him sooner in the first place.  Maybe these pups weren’t even his…

            But that was a lie, he knew it.

            He kept his eyes either on his mate or the surrounding area.  He couldn’t look at the pups, couldn’t allow himself to love them.  He couldn’t protect them or provide for them when they got older.

            Eventually, Angela cried herself to sleep.  Her puppies slept with her and she kept them encased between her body and her tail.  She had swept all the snow away from them.

            Star stood up as soon as his mate fell asleep.  Slowly, he began to back away, never once looking at the living bundles he knew were his.

            “I’m sorry,” he said, and vanished into the streets, far away from the town and from his family.

            Angela woke up the next morning as terrified as she had been the night before, along with heart-broken.  The world outside the stairs was cold and more snow was beginning to fall.  She looked at her five puppies and curled herself around them tighter, noticing they shivered.

            One puppy cried, no matter how much licking or caressing Angela did.  She was a golden color, just like her mother, and even though her little eyes weren’t open, she padded her tiny paws on the ground, already curious about the world.

            Another puppy cried, this one shivering more than the others.  He was a darker color, a blend in between that of his father and mother.  He tried his hardest to curl up beside his mother, placing his paws on her stomach.

            Angela embraced her pups and cried at the disappearance of their father. 

            “I should have known better,” she said.

            She hated Star, not for leaving her, but for leaving her newborn pups.  She understood he was scared, but she wasn’t ready to become a mother, either.

            Along with her pups, she noticed she began to cry herself.  The pups started to cry even more.  They weren’t hungry, they had just fed, but they were cold, and even though they were little, Angela guessed they were lonely.

            “Don’t cry, my little ones, Mommy’s right here.”

            They continued to whimper and the snow outside started to fall even more.

            “By your side, in seconds if you ask it; Arms out wide, to welcome you to stay; Near enough to listen to your heart song; Always there, to help you on your way; Family…,” she sang.  The pups could not hear and they could not see, but they could feel.

            Their mother’s stomach vibrated as she sang to them, comforting them. 

            She would sing her lullaby to them every night, even when they grew to 6-weeks old.

            Angela was sleeping soundly with her pups when the tether was strapped around her neck.  She was dragged from the stairs without a second’s notice.  She put up a good fight, she snapped and kicked at the men, but she had no chance.

            Her pups were left alone and cold until the stairway.  In the truck, Angela looked through the window.  Her mid-gold son, the one who shivered and cried as a baby, took a step from behind the stairs, trying to make his way to his mother.

            He fell in the snow, his paws not used to the shifting, cold ground.

            “Stay there!”  Angela barked from the truck, tearing streaming down her face.  “Don’t leave!  I’ll find you!”

            The truck began to speed away and Angela howled as her pups vanished out of her sight.

            For a number of long, agonizing days, Angela tried to claw her way out of kennel.  Eventually, finding she could not get out herself, she pretended to be the best behaved dog she could, so she could be adopted and free.

            It was three days after she was taken when a human family finally adopted her.  She pretended to be their best friend, and she played with their child, until they fell in love with her and took her to their home.  

            When they approached the house, the dad of the family barely got the door open before Angela bolted from the family and ran to the alley where she had left her pups.  Her heart fell when she realized they were gone.  She sniffed around for them, the falling snow covered up any pawprints they may have made, but she did smell a human.

            Maybe he had adopted them.

            Or maybe he hurt them.

            She followed the tracks for as long as she could, until the trail was lost in the snow.  She searched endlessly for her pups, calling out their names.  She asked any dog she came across, but they had seen nothing.

            Eventually, she went to her last resort.  She went to the junkyard and approached the old car.

            “Star!”  She barked.

            Star looked down at her.  He was startled she’d come.  He shouldn’t have been here in the first place, but where else was there for him to go?  He had lived on the road for awhile, but the junkyard always felt like home to him.

            “What is it you want?”  He said, debating whether or not to explain why he was even in town, where he had the chance of seeing her again.

            “The pups,” she said, hysterically, “they’re gone!  Someone’s taken them!  Please, Star, I can forgive you for what you did to me, but I need your help!”

            Star looked up at the dark grey sky, at the falling snow.

            “I can’t help you,” he said.

            “What?”

            “They’re your pups, you should kept your eyes open.”

            “Star, how dare you!”

            “I didn’t claim responsibility for those pups, I don’t even think they’re mine,” he said.  All lies, he thought.

            But what else was he to say?  He wasn’t expecting to see Angela and he definitely wasn’t expecting to hear their…her pups were missing.  He became flustered, so he came up with excuses.

            “It’s freezing outside, they’re probably dead wherever they are.  Stop searching, before you get hurt,” he said, turning his back to her.

            Once, a long time ago, Angela could barely believe Star would say such a thing to her, but now, knowing the dog he was, he wasn’t too surprised.

            Without saying another word to him, she left the junkyard forever.

            When Angela was finally gone, Star dared to turn back around.  He let out a huge breath, practically having held it in when she first approached him.  Seeing her was like seeing an apparition, though their last encounter besides tonight was not that long ago.

            “Did you get yourself in trouble,” Buster said, coming from behind a large dresser.

            Star looked at him,