green leash, was a small cream, black, and gray puppy; she trotted slowly behind him with her head hung so low that her black tipped ears dragged across the stony floor.

The pound worker slowed down when he reached one of the cages near the end of the hallway. Iggy lifted her head when she heard a creaking noise and saw the daogcatcher opening the cage door.

When he reached down to take the leash off her, the thought of running immediately popped into her head, but her hopes were crushed when the man swiftly slid the cream puppy across the cold floor and into the scarcely hay covered floor of the cage with his foot. It didn’t even hurt, Iggy realized, the man hadn’t even push her that hard.

After locking the cage, Anthony squatted down to be eye level with the dog. “Don’t worry, girl. I know you won’t be here long.” He gave a reassuring smile, but Iggy could read the hurt and worry in his blue eyes. “I’m sure you’ll get adopted by someone...I mean, who could resist this cute lil’ face?” Anthony stuck his hand through the bars at Iggy; she saw it floating toward her head and snapped at it.

Anthony had faster reflexes than she expected; he withdrew his hand with lightning speed and all Iggy managed to do was gnash her two rows of teeth together. When she looked at the man again, he was already on his feet, examining his right hand to make sure the puppy hadn’t snagged his flesh. Finding it perfectly unscaved, Anthony picked up the leash from the floor, rewrapped it, and placed it back in his pocket. Iggy kept glaring at him through the evenly placed bars. “Uh, I’ll feed you in about...” He glanced at his cheap wrist watch, “...Ten minutes.” With that said, the dogcatcher walked back down the long hallway and through a door that had light coming from underneath it. When he opened it, Anthony was engulfed by the light, but he, and the brightness, soon disappeared once he stepped through and closed the door back.

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The puppy sat at the barred door of her cell for a moment before she uttered a quiet whimper. Suddenly, a low howl echoed through the room, and, startled, she jumped back and searched for where the noise had come from. When she thought she pinpointed its location, another mournful howl filled the stale air of the pound. Soon it sounded like every single dog back there was crying and wailing.

Iggy whimpered right along with them. She stuck her shiny black nose through the bars and sniffed the air. Her olive eyes watered as each note hit her ears; just by listening, Iggy could tell what every dog’s backstory was of winding up in the pound was: one of them was abandoned by his owners when they had a new baby, the two puppies from the van howled out that their mother had been hit by a car while trying to escape with them from a group of stray dogs and the two siblings wandered around the streets until they were picked up tonight. Then Iggy’s ears perked when a familiar booming voice cut through the others. The collie wailed a long story of living on a farm in rural Arkansas and was given to his owner’s close family who lived in this town after his master was murdered in a robbery in his house. After that, the black and white dog was left on the streets by his new family after he was beaten and misused by them. They finally came back and got him, only to give the mix breed to the pound after the stated that he had “attacked them and other people.”

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Iggy felt tears sting her pretty green eyes when the older dog finished his long tale. A sharp howl erupted from behind her and Iggy gasped in shock. She whirled around to see a small dog standing partially in the shadows of the back of their cage. It howled again, but Iggy payed no attention to what its message said; she was more interested in the dog itself.

Finally, the other puppy lowered its head from the air and calm brown eyes met inquiring olive ones. A cheeky smile crossed the other’s cream muzzle. “Hiya,” he said, brown eyes sparkling. “Oh, sorry if I scared you.”

Iggy just nodded as her way of saying, it’s alright. The other puppy cocked his orange head to the side, causing the fox-like tufts of fur on his cheeks to hang from his face. “Uh,” he said, giving his new cellmate a confused look. “Did you hear me?”

Iggy nodded again.

“Then how come you didn’t say answer me?”

The cream and black puppy sighed and opened her mouth. She pointed at it with her paw, closed it, then shook her paw side to side.

“You can’t talk? O-oh, you’re mute?” the orange puppy asked sadly as Iggy nodded again. “Could you...could you tell-er show me your name?” he asked, making eye contact with the girl dog again.

A smile spread across the pound’s newest member’s muzzle and she found a patch of dirt on the floor of the cell. The puppy dug into the soft earth with her claws, etching out letters. When she was finished, she stepped back to admire her work. The other puppy trotted up beside her and read the word.

“Iggy?” He looked up at the cream newbie as she wagged her feathery tail and let her tongue loll out the side of her opened mouth. “Well it’s nice to meet you, Iggy,” he said with a smile. “My name’s Spencer.”