left the door open when he was in there, and I wanted to help him out, so I brought my rope in there. He got angry when some stuff got knocked onto the floor, and told me I couldn’t be in there. So I laid on the couch every time he went in there and closed the door.

But he always came out for dinner, and shook my bowl to let me know it was time to eat. It got harder and harder to smell the kibble. I could always smell what he and the others were eating. Tonight it was something magical called brats. Juicy, smoky, and greasy. Tendrils of earthy yummy goodness crept into my nose, right in the middle of my chase of Oscar, the evil tabby who shared this house, as I relaxed with my eyes closed on my favorite blankie.

I stood up, shook off, and walked into the kitchen. There they were. A whole pile on a plate on the table. Brat filled my nostrils, my belly rumbled, and I licked my lips. There was another plate, with silver covered not brats. They smelled of butter, which was good, but a small prize compared to brats. Mazie came down the stairs and hugged me. “I love you Tank, but you can’t have any. Mommy said so.”

I loved Mazie. I licked her face and she hugged again. I didn’t know why humans did that. They were strange, but I guess that how humans licked faces. I once saw Harry and Bethany licking each other faces in their bed, before Harry chased me out of their bedroom. They made strange noises too, so I laid down outside the door.

Billy stomped down the stairs next, patting my head as he went by. I loved Billy, he still wanted to throw the frisbee around, and always found good sticks for me. But I got tired faster than he did, so lot of times we just sat on the porch and he scratched my ears.

Bethany started passing around the plate with the brats on it, and I inched closer. I loved Bethany, even though she took me to the vet. She always walked me in the morning, when it wasn’t too hot outside, and let me smell anything I wanted to.

The plate stopped near Mazie. Harry told me that I should never take from the table. I wanted to make Harry happy. I loved Harry. But those meaty delicious brats were right there. I nudged Mazie, and she pouted. “No, Tank, you can’t have any.”

I put my head in her lap. She loved me. Mazie smiled, and pulled a small piece from her plate and gave it too me. Ugg, it was a carrot. But it had some of the brat juice on it, so I ate it. I swallowed and looked up, the brats were so close. I decided that it was time.

I reach out, and grabbed one. Before any of them could start yelling, I swallowed it down. It tasted so good, the greasy meat tickling my tongue and sending amazing ripples through my body. Oh my dog!

“Mazie! How could you let him!”

“Tank! Get out outta here!”

“Oh, no, is Tank gonna throw up Mom?”

“Tankie! You are such a bad boy.”

Mazie had tears in her eyes, which I felt bad. I jumped up into her lap to lick them off her face, when Harry grabbed my collar, and took me into the living room. “Bad Tank. Bad Tank. You need to lie down in your bed. You know better than to steal and jump up at the table.”

Steal? It was the family’s dinner, and I am part of the family. But I did what Harry said. The whole endeavor took a lot out of me, so I laid down on my bed. I would get up when they finished and help clean the plates with Bethany.

“Ewwww, he peed himself, Daddy.” Mazie’s voice woke me up. Everyone was sitting on the couch, with the tv on, and Mazie was holding her nose. Harry got up, and looked at me. I smelled it then. I don’t know what happened, but it was okay. I’d just have to clean it up.

“C’mon Tank. We are going to have to wash this. You need to go out to the porch.” I loved going outside, and the porch was the best. Usually this meant Harry was going to take me for a walk, but he didn’t bring the leach. He just let me outside. I sat down at the top of the steps. It was still hot, but as night fell it got cooler.

My dish had a good amount of water in it. I gazed over my yard, and drew in its scents. Behind me, I could hear the kids.

“Is Tank gonna be okay?”

“Yeah, Dad. He has peed the bed every night this week. Are we going to have to put him asleep?”

“I don’t know kids, he has lived a good life, but we need to start thinking what’s best for him.”

I loved my family. They might not know that I heard them talking about me, but I always did. I even heard Bethany let out a few tears. I would have to lick her face when I went back in. I heard the screen door open, and Harry came out, and sat down next to me.

“How you doing buddy?”

I was great. My best friend in the whole world was here. I licked his face.

“I thought so. Buddy, we have been through a lot together. I just wanted to say that I really appreciate you. So I figured that I would ask if you wanted to sleep out here tonight? Your bed is all wet, and it is pretty nice out here. And in the morning, we will take a car ride!” He sounded sad, but his face was all twisted up. He smiled at the end, so I licked his face.

He turned and wiped his face, and scratched my ears. I loved Harry. He walked back inside. He still had that delicious brat smell on his breath. I wondered if he would bring me one of them for a late night snack.

I laid back down on the porch, and heard a purring sound coming from the door. It was Oscar. He lived here before I arrived, and was a meanie. He never wanted to play, and hit my nose really hard once when I tried to sniff him. He also could do whatever he wanted, and pushed open the screen door. He shuffled over to me and stared right at me.

I never could tell what Oscar was thinking. He put his paw out and touched mine, and then rubbed the side of his face on mine. Cats did weird stuff. He then meowed loudly, and Billy came and opened the door for him.

The night grew darker, and the sounds came out. I could hear the crickets chirping in the grass, the rabbits rustling through the bushes, and Melvin barking two houses down. He was a very loud dog, and would bark at everything. He used to bark at me, but once I growled at him like I did in the before and he just ran when I came back.

I smelled the day old poop I put out in the yard, the apples on the trees in the backyard, and that old lady’s perfume who lived next door. She was mean, yelling at me when I marked her garden as under my protection. She once called the dog catcher to take me away, but Harry told her to never to do that again. I loved Harry.

The yeasty bouquet of fresh bread wafted through the air, coming from three doors down filled the gaps, with a hint of raw mouse meat from the fox den hidden in the old lady’s back yard, and the fading tasty whiff of grilled burgers from the other end of the street. I picked up on the smell of motor oil from Brad’s bike that he was always working on when I walked by his house. He always had treats in his pockets and his hands smelled of old leather and grease.

It smelled as it always did. I loved the neighborhood and the smells. Every so often, there were new smells. The new couple next to Brad would often smell strange, holding hands when they walked by. The postman tried on new scents, none of which were any good. I always knew he had bacon in his pocket for me.

There was a new smell, and a new sound tonight. It was loud and grumbly. The scent smelled of the red and yellow can in our garage. Harry let me sniff it once, and it didn’t smell good. He called it gasoline. The loud noise stopped, but the gasoline continued. I could hear doors open, and two new scents joined them.

I had never smelled one of them before. It was dusky, and had a odor like the locked cabinet above the refrigerator did. I didn’t like it. The other, that was from before. I bared my teeth, and growled, before I even knew why.

It smelled of blood, and filth. It smelled of fear, and piss. I smelled those things once, a long time ago. A place that I was taken from, a place where teeth bit into fur and flesh, the barking never stopped, and I saw many dogs die. The humans there were cruel, and when you made them angry, they hit with chains, and kicked with feet. They didn’t care if your leg hurt, or your ear needed scratching. My ear had a notch out of it from those days.

The growl grew in my belly. It was not a good smell at all. I looked back, and the lights were off in the house, the door closed. I would investigate before waking up Harry. I walked down the steps slowly, my legs tensed up. I crouched low towards the bushes and the fence. A low voice whispered on the other side of it. “Is this the place Darius?”

“What you think? I stopped here in front of this one, didn’t I?”

“I wanted to make sure. So this bitch definitely wanted it, didn’t she?”

“Oh yeah Tyrone. She gave me this look yesterday. This house looks loaded too. We gonna have a great night.”

“I hope so. This is one of those neighborhoods that got security doesn’t it?”

“Nope. I checked. I doubt most of these people even got guns. We will just be in an’ out. Well, I will be, you will be grabbing anything shiny. The husband gotta be one of those whimpy guys.”

They chuckled. “So, the front door, or the back?”

“Back door. Lot easier to creep in that way.”

I heard foodsteps heading down the path along the fence. I don’t think Harry wants people in the house now. I didn’t like them anyway. It was my job to stop bad people from coming in, so I started to follow the fence to the back.

My leg cramped up, and I sat down, whimpering. It would cramp up sometimes, and Harry or Billy would rub it, but they weren’t there right now. It hurt so much.

I bit at it, and it started to feel better. I got up, gingerly walking to the yard in back. I came out near the swing set, and looked up to the door. It was open. Even if it were closed, their scents led right too it. I know Harry wanted me to stay outside, but I needed to warn him. Maybe my bed was dry too.

I climbed up to the door slowly, my leg still hurting. I could hear the stairs inside creaking, so I walked inside. They had gone upstairs.

I didn’t go upstairs, not for a while. That many stairs was really hard to climb, and I fell down them more than once. I think that they bit me once too. Oscar usually sat on them, watching me try to go up them. He knew I hadn’t gotten up them for a long time, so whenever he thought I might chase him, he just went up halfway. Oscar wasn’t there right now.

I could whimper, but I don’t think Harry would hear me. He would get mad if I went to his room, but there were bad people inside, and I needed to tell him. I had to climb.

I took the stairs waryingly, watching for its teeth. My legs hurt, but I kept going. I could hear a door opening upstairs, and the air told me it was Mazie’s room, the ketchup stain on her carpet gave her room a special scent. Why would they go in there?

The stair tried to nip me, and I slipped. I managed to not fall down the steps, but I hurt my belly when I hit them. I tried to stand up, and for a moment, I couldn’t. I could hear the low voice whisper, “What was that?”

“It was nothing, now lets find the lady. You can mess with that girl later. I smacked her real good so she aint gonna wake up any time soon.”

“Okay, Darius.”

I heard them walk out of her room, and down the hall. Something got under my feet, and I decided that I would get up these steps now. I started to run, and found myself at the top, out of breath. I went to Mazie’s room. She was in bed, blood leaking from her forehead, and her hands tied up.

I licked her face, hoping she would wake up. I loved Mazie. Her blood tasted like mine. I didn’t like those men who did this to her. It was time for Harry to know about them. I left her room, and saw his bedroom door open.

I trotted down there, and saw them sitting up in bed, looking scared. There were two men standing facing them, not looking at me. “Now, be quiet and your children won’t get hurt. I’m gonna get mine, and you ain’t gonna scream or nothing.”

I growled, like in the old days. I had never growled like that since Harry picked me up from the place with cages and lots of other dogs. The men turned and looked at me. “Shit Tyrone, they got a dog. Looks like good bait too.”

I remembered the cruel people using that word bait. Harry would say it, but he was talking about worms, and smelly plastic stuff in box in his garage. One thing I learned was that if you let the other dogs bite first, it hurt much more.

So, I decided that they needed to leave. I jumped at one, with everything I got. He was no dog, not even protecting his throat when I bit into him. I remembered watching others getting bit in the neck during those dark days with the chains. They didn’t let go, until one of the stopped moving.

The man tried to scream, “AHHHHH…” and a gurgle came out as I clamped down. Warm metally blood poured into my mouth, and we both fell to the floor, but I landed on my feet, his throat still held. I have bitten people before, and they don’t taste good. But I shook my head anyway. I felt the flesh rip and him punch me in my belly.

His punches grew weaker and weaker. Over the noise, I heard the other gasp, “Son of bitch, I’m gonna kill you!” I heard Harry jump out of bed, and skin slapping skin. I dropped this one’s neck and turned around. Harry was trying to wrestle the other one, and Bethany was screaming. I grabbed for Darius’s ankle and bit hard.

Darius howled, his blood filling my mouth. Harry oofted, and doubled over when Darius hit him. He then turned to me, and punched me in the nose, hard. My eyes watered, and I let go. He then backhanded Harry, dropping him to the ground.

It had been a long time since I hated a person. I hated Darius. He hurt Harry. He hurt Mazie. He was going to hurt Billy and Bethany. And lastly he hurt me. It was time for him to go.

I jumped, lunging for his throat. He protected it, but I knocked him to the ground, with me laying on top of him. I bit his face, sinking my teetch into his cheeks and eye. He roared, and a loud pop sounded off near my belly. I felt a sharp pain but kept biting. Another pop, another pain, but lesser. And then another pop, and I couldn’t feel that one.

I couldn’t hang on, and Darius rolled me onto the floor. I saw then Harry with a baseball bat, one he would hit balls for me to fetch, and brought it down on Darius’s head, once, twice and then a third time. I suddenly felt really tired.

I was exhausted doing all this fighting. I felt Harry kneel down next to me. “Tank, my boy, Tank. You are the bestest boy.” He petted me, his face all wet from tears but I couldn’t get up and lick them off. I saw Billy standing in the door, with Oscar at his feet.

Oscar for once looked proud of me, and sat down by my head, purring. I tried to lick him, and he didn’t flinch. I heard Mazie stumbling to the door, and Bethany crying. I loved my family. I could rest now.