ripped to pieces and the whole world seemed so unfair and cruel. And she felt so guilty.

“I am so sorry, Rocco,” she whispered and let her tears to fell from her eyes. “I love you… I didn’t mean to hurt you… and I killed you!”

These words had echoed in her head until she felt asleep.

            And once again, the morning came. Cold days were over and the sun was shining like nothing had happened. Like everything was alright. But it wasn’t. She didn’t know why, but she had to go there once again. Her legs were weaker and weaker with each step she made.

The hole was closer and closer... and the truth too.

She held her breath and looked through the hole. She hoped she would see Rocco lying near his kennel, but all she spotted was just a pool of blood and an empty collar. And the collar was ripped like the master hadn’t wanted to lose the time to unleash the dog. Rocco wasn’t there.

            That was all she needed to see. She turned back and her head was full and empty at the same time. Her ears were lowered like her head and she slowly walked away. Then two familiar paws took her whole field of view.

            No.

            No!

            She looked up. He had a wound on his head and his neck was covered in blood as he had been trying to rip the collar.

            “I ran away… for you… After you left, he thought I was dead... so he went away... but I... I was alive and ... I ripped that collar... and-” He whispered.

Starlett's eyes were filled with tears again “Rocco…”

            Bystanders watched them in a silent amazement. Tim gasped and the rest of dogs that was there couldn’t believe their eyes. The monster wasn’t… the monster. The Doberman was one of them. “I suppose… this… is the death of the monster we used to know…” one golden retriever said. “Yeah… That’s right,” Dogs began to whisper and when Rocco kissed Starllet even quiet awwww could be heard. “I think we owe him something…” Tim sighed and slowly walked to the couple and the rest of the dogs followed him.

Two days later…

“Honey, could you do something with that dobe? It sits in front of our door and it’s waiting for Star, I think. I know it sounds silly, but-“

“Okay. But it keeps returning every time. And I think Starlett likes it.” Starlett’s master stood up and was about chasing the Doberman once more.

“No, dear… I mean look at it. That poor dog is hurt. Look at his head. And I think it’s hungry, too,” his wife smiled. Yes, that was one of reasons why he loved her. She was gentle and understanding not only to people, but to animals, too.

“Well then… I always wanted a Doberman,” The man smiled. He opened the door and let Starlett to go outside. “How shall we call … him?” he asked.

“What about Rocco?”

            “Yeah… Rocco… I like this name.”

THE END

Well, you made it. This is the end. And therefore this is the place where I will say thanks to the ones who helped me, inspired me and so on.

First… why did I write this? I saw one page about abused dobes and their stories. And these stories were full of sadness, cruelty, abusing and a lot of them ended with the death. And since dobbies are my favourite dogs, I felt bad. And I just wanted to write the story with a happy end. Yeah, there were stories with happy endings, but… Well, we need more happy ends, no?

So and now… I want to thank Rebel. She is really wonderful friend and she gave me the ideas for the names of Starlett and Rocco. So I used them. And I like them, too. Thanks.

And of course Taka_PL who sacrifices his time to read my stories and provides me a feedback. Thanks too.

So well… I don’t plan a sequel, so… well… ok…