I wake up to the sharp jerking of a pole as Toothpick drags me out of the truck. A growl begins but freezes in my chest as I look on in horror at the 'building' in front of me. The thing that was standing was not by any definition a building. Buildings had roofs and doors, this place had nothing on top and holes in walls used as doors. This is a sorry excuse for a pound. A yelp brings me back to reality. I look back to see Lardass kicking Scamp towards Toothpick. Pure fury consumes as I watch the poor pup struggle to get back up from the last kick. I lunge for Lardass jaws snapping shut like a steel trap around his steel-toed boot. The man lets out a terrified scream as he kicks me with his other foot, holding on to the truck for support, while Toothpick pulls at me with the pole, squeezing tighter on the noose completely cutting off my oxygen. I could feel myself gasping for air but I shut my eyes tightly refusing to let go. I yank on his foot successfully pulling him to the ground. Number one mistake you made, I growl. You just hurt one of my friends! I lunge for his throat, only to be pulled off of him by someone stronger than Toothpick. I turn around snarling, ready to kill anything that took one step near Scamp. I look up at the new guy holding the pole. He is huge! The guy looks down at me expressionless. I feel someone nuzzle my side looking for comfort. Looking down I see Scamp huddling next to me whimpering. I lick his head trying my best at doggy comfort. Clapping interrupts my actions. I look over to see another guy, but this one radiated wealth with his nice white ironed suit and cheesy gold rings covering his hands. Who does this guy think he is some mobster from the movies? He smiles down at me.

"This one will be perfect for the ring." His voice grates against my brain. Already hated you, now I hate you even more, I think growling at him. He circles me inspecting every inch of me with his eyes. He sighs.

"It would be better if it was a male, but she'll do for now." He looks down at Scamp in disgust. "Keep that little…'pup' with her, he seems to be what motivates her." He looks back towards the truck. I look back too, and see Hiro and Gramps tied to the truck. Hiro snarls pulling on the leash trying his best to get at the man. The man's smile becomes even more sadistic looking as he walks over to Hiro and Gramps. The man crouches down about a foot out of range of Hiro's lunges.

"How many times have these two come here?" He asks looking at Lardass.

"E-exc-cuse me?" Lardass stutters nervously.

"D-d-did I st-stutter?" The man mocks. I could hear Lardass swallow some huge lump in his throat. I sit down happy to enjoy the show.

"Well they both seem to always come together, so about," I watch as he mentally counts. "Five times, maybe more." He swallows again as beads of sweat form on his forehead. The rich man stands up and walks back to the man holding my pole, ignoring the nervous glances from Toothpick and Lardass.

"Maxi, make sure these two don't lose our new best in show." He smiles down at me one more time before walking back to his very expensive and very foreign looking car. The man named Maxi pulls on the pole but just enough to get me moving. I follow him, Scamp clinging to my side, into the 'pound.' I could hear Lardass and Toothpick whispering in the back ground as they brought Hiro and Gramps. Walking through a door a smell of sewage hit me. I pause at the door and shake myself. That is disgusting. Amazingly the big and scary Maxi waits for me before continue walking.

"Does it always smell like this?" I ask Scamp. He looks up at me and shrugs his shoulders.

"I don't know, never been here before." He says looking around slightly curious.

"But I thought-"

"Gramps and Hiro are the vets, I'm the new recruit." He says smiling at me. I shake my head at his joke.

"Not funny." I tell him looking around also, my own curiosity getting the better of me. Scamp wags his tail at me.

"I thought it was." I look back in front of us as Maxi stops in front of a door waiting for the other two. Lardass and Toothpick show up each holding the end of a pole to Hiro and Gramps. As the door opens a loud roar of barking attacks my ears, causing me to pull back. Maxi gives a sharp jerk and then I'm moving again. I look around. It looked like every pound I ever went to. Wire fence cages that could be bought at some store. And like all the others filling these cages were dogs. I glance around noting a few differences. Hiro chuckles from behind us, but I ignore it. Walking down the aisle not a single dog was jumping at the fence. I remembered when I went to all those pounds in everyone dogs were always jumping at the fence, but these dogs just sat in their cages barking at us. But not just that instead of cramming a bunch of dogs into one cage they had separate cages for every dog. Maxi walks us over to a huge cage. He leads me and Scamp in followed my Hiro and Gramps. Lardass slams the door behind Gramps and growls at me.

"You may be the boss's new favorite, but when my dog gets a hold of you there won't be nothin left!" He spots in disgust. I walk to the front of the cage and look around. I spot some pit bull a few cages down staring at me.

"Hey there sweet thang?" Yells some dog, and that's what got the others going.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Stick her in my cage! I'll be sure to work her over!"

"Come over here!!!"

"Come to Pawpi!" I stare at the little shaking Chihuahua in the cage opposite of ours.

"Are you serious?" I ask looking at him. I could probably eat him in one bite. Hiro walks up beside me and growls at the Chihuahua.

"She's not interested Pawpi." The little Chihuahua takes a step back.

"My apologies, Hiro, didn't know she was already taken." I glare over at Hiro.

"I'm not taken." I growl bristling.

"Don't get all bitchy." Scamp barks a laugh.

"Not funny." I growl at Hiro and his smug smile.

"Its better they believe you're mine then some unattained bitch. Most of these guys wouldn't even think of getting within five feet of my bitch." He glares at all the other male dogs. I sigh and look up thinking, but pause taking a second look.

"They have no roof." I whisper.

"Huh?" Scamp looks at me curiously.

"I'm guessing you know what that means." Hiro says sitting down next to me grinning. I smile over at him.

"We can escape." Hiro shakes his head.

"Why not?!" Yells Scamp catching on to the idea. I watch as Hiro glares at the door. I look at the door to see a latch, but a complicated one.

"They've changed the locks and that latch would take at least five minutes for me to open. We don't have that kind of time with these guys patrolling every five minutes."

"But-" Scamps starts.

"And I refuse to leave anyone behind!" We all look over at Gramps in concern. He wouldn't ever be able to make it over the fence. He sighs sadly and looks at Hiro.

"Don't start Gramps!" Hiro barks.

"But you know as well as I do that you three have a lot longer life ahead of you than I do. Hiro I'm living on borrowed time now." He rests his head on his paws, ignoring the growls Hiro was sending him. I look at him sadly. Scamp walks over to Gramps and lies down next to him.

"What's borrowed time?" He asks.

"Don't answer that!" Hiro growls. Gramps ignores him and looks down at Scamp.

"It's when someone lives on even though they know they should be dead."

"Oh." Scamp looks down sadly. Well this is just depressing. I look over at Hiro and then back to the lock.

"Hiro?" He looks up at me.

"I think I can open the latch in less than a minute, but I need your help climbing." He looks at me in shock.

"How can you-" I smile at him.

"I've had practice with these locks." I walk over to the door standing up and resting my front paws on the door. "So do you think you could help?" I ask looking over my shoulder at him. He grins at me.

"Didn't know they taught this kind of thing in your fancy obedience class." I glare at him.

"Didn't know they taught how to be rude on the streets!" I growl at him. Scamp snickers while Gramps chuckles at us.

"When this is over you are so getting it."

"Hmph!" I turn my head away in pure snob fashion, nose high in the air looking away from the lowlife that dare disgrace your presence.

"Don't get all poodle on my." He laughs. I look back over at him grinning.

"Ah, young love." Sighs Gramps dreamily.

"Shut up!" Hiro and I yell in unison.

"Now," Hiro barks at me. "We have thirty minutes till they come back to feed us. Stick your paw through the hole in the fence." I do as I'm told. Hiro nods his head in approval.

"Keep doing that till you reach the top." I nod my head taking one of my back paws and putting it through the fence, soon it's followed by its mate. I continue to do this till I reach the top. I stop panting and whimpering as a sharp pain shoots through my feet.

"I know hit hurts but you have to keep going Saski!" He barks. I growl in frustration. I pull out my right paw and put it on the top of the fence. Soon the left follows.

"Now jump!" Hiro yells. I balance my self at the top before leaping off and landing without a sound. I turn around and stare at Hiro and the others through the fence.

"That was awesome!" Scamp barks.

"Good job, princess." Hiro compliments.

"Ha. Ha." I growl "Very funny." I walk back over to the door and stare at the latch. I jump and nuzzling it up I keep it open with my nose. Holding it open I use my paw to slide the latch up and to the side. I drop to the floor and step back as Gramps gets up and pushes on the door.

"Now," Hiro says getting out and looking around. "Where was that hole?"

"Um…everywhere." I say seeing tons of gaping holes in the walls. Hiro shakes his head.

"Ones that aren't monitored and don't lead to getting shot."

"Nice." I growl looking over at the shaking Scamp.

"Oh yeah." He says looking to the back of the room. "Follow me." We follow him to a stack of crates in a room in the back. Hiro jumps up on to one and continues to climb till he's at the top, which leads to-

"No roof!" I gasp remembering. Hiro groans.

"Of course, no roof stupid! You were the first one to point it out. Now get up here." He barks getting more annoyed. I growl. I jump up the first crate and so on till I'm one crate under Hiro. Gramps and Scamp follow, resting on the crate under me.

"Now is the tricky part." Hiro says looking out at something. I jump up to his crate. Looking out I spot a plank leading to a shed with a plank on it leading to building next door.

"Used to be a meat packing plant. Now all it does is collect rats and dust." Hiro turns around and looks at Gramps and Scamp.

"All right you two I'm going across first, then Scamp, then-"

"Gramps." I say interrupting him. Gramps looks at me.

"Saski-" He starts in a tired voice.

"No!" I bark. "You go before me and that's final." He sighs in defeat. I look over at Hiro to see him smiling at me.

"Thank you." He whispers. I pull on his ear causing him to yelp.

"No problem." He glares at me before stepping out onto the plank.

"All right I'm going across." I nudge Scamp closer.

"Watch him." I order. Scamp nods his head and focuses on Hiro. He walks across balancing like a cat.

"He's like a cat." Scamp whispers in awe. I laugh silently as Hiro makes to the shed. He turns back and barks.

"All right Scamp, your turn." I nudge him on the plank. He looks back at me with fear evident in his eyes.

"You'll be fine. I'm right here and Hiro's on the other side waiting for you. So don't worry." Scamp nods his head before heading out onto the plank. I whimper in worry.

"He'll be fine." Gramps whispers beside me. I smile at him as Scamp reaches the other end safely.

"Good that had me-"

"Oof!" Gramps yells being drug back. I spin around to see Lardass dragging Gramps backwards by his fur. Gramps whimpers in pain and looks at me with terrified eyes. I snarl. You just made your second fucking mistake. I lunge grabbing his arm between my jaws and biting down. I smile as I hear the snap and the scream. I release him the second he releases Gramps. You're trying to steal my friend. Gramps shoots across the plank me soon after. I howl in warning to Hiro and Scamp. Hiro gets my message and runs up the second plank leading us to the second building, down a flight of stairs out a hole and onto the street. I could hear Gramps and Scamp panting behind me from overexertion.

"Hiro, we need to stop for a little while." I yell over the wind. Hiro looks back at me then to Gramps and Scamp, soon his pace slow, and then even sooner he comes to a complete stop. He looks at all of us ginning.

"Dogs: 6 Humans: 0" Me and Scamp look up grinning, Gramps just looks at us heaving. I walk over to him.

"You gonna be fine?" I ask nudging him a little. He licks my nose causing me to sneeze.

"Yep. It'll take a lot more than that to get rid of this old geezer." I sigh. A loud rumbling sound brings our attention to Scamp. He looks away embarrassed.

"Maybe we should have waited to escape after we got fed." We all laugh at him. Then Hiro's stomach growls and soon it's a chorus a grumbling bellies. We all look at each other. I laugh sheepishly as my stomach growls the loudest. Then a light bulb goes off in my head.

"Riu!" I yell. The guys all look at me and then slide away a step.

"Who?" Hiro asks warily. I look at him excitedly.

"Riu, he's my-" I pause remembering they would think he was a dog. "He's my human friend. He'll feed all of us." I get up and look around trying to figure out where we were.

"Hiro?" I call.

"Yeah?" He asks coming up to my side.

"Do you know where we are?" He looks around and then runs off towards a building. "Wait there!"

"Hiro!" I yell. I sit down and glare after him. Gramps and Scamp walk up to me.

"Where'd he go?" Scamp asks sitting down next to me. Gramps lies down behind us.

"I don't know." I huff and lie down myself. A few minutes later Hiro comes running around the corner.

"Hiro!" Scamp shouts jumping up and down.

"Fifth Avenue." Hiro pants lying down. "We're on Fifth Avenue." I smile down at him.

"Good!" I bark happily. "That's only a five minute walk away from Riu's apartments." I get and start walking. I pause at the corner and look back.

"You guys coming!" Simultaneous groans come from the tiny group of males before they all get up and follow me. I smile as I begin to run, feeling the joy of running again. I race down the street the guys not far behind me. Hiro falls in place beside me followed by Scamp with Gramps trailing behind. We come to a stop outside the back entrance. I walk to the steps stopping at the bottom. The guys follow but more slowly. Hiro looks around warily. I throw my head back and howl my greeting.

"What the hell?!" Comes Riu's response. He storms out of his apartment looking ready to kill. I bark happily seeing him pause at the railing and look around. He looks down at me and burst out laughing.

"You and Saski definitely would have gotten along." He walks down the stairs and kneels down calling me over. I run over wiggling around with happiness. He scratches all over my body before flipping me over and rubbing my belly. My tail thumps the ground with joy. Scamp whimpers felling left out. I flip over and run to Scamp and the others. Hiro looks at me weirdly.

"You have it bad human lover." He chuckles at my still wagging tail. I nudge Scamp over to Riu. He follows me to Riu's side. Riu looks at Riu before holding his hand out for Scamp to smell. I nudge his side.

"He's a very nice person. Go on sniff him, he smells great!" I yip. Scamp wags his tail at my excitement and runs to Riu loving the affection and belly rubs.

"Only a dog Saski would like would clean me up, run off, and then bring friends home as if she owned the place." He looks up as Hiro and Gramps walks over. I sit down a little tired at using so much energy. He ruffles my hair like he used to do when I was human. Wow. That was only yesterday. Riu stands up looking down at all the dogs surrounding him and the little puppy jumping on him.

"I guess you want me to feed you all, huh?" He asks looking at me. Yes, I bark. Her shakes his head as if he knew that was the answer.

"Figures." He mumbles turning around to go up the stairs. I follow him halfway up, but stop looking back down at the bottom where everybody was still sitting.

"Come on you guys!" I bark. Scamp races up the stairs tail wagging, followed by the tamer Hiro and Gramps. We all walk into Riu's apartment to find huge bowls of food sitting in the hallway. Hiro and Scamp gulp the food down as fast as they can, while Gramps eats at a slower pace. I walk into the kitchen to find Riu making his own meal. He looks over at me.

"You eat already." I walk over to him and sit at his feet. He smiles at me. I whimper and nudge his leg.

"What?" He asks kneeling down and rubbing my head. Look at me, I whimper. He looks at me. Tell me you can see the real me. The real Saski, I whimper again. He looks at me worriedly.

"Maybe you're sick?" He says to himself. He stands up, grabs his plate and walks into the living room where everyone was either lying on the couch (Scamp) or sprawled out on the floor (Gramps and Hiro.) Riu walks over to the couch and pushes Scamp over.

"All right move yourself." He says playfully. Scamp crawls over a few inches. Riu plops down and looks at me.

"Come on." He says patting the spot beside him. I jump onto the couch and rest my head in his lap. He chuckles at all of us.

"This is what a family feels like, but it's not complete until Saski gets back, so I guess you guys will just have to stay here and wait." He informs us with a sad grin. Everyone wags their tail in agreement. I sigh a little more comfortable as Riu turns on the TV. My eyes slip close as I listen to everyone's steady breathing and Riu's silent laughter. I think I could wait a little longer to turn back and with that thought I slip off to sleep in Riu's lap.