The Border Terrier

Open land engulfed the car. 

Rocks. 

Yellow grass.

Bunched-up bushes.

The window never rolled down. 

I wanted to stick my head out and smell the breeze. 

I wanted to taste the world.

The window never rolled down.

The man was never my favorite. 

We both knew who my master was. 

He pulled out his phone and talked into it. 

I could hear her on the other side. 

She sounded different since I last saw her. 

She had come home that day smelling something awful. 

Like unapologetic lust and beady testosterone.

The man must not have liked what was under his nose, because they fought. 

She ran out and left everything behind. 

Including me. 

For all their magic, humans have a tough time with each other.

All the good times we had together didn’t matter anymore. 

All that mattered was who got the last word. 

They were screaming on the phone now. 

It made me angry. 

We were a really strong pack at one time. 

We had something special. 

Did they forget, or was I the only one who cared? 

I didn’t want it to die.

Not without a fight. 

I barked and barked and barked some more.

I barked hard. 

I barked loud.  

I barked ferociously, showing all my teeth. 

Someone needed to lead.

The man tried to smack me, but I jumped back on my hind legs. 

I dodged his swipe, then lunged forward. 

I sank my teeth into his fingers.

The man recoiled his hand, but not before I could taste his salty skin and metallic blood.

He threw me hard against the door. 

My ribs exploded with pain, sending me into a fit of wheezes. 

The man slammed on the brakes and brought the car to a screeching halt. 

He grabbed me tight around the mouth. 

He took me out of the car, put on my leash, and dropped me to the ground. 

He laughed into the phone with a snort.

The woman cried back.

He led me to the side of the road and tied my leash to a long skinny pole that came out of the ground. 

Then he left. 

During the day, the heat baked my little nose into a cracked, dry patch of pain. 

I needed water, and I needed it bad.

The cars that had zipped by earlier were long gone. 

I had barked at them for hours, hoping that someone would save me. 

Help never came. 

People don’t pay attention to things that don’t concern them.

My hope died as the sun retreated.

I slipped into feelings of loneliness and despair.

I cried and whined for hours.

Then I went numb. 

A twig snapped, followed by the light patter of padded feet on the dry earth. 

I reared around to face what was coming toward me.

I didn’t know who or what it was.

Maybe they were here to help.

Maybe it was the woman.

I couldn’t help but wag my tail at the thought of her coming back. 

Maybe she’d pet me. 

Maybe she’d have that fun look in her eye. 

Maybe everything was going to be okay.

The first thing I saw was a pair of burning eyes.

Big, beating, and hungry, they cut right through me. 

I backed up. 

I got to the end of my leash and yanked hard with my neck. 

It wouldn’t give.

I yanked and yanked and yanked.

It wouldn’t give. 

I bit into my leash and chewed like I was a pup teething.

It tasted like a soggy shoe, which wasn’t bad, but its rough fibers grinded against my gums. 

I faced the danger as I chomped.

A light breeze kicked up, bringing a scent I had never encountered. 

It smelled like raw dirt, untamed aggression, and crude blood. 

The scent wasn’t human, but it wasn’t dog either. 

It smelled like thick fur enclosing a wild killer. 

I bit into the leash even harder.

There were three pairs of reflected eyes.

One behind the other.

Trotting in a line.

The beasts looked like a dog, but they were sleeker, bigger and meaner. 

Their muzzles were pointed and their tails were bushy.

I could tell they towered over me. 

My jaw stiffened up. 

I worked the leash into the other side of my mouth and continued gnawing

They moved in sync as they cut through the brush.

I heard them communicating.

They talked like dogs, but with an accent. 

I glanced at my leash.

  I had only chewed halfway through it.

It was hopeless.

  They were headed right for me. 

I had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

I closed my eyes and tried to blend into the ground.

I heard them come to a stop a few feet from me. 

I forced my eyes open.

There was nothing in between them and me, just an empty space.

A large male and female, along with a smaller, lankier male.

If their drooling mouths said nothing, I could smell their intention. 

“What’s a little dog like you doing out here?” the large male asked.

I didn’t say anything. 

I knew he wasn’t my friend. 

He just wanted to know where his food came from before he ate it.

I wasn’t going to give him that.

“You know, you should be friendlier to strangers,” he said with a calm twinge. 

“Where do you think he’s from, Jax?” the female asked.

“If I had to guess, I’d say he’s another one of those dogs that got left out here.” 

He looked me up and down. 

“He’s way smaller than any of the others. You must have been really bad, huh?”

He chuffed in sarcasm. 

I didn’t answer him. 

I knew it didn’t matter what I said. 

A wild animal can’t be reasoned with. 

Jax circled around me, my ears barely reaching his stomach. 

I felt a strange sense of pride that I wouldn’t be enough to fill their stomachs.

“Do you think he talks?” asked the pup.

Jax smiled.

He stalked around me, his eyes holding sinister impulses.

My hair began to stand up.

“I’ll tell you what, Shaka… I bet you he cries.”

Jax lunged for my neck, his mouth open wide. 

A flashy set of big, sharp teeth invited me to a quick death. 

I was tempted to sit there and let him lay into me. 

Nothing good had happened to me for awhile. 

Maybe that meant it was time to let it end. 

My destructive thoughts came and went. 

They were replaced by feelings of anger. 

Why would I let this animal get me? 

Was he better than me? 

Did I not deserve life as much as him? 

He was a savage, not a master.

I could feel the heat pouring out of his mouth by the time I reacted. 

For most dogs it would have been too late, but my short, stubby legs pack springy power. 

I dodged to the right just as his teeth came raining down. 

His fangs skimmed over my fur and sank into the leash. 

He landed right on the spot I was chewing. 

It snapped instantly. 

I darted away from the road. 

I didn’t know where I was, so I picked a direction and ran. 

They were hot after me. 

One of them was so close, I could smell his stale breath.

I approached a large boulder on the left. 

As I ran past, I circled around it, getting as close to the boulder as I could. 

I heard a chomp as one of them lunged at me. 

It was Shaka. 

He missed and slid across the dirt, not being able to hang as tight to the rock as I could. 

I kicked even harder and bolted out for the open stretch ahead.

I could hear them roaring up behind me. 

They were gaining ground on me with every step. 

Jax yipped uncontrollably with excitement. 

He knew a kill was close. 

I was winded and tired.

My energy was sapped and dehydrated. 

Cairo and Shaka split off to either side of me, while Jax closed in from behind. 

My muscles tightened up. 

My momentum slowed down. 

Just as I was losing spirit, a miracle appeared.

A large, sweeping bramble bush poked out of the horizon ahead of me.

I pushed my legs so hard that my muscles felt like they were on fire. 

My heart beat like it was going to explode. 

I ducked below the treacherous thorns of the bush.

The shards of the shrub couldn’t get through my wooly coat. 

It saved me from countless prods and punctures. 

I crawled deep into the underbelly, finding asylum in the weaved web of branches. 

I got to the base of the bush and looked out. 

I caught flashes of fur pacing around.

“Come on out,” Jax said with a fake warmness. “We just want to talk to you.”

He stuck his nose into the bush, scanning left and right, each nostril moving independently. 

“Cairo, head left. See if you can find a way in.”

I caught a glimpse of the female approaching the side closest to me. 

She prodded at the bush and broke a few dead branches off.

“He’s close.”

Jax jogged over to Cairo and jammed his body deep into the branches. 

I backed up from his approach and looked for a way out. 

Shaka and Cairo had spaced out evenly, blocking any kind of escape.

Jax pushed deeper, but his large frame got caught up on the thick branches. 

He stopped in his tracks. 

He couldn’t touch me while I was under the bush. 

“I promise we won’t hurt you,” Jax said as he backed off. 

Cairo added her own parley, “We can show you how to get home. Don’t you want to go home?”

She was trying to play to my insecurities. 

Every creature innately knows to attack weakness. 

For some, that’s the only way they survive. 

Even if I believed her, I didn’t have a home to go to. 

“I’m not coming out, so you might as well leave.”

“Listen,” Jax said, “You come out, we’ll make it quick. If not, we’ll wait here till you need water.” 

That struck me. 

I wasn’t going to make it much longer without water. 

Was this how my life ended? 

Dying of dehydration while three beasts hoped for a sharp-toothed demise?

Jax’s nose twitched, then kicked into overdrive. 

He drew quick bursts of the early-morning air.

“Do you smell that?” he asked the others.

“Yeah,” Shaka answered. “Fear.”

“No son, beyond the little dog.”

Shaka looked confused as he checked for a scent that evaded him. 

He jumped onto a rock to get a better vantage point for his nose.

Just then, I caught wind of the odor.

It was familiar, yet unfamiliar.

A shadowy creature leapt up to meet Shaka. 

It was a large dog with pointed ears and a docked tail. 

His coat was jet black with lighter patches splotched around his body. 

He was tall and nimble, with legs that rivaled the height of the beasts.

He moved with such fluidity that he nipped Shaka’s legs before he could react.

Shaka leapt down from the boulder.

“Dad!” he cried. 

“Don’t be afraid,” Jax answered. “They’re just dogs.”

Cairo turned to Jax. 

“He isn’t ready.”

Jax dug his paws in and bellowed out, “Don’t doubt him! He’s ready.”

Thick paws pounded off the ground behind me. 

I turned my head to see a mountain of a dog. 

He wasn’t as tall as the sleek one, but he had thick, brute muscles that rippled across his frame. 

His wide face had bulging tendons, and a white streak cut from his belly to his snout. 

The thick dog crashed into Shaka’s body and nipped at his shoulder. 

He grabbed hold of some fur and tore it out. 

Shaka yelped and wiggled free of the dog’s grip. 

Jax lunged for the dog’s neck, but he slid out of the way just as his teeth snapped shut.

The sleek dog rushed down from the boulder and bit Cairo’s leg. 

She reeled around to face him.

A standoff of snarled teeth ensued.

More paws approached from the rear, and the canines were joined by a few other dogs. 

They lined up in unison and barked at the beasts. 

“Jax,” Cairo said in a stern manner. “Not today.”

Jax huffed, “Fine.” 

The beasts retreated away from the dogs.

Away from the bramble bush.

Away from me.

A white-eared dog sniffed the air violently.

“Rabbit?” the sleek dog asked.

“No,” White ear said, “dog.”

“Chewy,” the thick dog chimed in. “He’s asking you what you smell, not what you are.” 

“You can’t even smell yourself, Bricks.”

“Watch what you say, I’ve eaten animals bigger than you.”

“Yeah, and it’s a shame. You got all the muscle and none of the brains.” 

“You’ll have half a brain when I’m done with you.”

I sat under the bush as they argued. 

I was relieved they chased off the beasts, but I didn’t want to be in the middle of their fight. 

I started a slow retreat from the bush, hoping the sound of my exit was muffled by their voices. 

My coat caught on a thorn and a dry branch snapped.

The sleek dog’s head swung to the bush. 

He peered into its depths.

His look made me feel furless, like his eyes penetrated through everything. 

“ENOUGH!” he yelled out.

The other dogs stared at him. 

He nodded at the bramble bush I was in. 

“It’s okay to come out,” he said to the bush. “You have my word that it’s safe.”

The pack had a blank stare, unsure of what to make of me. 

I was the smallest dog by far. 

Each one was at least head and shoulders above me. 

“What’s your name?” the sleek dog asked.

“Tito.”

“What are you doing out here, Tito?”

I struggled to find the words. 

How do you describe your life shattering? 

How do you say that someone abandoned you?

How do you say all of that without sounding weak?

Would they even understand?  

They would never understand. 

Maybe I should have stayed under the bush and waited for death. 

It would’ve been less embarrassing.

“He’s afraid to talk,” Bricks murmured.

“Shut-up, Bricks,” the sleek dog said. “Tito… How did you end up here?”

I cleared my throat and tried to shrug off my response. 

“The man left me out here.” 

My voice carried the dark melancholy that was pulsating through my body.

“I see,” he said. “How long have you been out here?”

He looked at me, his eyes brimming with curiosity. 

“Since before the sun went down.”

He nodded.

“You should come with us,” he said. “You don’t want to run into those lobos again. Not alone, at least.”

“Miko,” Bricks spoke up. “Look at him. He can’t help us, he’s just another mouth to feed.”

“Shut-up, Bricks,” Miko said again. 

He looked to me for an answer. 

“What do you say, Tito?”