Night may have been one of the most dangerous times, but it was something I looked forward too. I became skilled in sneeking past patrols, and evading the alert eyes of the guard dogs, I stayed aways from gun fire and stole away to a place I was not allowed. Though my midnight prowling was not without it risks it also had its rewards, for she came to expect my company. Often I would find her waiting for me, others times she would sneek up behind me to surprise me, but my senses were too keen for that, though I allowed her to believe she had caught me off guard to her delight, as she looked into my mixed eyes while she pushed me playfully to the ground.

  We talked for hours it seemed and I learned more and more of this beautiful creature.

  "What do you like to do for fun?" She asked as we played a game of tic tac toe in the sand. Something I had learned from my old life living with small children.

  "Well" I sighed thoughtfully. "I like to run" I shrugged, she giggled.

 "Thats all?, you mean theres nothing that you enjoy or like to do like a game or go to some special place" She said excitedly.

  I looked up from the game she was studing it throughly, looking for her next move.

 "I like being here with you" I said innocently, she looked up to me quickly, surprised, and at first I wandered if I had made a mistake all too soon, but she smiled gently.

  "I like being with you too" 

  I looked at her and half grinned, she giggled and then I noticed my ears were doing the wierd one up one down thing agian. I rubbed my paws over my head quickly, only for her to laugh harder. I smirked, she had the wierdest effect on me, when I was with her, I wasn't in control, almost like a dream.

 "Whats your favorite color?' I asked restarting the conversation.

 "Green" She smiled,How ironic, same as my eyes, I wandered if she had said that on purpose. Girls were confusing.

 "Whats yours?"

"Blue"  I said slyly, she laughed.

  The conversation continued, I pried everything out of her that I could, but she seemed to enjoy it, and I was glad she seemed to understand what to ask me and what not to ask me, for somethings I never spoke about, my past life was one of them.

  That night I learned she loved, flowers, long walks on a beach (very girly) she liked to laugh, (that she didn't tell me, it was just obvious)  he favorite color was green, she liked a food called pedigree (never heard of it). She disliked being in this place, so far from her him, and she hated what the people that lived here had done to her country. I also found out she was brave, and the strongest dog I had met since so many years ago. She was fighting for her nations freedom, but that confused me, for that meant she was also fighting for the human's life.

  I left her agian before sunrise, this time more confused than I had been any of the other times. I still did not understand her love for this human, but I did not see the time to ask her yet, so I left the subject.

     *****************************

   "Wake up" I said a bit tired myself. By the time I had walked home, it had been daylight, and the streets were already beginning to awake, which meant no sleep for me.

  Issac yawned as he turned over and looked at me. "Wow, good morning sunshine, you look awful"  He said.

  "Thanks you look real peachy yourself too" I said sarcasticly lying, agianst the wall.

 "I'm serious Sage, you look like you haven't slept in a week"  Issac said looking me over.

  I smirked, that was funny, I hadn't slept in a week. Between getting to the alley from Sam's and watching out for Issac all day, there was no time to sleep, but I wasn't gonna complain, to see her was worth it all.

 "I'm fine" I said standing up agian.

  "Right, why don't you let an old dog do the hunting huh?" He asked sincerely.

  "And let you get away with all the fun, I don't think so"  I smiled as I dashed out into the town, Issac behind me.

  We ate good agian, and when we got into town we had it out with some small red dog that the smartest thing on him was his mouth and he thought he owned the whole lot. When we were done with him, he ran tail between his legs out into the desert. I doubted we would see him agian. Thats the thing I hate the most about those little dogs, they have thier feelings on thier shoulders. Us bigger dogs could have a fight one day and big laughing and eating together the next, but not those little fellas you had it out with them and they never came back, just stayed away like some kinda coward.

   "So, are you going to tell me her name or must I guess?" Issac asked, the sun was just beginning to set almost, and my eyes were fixed over the hills.

  "What?" I asked as if I didn't know.

  "The girl thats been keeping you up late" He smirked.

  I sighed, there was no keeping it from him now.

  "Samantha, but she likes to be called Sam" I explained.

  Issac nodded with a smile, listening. "Tell me about her." 

  "Whats to tell?" I asked as if she were nothing when in truth, she was everything.

 "Come on Sage, let an old dog share in your joy" He said pleafully, knocking me with his paw.

 I sighed agian, he looked at me expectantly. "OK, ok I give in."  Issac smiled.

 "Alright from the beginning then" He said settiling down quickly.

 "I met her a few weeks ago when you were sick. I've been seeing her, but we are just friends" I stressed that.

  Issac ignored the last part. "Whats she like?"

  My mind raced, how to describe her, how to describe her?

  "She has golden fur, as smooth and beautiful as a sun rise itself, blue eyes like the ocean reflecting the stars, she runs so smooth like she can fly, she laughs alot" I didn't realize I was getting in my own world, but I went on.

   "A beautiful smile, a tender touch, shes the most beautiful thing I have ever seen"  I admitted. Issac layed beside me as we looked at the colors of the ending day.

  "Sounds like your in love my boy" Issac said smiling brightly.

  "Love?" I asked.

  "Yes, love" Issac pushed me playfully.

   "I don't know Issac" I hesitated.

   "She feels your every thought, a night with her is worth the world, she over takes you, when your with her suddenly everything is unclear, and your plans seem small and insignificant even if shes only yours for a moment" 

  I looked at Issac stunned, I didn't know he had it in him, he just said my thoughts aloud, the only difference was he compared them to love, something that even if I was expierencing it I wouldn't understand because it was the one thing I never really had, the only person I really cared for up till now was Issac.

   "How did"

  "I haven't always been old" Issac said cutting me short by answering my question.

 "Right" I smiled.

 "You should go to her" Issac said. I looked at him surprised. "But one thing before you go" He said standing to his paws. He went to his side of the broken down alley, and then going to his old sack he pulled out a small silver collar. From it dangled a bright red ruby jem and on exactly the opposite side there was a crystal clear diamond. It was the nicest thing I had ever seen in this dull place, and I had never known Issac to have anything more than his old sack that he had pulled from a garbage dump.

  "Happy birthday kido" Issac said slipping it over my neck before I could say a thing. I stared at it in amazement speechless.

 "Issac, how, but, I mean, how did you know it was my birthday? I haven't told anyone" I said.

 "I figured it out" Issac smiled, "You were almost two months old when you met me, count back and you land on a year ago today, the day you came into this world." Issac said sitting beside me.

I smiled then looked back at the gift he had given me.

  "Issac, I'm grateful, but I can't take this from you" I argued.

 "Aw, quit being to hard headed mutt, you haven't taken a thing, a gave it too you"

 "But this is probably worth something, I mean you could live like a king with this, I won't take it from you"

 Issac talked over me quickly. "It was my sons" He said.

  I just looked at him, Issac knew about most of my life's troubles. He knew why I was pushed by rage over instinct, hate over love, why I was hard in some ways. As I have told you, I was a puppy when I met him, and I needed some one willing to listen to my my crumbled heart, some one willing to dry the tears, for there were many. In a lot of was Issac had become like a father to me, he had taught me things that my Father himself had not been able to in the short time we shared. I had always looked up to him, yet in all the time we had spent together, I never knew Issac had once had a family, and I was not one to pry into his personal life, for all I knew Issac had spent his entire life on the street.

   "You had a son?" I asked.

   "Yes, one son," Issac took a deep breath.

   "His mother was a dainty little thing, hazel eyes, a gently laugh, smooth dark fur that sparkled when ever the sun touched it, and my son, he was strong and brave, smart, exactly like his mother mind you" Issac smiled.

  "He and my darling were killled by those men" Issac nodded toward the guarded house where the Iraqi military base was.

  "I'm sorry" I said gently after a moment.

  "Its alright, the point is Sage, you are now a year old." Issac began steadily.

  "In that year we have been through alot together and I watch you every day and I see the dog you are one day