Author's Note: Hey to any fans I have, thanks for sticking with me, I'm sorry if there are errors and things, but this story is written back and forth by two people, sooooo yeah. I know the first couple chapters are slow, but I promise it gets more exciting, so stay tuned!

Chapter 2:

Over the next month, things got worse and worse, the signs building up. Slowly, the sheep and hens were all sold, and large vans were constantly coming around to get boxes and furniture. The farmer and his wife moved the cat inside at night to get her used to sleeping in a cat bed, and the dog bed disappeared, the mutt being tied up outside every night. Until one day, there was near to nothing left in the house except some suitcases and the farmer and his wife planning to leave the next day. They put the cat out for a while one last time and let the dog off the leash to run if she pleased, sleeping on an air mattress until they would leave first thing in the morning.

The cat stretched and trotted over to the small dog in the yard, "Hey, "She paused, noting the sad, concerned look on the dog's face, "Are you going to be ok?"

The dog sat, staring at the lighted window, "What do you mean?

"Well," The cat paused, not sure how to say it, "The masters are leaving ...can't you tell? They don't mean to come back…" She trailed off here.

The dog smiled, as though the cat was the one being insolent, "Of course they will come back... this is home, they have to come back eventually, there is no where else for them to go..."

"They are going to another territory with family, that's what they said…" The cat trailed off, a little guilty and a bit sympathetic of the young pup's naive faith, then she saw a figure on the edge of the property and changed the subject, "Hey ...it's that wolf again!"

The pup looked over her shoulder at the edge of the territory at him, then looked back at the house, "I know... he's always there, he said there are vole nests over there that he hunts... just ignore him and he'll leave after he gets the voles..."

"You spoke to him?!" The cat was shocked, "And he didn't eat you?"

The dog looked over at the cat briefly, then turned back to the house, "Only once, I kept barking and he told me not to scare off his prey..." She said, and after a thought she added, "I have seen that wild cat a few times too."

"Oh i see...hmmm…" She looked down at her belly fur, where the fur is still ruffled as it healed, "He's a pest…"

"Yes..." She nodded, "But the wolf keeps chasing him away, so I don't pay him much mind... besides... there are no more sheep of chickens for him to eat until the Masters come back..."

What to do? She couldn't let the dog keep believing they would come back, she would waste her life waiting for Masters who didn't want her! "I don't think they are coming back, pup…"

"They will... they will come back..."

"Okay… If that's what you want to think…" She stretched out and stood, "I'm going to go get a snack want to come?"

She thought about it a moment before saying, "No thank you... I should stay here and make sure no badgers or coyotes get to the house..."

"Mmmm ok…" The shook her head and headed for the barn.

The small mutt just sat there, watching the silhouettes of her Masters in the window embracing in kisses, "They will come back home... they have no where else to go... not to stay forever..."

"It's actually very common to see the two legs leave a place forever…"

Her shackles raised and she growled, springing to her feet to find the source of the wild cat was sitting on the ledge where the black cat usually sat. "You can calm down, I'm not here to hurt you, I just wanted a place to clean my paws," He said, licking his paws and grooming.

She growled deeper and started barking for the attention of the farmer, "You're not welcome here!" She barks louder and louder.

"Fine!" The cat hissed in exasperation, "You're so annoying! You scare all the pray away when you bark like that! It makes it so hard to hunt…" With that he jumped down and started walking toward the barn.

"You shouldn't be hunting near my territory!" The pup barked after him.

The cat spun around, fluffing itself up to twice its size, hissing furiously, "I can't help it! It's where all the good stuff is!"

The pup shrank in fear for a second, but she couldn't let this wild cat on her property, it was her job! She growled and started howling, wanting desperately for the farmer to drive away the feral cat. After a moment, the farmer came out, but before he could see the cat, it hissed and ran away. She ran to the farmer, whimpering and curling around his legs, and she was still barking quietly towards where the cat ran off, but the farmer simplypatted her head and walked back inside the tried to run inside with him, but he stuck his foot out to stop her and closed the door. She jumped up on the door and started scratching desperately, whimpering for entrance to the warm, cozy house, but to no avail as he refused to open the door for her. She trudged off the porch and back to her post where she had been tied and laid down in the grass, rejected.

As she did so, she saw the silver wolf moving low to the ground hunting something, then she saw the gold tipped black tail right in front of the wolf and realized the wolf was hunting her began barking a warning and ran towards the yellow tail, "Run! Run! Run! He's going to eat you!"

The cat looked up and saw the wolf behind her and began to run as fast as she could, adrenaling pumping through her as she tried to escape the ferocious jaws; But the wolf chased her catching up and pouncing, pinning the cat to the ground. The pup was close behind, and when she was close enough shejumped on the wolf, biting his shoulder just hard enough to hurt but not to wolf yelped letting the cat up as he tried to shake the smaller dog off of himself, growling, "Ow! Get off!"

The fell off easily and tried to run away after the cat, but the wolf's paw fell to her tai,l causing her to stop yelped and fell flat, laying close to the ground with her ear flat back to her head in fear; he growled and stepped closer, "Don't ever bite me again!" He snarled and then he relaxed and sat back, "Don't worry, I'm not going to eat you, I don't eat other dogs."

The pup simply stayed down, wrapping her tail around her form tightly and trying to stay as still as possible as the wolf went on: "And I wasn't going to eat the cat either; I was only going to scare her then let her go…"She didn't say anything. still shaking in fear of the wild animal standing over her, who was at least twice her size, surely!

"You know, i usually like to have the other animal I'm talking to to you know, talk back... I'm not going to hurt you."

She whimpered a little and said quietly, "I'm sorry I bit you..."

"Mmm it's ok, it doesn't hurt anymore…" He said as he moved closer, sniffing her neck fur almost affectionately. His warm, musky scent wafted to her nose, making her stomach drop in an almost pleasing way that the pup had never experienced, but she had no idea how to react, the feeling only scared her more andshe shrank closer to the ground and tighter into herself.

He stood up, disappointed that she seemed to hate him so and barked almost angrily, though his anger was more with himself than with her, "Okay then… this is going no where so I'll see you around…" With that he trotted off into the forest without her.

The sheepdog slowly got to her feet, shaking horribly, having never fought anything that big before and crawled back to the tree where she had been attacked by the wild cat and just stared into the woods, thinking to herself, "What if the masters don't come back? What if I have to fight wolves and bears for food every day and I never get to curl up with my masters again?" And it may have been her imagination; for, she never saw his face, but she thought she heard the wolf's voice echo from the forest, "If you ever need help you can come find me and my pack, we will help you."She looked towards the voice and shook a little but nodded, thenshe laid down under the tree and turned to look at the farm house, determined to go with them. If they thought she was gone, and she jumped in the truck after they did, they couldn't leave her behind, right? With that plan formulated in her mind she went to sleep until morning.