getting from the Master anyway.” Rex replied.

‘Master’ was what all the animals called Mr. Williams. Mrs. Williams, they just called, Mrs. Williams, or Mistress.

Soon came out Mrs. Williams speaking of which, and she was devastated about the cabbages.

“Oh dear. My lovely cabbages! I was even thinking of going into the fair with one of them!” She turned and spotted Garret and scolded him. “Garret bad boy.” He whimpered. Mrs. Williams sighed. “Oh, the sap I am.” She said to herself and patted Garret softly. “I know you didn’t mean to cause trouble, Garret. But you have to learn on your own, of what to and whatnot to do. Alright?” She asked. Garret licked her hand, and she rubbed his ears, making his tail wag. “Alright, alright go on Garret! Go to the fields!” Garret happily raced into the fields for his work.

Crysta

“What number is she marked on the crate?” The man asked. “204. I think she’s a husky.” The other man replied back to the first. The first man leaned back a little to take a glimpse at the puppy. “She seems like a wooly coated one to me. Why don’t you put her in cell number 4.” The other man just nodded simply, and placed the puppy inside the cell. The puppy shivered frightened.

She was put in a cell with two other puppies, luckily around her age. One of the puppies, a mutt of sheepdog and German Shepard bounded up to her. “Hiya! What’s your name? Mine’s Sheba!” The little pup asked in a giggle. The newer pup lifted her head dizzily. “I’m… Crysta. I think.” She answered and shook her head. Sheba wagged her tail. “Cool! That’s Tom-tom over there!” She introduced excitedly. Tom-tom was a Canaan dog, puppy. He only had three legs.

Tom-tom limped on over to meet Crysta also. “Where’d you come from?” He asked kindly. Crysta turned towards Tom-tom, not noticing his missing foreleg.

“I dunno. Somewhere. But it wasn’t a nice place. Except for Jamie.”

“Who’s Jamie?” Sheba asked. Crysta sneezed a little from the rusting smell of the cell bars. She shook her head again, and responded sleepily.

“My human girl.”

“You mean was your human. You’re in the pound now.” Tom-tom told her. Crysta was confused.

“A pound?”

“The pound, you mean.” Tom-tom repeated a bit obnoxiously.

“The pound’s where humans don’t want dogs anymore. After a long time, they get rid of us.” Sheba explained softly. Her smile faded, as Crysta jumped up and down frightened. She started howling and barking frantically. Sheba quickly slapped her tail over Crysta’s face. “Shhh! We already have a plan.” Sheba told her quietly.

Tom-tom quickly looked over each of his shoulders, and then to the sides, and then motioned Crysta and Sheba over with his tail.

There was a lose board of wood that walled the end of the cell. Tom-tom took another few looks over his shoulder and to each side, and then seeing it was all clear, he started digging at the end of the stone ground. There was dirt at the end of the wall that he was digging through. When he dug all the dirt out, it was white outside, revealing snow from outside the building. Crysta smiled and wagged her tail, knowing that this meant a way out.

“We’re going to escape tonight, when it’s completely dark outside, and the moon’s not showing. But we have to wait ‘till there’s only one man here on the night shift.” Tom-tom explained seriously. Then he put all the dirt back. “We’re going to break the lose board tonight, so that way we don’t have a risky chance of not fitting through the hole, and getting caught.”

Crysta wagged her tail in excitement. “Did you guys think of this all by yourselves?” Crysta asked, in much more cheerful mood then she had been in before. Sheba and Tom-tom looked down at the ground shamefully.

“No…. there used to be another dog with us, who was a little bit older than us. He had been here for 6 months.”  Tom-tom began only to be finished by Sheba also in a glum tone.

“They decided to get rid of him.”

Crysta felt bad now, but then felt confident of getting them all out.

“Then at night we leave.” She declared, repeating what the other two had already told her. So they waited. When sunset came, Tom-tom told the other two to go to sleep, while he’d wake them up at night when it was time to go. Crysta snuggled next to Sheba and Tom-tom, and soon drifted into peaceful sleep.

            “Crysta. Crysta, wake up!” Sheba barked quietly. Crysta shook her head sleepily.

“Huh? What is it?” Crysta asked and then yawned. A chill went through her as she remembered that she was inside  the pound with other dogs, including her two new friends.

“Tom-tom started digging on the hole when he woke up. But the lose wood is having trouble moving, and the man who’s watching us tonight wakes up over the tiniest noises. We gotta hurry!” Crysta struggled to get up. Sheba went through the hole first. Tom-tom was already outside waiting. Crysta went through after Sheba, but her paw got stuck!

“Tom-tom! Sheba! Wait!” She howled. They turned and tried to free her foot. Luckily they did, but Crysta’s paw was bleeding. The other dogs started barking inside angrily, since they realized the pups had escaped.

“Oh no!” Sheba barked worriedly. Tom-tom pushed the two younger pups ahead of him.

“Get going!” He shouted. The man’s voice sounded as he tried to make the other dogs quiet.

The two pups raced away towards the end of town. They soon realized that Tom-tom wasn’t behind them. Sheba looked devastated.

“I’m going back after him!” She shouted to Crysta as she raced back in the other direction. Crysta didn’t know what to do, so she just raced towards the fields farther away from town. She kept going and going until when she turned the town was as small as her size. She huffed, trying to catch her breath and then kept going. Her bleeding paw felt numb to her from the cold weather. Winter was now ending, but the weather was still freezing. Soon when a log was nearby, Crysta raced to it, and slept next to it trying to keep warm. She didn’t want to think about Jamie, Sheba, Tom-tom, or Sandra. Or the pound. Then with the last breath of voice she had, she barked. “The past, I’m leaving behind me. Always.” With that she drifted into sleep.