This fic is for a contest called Baby Feet- A Fiction Contest at The Muse Bunny, the story has to be inspired by a picture of baby feet. I got the idea so decided to enter it. Hope everyone else enjoys it!
Word count: 4,095
Paws and Baby Feet
By
Meli J Nightly
I lay lazily as I always did on my comfy bed, a bed they had bought me with so much love. Everything they had done up to this point was done with so much love. Why couldn't things be like they used to be?
The times when he used to play with me, all I needed to do was show him the red ball and he knew that I wanted it to be thrown. I would happily run and catch it, of course other times I would just wait for it to fall and go after it, but it was fun. The way he scratched behind my ear after I did something that would make him laugh. Now he didn't even pet me when I ran to welcome him home, all he did was run upstairs and lock the room along with her.
I remember the way she called my name when my food was ready, "Terry… come and eat," she used to yell with that sweet tone of hers. Now she barely noticed my presence, didn't care if I had been fed.
They were both hectic these past days, rearranging a room, painting and running around, well at least my master was the one doing all the running. The mistress was usually laying down giving him instructions, and how could she run if she had inflated like a balloon!
It's from all that junk food she had been eating lately, I tell you … don't get me wrong I love food, I live for food, but she's been eating all these kinds of gross stuff lately. Like last night she made my master go buy her that meat that goes inside two breads and has a lot of other stuff… you know what I'm talking about right?
Anyway I usually like the meat and not the bread, but if they go together it must be for a reason and humans seem to like it like that too. But that's not the point, he also bought a big bowl of that white cold sweet mushy stuff, which I also love, however I didn't expect her to dip the meat with two buns inside the bowl of the white cold sweet mushy stuff! I mean come on what kind of psycho does that? Even for me that's too gross. She has been doing things like that lately, which I find rather odd, what's worst though is that my master doesn't see it strange at all. I do notice that he gets out of the room if she begins mixing up any other yucky stuff and I'm with him.
Shush, I hear something? Can you guys hear it too? No? It's a weird noise. Oh… oh wait it's my stomach. Yes, it's grumbling, my poor tummy. I decide to get up from my comfy position, walk through the living room which for some reason seemed to be filled with all these pink things. Let's just ignore them shall we. I finally reach the kitchen and end up saddened by the horrendous scene in front of me… no food… in my bowl. How can this be? This is tragedy I tell you! Madness! I slump down whimpering and sobbing my sorrows, until I hear my friend calling me.
Making my way to my own private door I peek outside and see Brooklyn. "Hey, Terry!" She greets me cheerfully, "Why the long face?"
You're one to say that since it isn't you who hasn't eaten anything! Mind you these are only my thoughts I am not the type to take my grumpiness on a friend. "The mistress is still sick, so she forgets to put food on my bowl. Master is always out and when he comes home is only to check on her and then go back out on her orders."
"You're in deep son; I told you already she is not sick…" Lassie the oldest out of all of us barges in on the conversation like he usually does. He's always grumpy and who wouldn't be with a girl's name, wouldn't you?
"Don't scare the poor thing," Brooklyn pleads, but only to make him talk more.
"It's true I've been through it, in the nine long years I've been living I've seen all kinds of things…" he speaks with a somber tale voice.
I admit that got me pretty shaky yet I dare to ask, "What do you mean?"
"You're problem is worst then your mistress being sick… she's…" he looks around as if it were a dangerous secret he was telling.
Making me more fidgety then I already was.
"She's?" Brooklyn and I ask in unison.
"She's…" Lassie repeats it again with a raspier tone.
"SHE'S?" We get anxious quickly.
"She's having a baby you moron…" I turn to face that familiar voice, Solo, the homeless dog.
"A baby?" Brooklyn asks confused.
I am equally confused as well, "What's a baby?"
It almost seemed like Solo was rolling his eyes, "You mutts are hopeless. A baby it's what comes out of a mistress woman and takes your place, they're evil monsters."
"Comes out?" Brooklyn had a disgruntle look on her face as if she were imagining it.
"Evil… monsters?" I feel my voice unsteady. There was an evil monster inside my mistress, how awful. "No wonder she only eats disgusting and weird things. It's to feed that monster inside of her."
Brooklyn and Lassie nod in agreement. But one question remained, "Why can't they take the monster out?" As always Brooklyn was the one to ask.
"Oh it'll come out alright… and when it does come out… you can say bye-bye to your home," Solo gave me a smirk. How rude I say, giving me a smirk like he was mocking my calamity.
"Why would he have to do such a thing? A baby can't be that bad." Lassie tries to comfort me. He had obviously never seen a baby, after all his owners were old too. Brooklyn was the youngest one out of all of us; doubt that she's seen one either.
"You would think differently if you saw one. They have especial powers-"
We were all dumbstruck and cut off Solo immediately, "Special powers?!"
As soon as Solo opens his mouth a scream and shriek is heard from inside my home. "Lena," I bark. I make my way to the driveway, tires screech and a funny smell reached my nose. I see my master come out in hurry and panting. I jump at him, trying to warn him that the monster was probably eating the mistress.
But he only pushes me away and hard, "Terry move out of the way, now!"
I slowly stop and my ears flop to my side. I walk away scared that he might do something to me and look back just to see him run inside the house. My friends look at me with a sympathetic look.
"If I were you, I would leave now before they kick you out or do something worst to you," Solo warns me. So I decide to heed his warning, it was the first time he had ever done something so mean, it was also the first time he had ever screamed at me to go away. I feel something die inside of me, and without thinking too much…
"Can I go with you?" I ask Solo as I catch up to him.
"Wait… what are you talking about Terry? You can't just leave?" Brooklyn yells at me.
"They don't need me anymore…" I reply sadly.
"You can come kid… it's not easy being alone." Solo keeps on walking and I follow, in the process I wonder why he even bothers to help me. I could hear Brooklyn bark but can't make out what she says as we get farther and farther away from my home.
X.x.x.X
We arrive at an alley where other dogs are gathered… mean and scary dogs.
I look up at Solo and now really thinking about it I feel so little beside him, after all he's a Rottweiler and a fierce one at that, everyone seems to respects him. Me on the other hand, I'm just short with fluffy curly beige hair, most of the time people even confuse me with being a female, and I guess that's worst then Lassie's problem.
My thoughts are interrupted the snarls of an irritating looking dog, a boxer, "Hey Solo, who's the short fry?"
I take a step back but Solo pushes me forward with his snout, "You will all respect him and help him. He is now part of the group. His name will now be Snatcher."
Snatcher, what kind of name is that? And just like he had been reading my mind he whispers to me, "We can't leave you with your old name… you belong to a new family now. Besides, Terry is too prissy."
"Hiya Snatcher! I'm Twinkie!" I search for the voice and look down finally to see a cheery Chihuahua greeting me. He was probably the smallest and by far the friendliest out of the bunch.
A black and white Husky approaches me, he looks very well taken care of and not like he belongs in the streets. I gulp when I see him close enough to glimpse at his large canines. "Welcome to group Snatcher. My name is Blaze and that over there is Don." He points with his nose at the Boxer who only looks the other way, seems he doesn't like me. I sigh in relief when he nods and returns to his original spot.
"Who's the fur ball?" A choir of giggles were let out I looked around but didn't know where they were coming from. My stomach grumbled, "Uh-oh fur ball is hungry!" Yet again with the silly giggles.
"Quiet you Rats!" Solo ordered.
"Sorry Solo…" Three rats appeared in front of me and bowed apologetically.
"These are just our pets," Twinkie cackles.
"What do you mean pets? We can take you on short stuff!" They say in unison, pretty amusing if you ask me.
"If you don't shut up we'll let the China Town cats eat you," this time Blaze warned them.
"Fine, fine. Nice to meet you fur ball." The three disappear as fast as they could, giggling all the way.
Solo sighs, "Let's go look for food. Snatcher you're hungry aren't you?"
I nod. I was most definitely hungry, in fact famished. I had never gone a day without eating; I was dreading this day because of it.
We were on our way to find food. What more could I ask for? I had a new family, a new home and now I was about to eat… garbage?!
"Well dig in!" Twinkie jumps inside the pool of garbage followed by the rest. I was hoping to have hearing problems, because he did not just say dig in.
"It's not like home… but it's the best we can do. We can steal food only once in a while or else we can get caught and turned in," Solo explains.
Dumbfounded as I was, my mind kept on playing the times I had been fed like a King. And Solo he had all the time been eating this. As I stare at him, the scar under his eye catches my attention; I had never had the opportunity to ask him how he got it. I guess it's my chance… it's not like I'm going to eat that, it's just like what my mistress eats to feed the monster.
"Solo…" he turns as he hears my voice and stares down, "How did you get that scar?"
The fearless Rottweiler becomes silent and I can see a hint of sadness in his brown eyes. "Let's just say I know what you would've gone through if you would've stayed with them." He turns and says nothing else.
I was beginning to get homesick and start doubting that running away was the best idea. But then again Solo had a point, who knows what kind of powers that monster had. I knew they were strong enough to make my owners hate me. I lie down and watch as they all eat, Blaze approaches me with a piece of the bread that had cheese on top and red circle like thin meats…
"Here's piece of pizza, it looks fresh and smells fresh." He says while he lays it in front of me. I smell it, and what do you know? He was right; I took a big bite and gobbled it up.
"Thankph… youph!" I manage to say with my mouth full.
Blaze nods and continues his search for food. Even though it was a small piece I felt it was good and enough to hold me for a while.
X.x.x.X
"Oi… oi!" I hear a voice and a nudge wakes me from my peaceful sleep. Solo was in front of me, I look at him confused, "What's wrong?"
"You were having a bad dream… you were whimpering," he comments and closes back his eyes.
I was whimpering? I don't recall having any nightmares while I was sleeping… I was only dreaming about… them. I could feel the sadness strike me again and try my best to overlook it. The night was cold and I wonder how the mistress was doing, if they were okay, if the monster hadn't harmed them. Maybe if I hadn't been such a coward and defended them everything would've gone back to normal.
"Don't think about it too much… you did the right thing," Solo speaks without opening his eyes. Did I really do the right thing?
"But don't you think that maybe, after she got the monster removed everything would have gone to normal?"
"I thought like that too. When the baby was bought into my fam… my former family, everything just became worst-"
I looked at him shocked, he had owners? "If you have a family what are you doing in the streets?"
"They are not my family anymore…" he looks at the other dogs that were peacefully sleeping, "you and them are my family."
"What happened?" I boldly decided to ask.
"Like I was saying… after it was out of my mistress and was in the family, they stopped caring for me. All they did was argue, about who was going to take care of that thing. As it grew a little more the small monster used me as a toy, pocking me with whatever he had in hand… I let him, just to keep them happy… But one day he had a sharp pointy thing, I didn't even have time to react when he had already stuck it near my eye. I was hurt and pain angered me so I bit him…" I listened and looked at his eye again.
It was horrible what the monster had done to him. "Did they do something to the monster?"
"No, they did something to me instead," I stared back in horror, not understanding why they would do something to him when the monster was at fault. "So I ran away, I couldn't take it anymore… So I became Solo, then the rest joined me after a while."
"I'm sorry…"
"Things happen for a reason… I didn't want you to suffer what I suffered. The reason I came back to your neighborhood is because my ex-owners use to live there but they did everything possible to keep me away… and then I made good friends there too, like you so I kept on going back."
I smiled inside, remembering the times when Brooklyn, Lassie and me used to sneak food out of the house to give it to Solo. He was always grateful and stopped by each time he could to play with us. I never would've imagined he had, had it so tough.
"We're cold can we sleep with you?" Came the small choir of voices from the rats.
Solo rolled his eyes, "Fine but try not to bite me this time." Two of the rats ran to Solo's side and one of them stopped and looked at me. "Can I sleep with you? You have more fur…"
"I guess…" without waiting much he rushes to my side and makes himself conferrable, and it didn't take long for the rest to leave Solo's side and huddle up next to me.
"Well I guess you made yourself their new mother." Solo laughs.
X.x.x.X
"Hurry up RUN!" Screams Twinkie, I stare back and forth confused as to what was going on, until I see Blaze running with a cord of sausages in his mouth.
"Run kid!" Solo orders, followed by Don who had a giant piece of bread in his mouth.
Not too long passes by when Twinkie screams again, "It's the catchers!!"
The catchers? In front of us stood two men one with a net in his hands and another one with a big brown weird stick.
"If they catch you… they'll lock you up or put you to sleep!" Twinkie informs me as he runs the opposite way.
"Put you to sleep? As in kill you!?" I ask with an alarmed tone.
"Yes!" They reply in unison.
My heart paces and I run too. I wish I was back at home, where I didn't have to steal food or run from humans that wanted to kill me. I didn't want this… not anymore. Why didn't they want me anymore? Was I really that bad? Couldn't they love me like they used to? I want to go back home, I want them to miss me… I want to see Brooklyn and even Lassie…
"Terry!!" I hear a familiar voice, but then again I might've been hallucinating after all I'm not used to all this exercise. "Terry!!" But there it is again.
I look forward and see Brooklyn, as I catch up to her she runs at the same pace. "Terry, why are you guys running?"
"It's the catchers Brooklyn! If they get you they will put you to sleep…" I try to explain but pant most of my words.
"As in kill you?" She questions.
"Yes!" We all answer in together.
"What are you doing here anyway?"
"I came to tell you that… your owners are back…" she too was panting, we aren't used to running too much.
"So, what? Did they bring the monster with them?"
"Yes… but hear me out… "As Brooklyn was about to finish one of the catchers appears in front of us and being that I wasn't as fast as the others he traps me with his net. I yelp and whimper as I lay there unable to move. The catcher laughs while he picks me up inside the net and looks at me with menacing eyes.
"They want you back! They were looking all over for you! They want you back Terry!" I hear Brooklyn's cries.
They wanted me back? They loved me? I felt a new kind of strength embed every part of my body. I did my best to bite the net and escape, but it was just too hard. I saw the rest stop abruptly after listening to what Brooklyn had said. Blaze runs back with all his might and bites the hand of the man that had me in his net. While Don and Twinkie jump at the man with the stick.
I was released after the man that had me in his net screamed in pain; I fell with a loud thud on the pavement. Wincing from the sting, Solo rushed to help me out of the dreadful incarceration but he too couldn't get the net off… and help came where I least expected.
"We're here!" The rats introduce themselves to the scene and begin to nibble on the net. It didn't take them long to make an opening on the net. "You're all set!" They say together as they always do.
"I guess I was wrong Kid… they do love you," Solo helps me stand up, "let's get you back home."
X.x.x.X
Nervously I stand in front of what used to be my home. Inside was my old family. I rethink about going inside, afraid that they might be mad at me for leaving.
"Terry! Terry… you're back!!" My master runs up to me and picks me up, I yelp from the pain. "What happened to you buddy?" He looks at Brooklyn and at Solo as if waiting for them to give him an explanation. "Did you guys bring him back?" He asks as he puts me down and pets each one.
"Well… welcome back buddy… let's go inside," he picks me up again but this time with more care, "there's someone I want you to meet." I look back at Solo and Brooklyn for reassurance. Solo just nods and I can tell he wants me to suck it up and be strong, after all he had been through worst things then I have.
"Terry! Where have you been," my mistress pets me and kisses my furry forehead, her eyes were red and puffy.
"She had been crying for you all night…" he says.
I was overjoyed all this time I was thinking they didn't care about me anymore, but they had been worrying about me all along.
After they smothered me with so much love, something I almost forgot what it felt like, they put me down. I heard a strange noise coming from the bed, a gurgle and other sounds. I curiously make my way to see what it is; afraid of finding myself with the monster I place one paw after the other slowly.
Looking back to see if my owners were going to stop me, but instead they both nod so I continue. Placing both my front paws on the bed to stand up I look at whatever there is on the bed. I was confused, I was expecting to see a hideous creature… so evil that it would take my eyes out. But there it was, the most beautiful feet I have ever seen, they looked like my mistress feet only a lot tinier.
"Her name is Mary…" My mistress says almost in a whisper.
I had never seen such a thing; the small creature was flapping her small baby feet up and down. Under her was a pink cover and a small pink rabbit beside her, the ones I had seen on the living room before.
Lena smiles at me and grabs the baby softly as she places her closer to me. I was mesmerized with her wonderful smell but most of all with her baby feet.
Soon I remember Solo… I had to tell him the baby wasn't a monster but a beautiful creature with tiny and pretty feet. I run downstairs and to my surprise he was still there.
"Did something happen?" Solo asks while placing himself on guard.
"No… the baby is beautiful!"
He gives me a confused look probably the same look I had made before. "Really?"
"Yes and she has the cutest feet I have ever seen!" I was excited.
"Feet?" He was still dumbfounded on the other hand.
"Isn't that Fluffy?" My mistress approaches us slowly while holding her stomach, she seemed hurting
Solo takes a step back. "Fluffy, the Connor's dog?" My master questions and then reprehends her, "You shouldn't be up honey. Go back to bed."
"It's okay. Don't be scared Fluffy… they said you went missing but they didn't look for you did they?" She extended her hand and Solo slowly approached her. Once he was close enough she began to pet him. "It is you Fluffy… you were always such a good dog… what they did to you was cruel."
"Is this the Fluffy you were talking about getting?" He laughs in disbelief.
"I asked the Connor family if I could buy it from them, they were treating him badly… but the day they were supposed to give him to me they told me he ran away." She explains still petting him happily.
"Well maybe we can keep him…"
"Really?"
Solo and I both look at each other; did they really mean what they were saying?
And our master confirmed it, "Yes, really." He smiles and leads us inside.
"So Solo huh?" I joke at Solo's expense.
"I needed a gangster name… and Fluffy wasn't it…" was his simple response.
X.x.x.X
And we lived happily ever after!
Oh and if you're wondering about the others… well Twinkie became the new leader of the pack… or at least that's what they lead him to believe. The rats are still protected by them and they come here once in a while to get food. I told Brooklyn I was in love with her and Lassie well… Lassie is still Lassie.
Fin…
X.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.X
I know you all probably understood that the meat in between the two bread was a hamburger right? And the white cold mushy sweet stuff … come on… ice cream! No, you didn't get that? Well that disappoints me… oh well.
How about the piece of bread with cheese on top… no? No idea? Does Pizza ring a bell?
Well that's it… liked it didn't like it? Well it was my first attempt a story like this. I had never done animal related stories and it's my first contest too. Please leave a Review if you want to… it will be very much appreciated and it would mean a lot to me… plus you might get a cookie… you never know.