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A Dog is not a Man. It is the greatest of sins upon the canine race to treat a dog as a man.
I'm not a pet.
I'm not a person.
I don't have thumbs, I can't work a door, and I can't fly a ship nor rock a baby.
I can't speak. Not for myself, and not for others.
I can't offer my condolences to a child sobbing for his uncle.
I don't admit to understanding a lot of things, and, quite frankly, I don't want to. The not!dogs are always asking too much of themselves, but if they knew I…
I have to be a dog. I have to be a well-trained, powerful dog, but still, just a dog.
I like being just a dog.
Sometimes I'm a Hero.
My team and I will come back from our missions more alive than not and Dark Brave who is a not!dog will growl at us a little bit. Then, Sweet Voice who is a not!bitch will kick the not!dog/bitch pack around while I get trained by Ace.
I was never trained to be a pet.
I was meant to be a Weapon, alongside the Superboy. We had been trained together, in the Before. I have been with Nice the Superboy since forever. When Streaky, Little and Fishy found Nice, they found me too. They let us out of the blood-smell Underplace. Nice saw the moon, and the Superman. I felt the ground and smelled the breeze and rolled in the grass.
I like Streaky, Little, and Fishy. I like Nice more.
Little is the not!puppy of Dark Brave. They share the same eyes, and live in a dark, grim place.
Fishy is part of Brine Scale's pack. They are from under the sea.
Streaky is the not!puppy of Flash. They live in the flat place, in the middle of the country, where all the shsshshsh-shshs sounds are.
Those three took us from the blood-smell Underplace, to the musty-smell then pack-smell Den.
We have three not!bitches in the pack. The alpha not!bitch is Sweet Voice, who is kind to Nice. Sweet Voice's second is Elsewhere, who smells… weird. Elsewhere is not the not!puppy of Hunter Changer. She wants to be, very much. She likes Nice, and Nice likes her, and Sweet Voice doesn't seem to mind, even though Sweet Voice has first pick of all the not!dogs. The lowest not!bitch in the pack is Pointy, who smells of blood and poison. Pointy is not the not!puppy of Sharp Sight. She doesn't want to be.
Together, Fishy, Little, Streaky, Nice, Elsewhere, Pointy and I fight the "good fight". Once we met Angry Pointy who is the not!puppy of Sharp Sight, and I smelled Pointy's not!litter-mate, Poison Cat. It doesn't explain her blood-smell…
Ace says that being a pet is one of the things dogs are, but I don't understand it. I wasn't trained to be a pet.
I was trained to be a weapon.
That training included how to be on a team.
I'm the one who finds Streaky after he heard, and ran, and hid.
Teams help each other.
He's in the back of one of the storage closets, his arms around his knees. He smells really upset, and is vibrating in place. I pad over to him, lean my shoulder into his, and then sit down. I work up a whine to show him that I'm there. He shudders out a sob, and throws his arms around my chest, burying his face in my neck. He starts to cry, his tears dripping deeply into my fur. I sit very still, and let him.
We stayed there like that for a long time.
Later, the rest of the team finds us, and Elsewhere lifts Streaky from around me. I get up and stretch, then follow them out. We move down the hall, Fishy in the lead, Little right behind. Elsewhere, and Streaky float behind them. Pointy, Nice and I bring up the rear.
It's the work of moments for Little to open Streaky's den-place. Elsewhere gently settles Streaky into his sleep-place, and Pointy pulls the warm-thing over him. I sneeze, stretch again and get ready to go out, away from this room that smells like sadness.
Fishy stops me with my codename.
"Krypto."
I wait for a reprimand or something like that. Instead he says "Good Job."
I think... I think that's the first time I've ever heard that.
Maybe there's a point to this being a pet after all.
Useful notes about the word Bitch:
Verb: (1) Word used to describe the act of whining excessively. Noun: (2) Modern-day servant; A person who performs tasks for another, usually degrading in status. Slang: (3) Term used to exclaim hardship.
Proper Noun: (4) Term used to describe a female dog.
(1) "Stop bitching Todd!"
(2) "Bring my friend and I some vodka bitch"
(3) *Peron tells story to other cellmate, depicting how they came to be there, cellmate says* "Ain't that a Bitch!"
(4) "Get the car ready, the bitch is having her pups!"