As I close my eyes slowly, never to reopen again. My entire life was right there, in front of me, flashing right before my eyes. And I realized, that even though this was the life I didn’t expect to be lived in, it was the most exciting experience ever. And I smile as I remember when everything was…different. Different than right now at least.
CHAPTER 1: Stolen!
My name is Buck and I am a St. Bernard/Scotch Shepard Mix. I was born in a cardboard box in a living room in
The next morning, our parents got us ready to be sold. And that meant taking a bath! *Shudders* I’m still getting shivers from the thought of baths! And in a few hours, we were placed in a cardboard box (a different one) and we waited. Soon people, especially kids ran to the box where we were. It felt kind of awkward for a lot of humans to be this close to us, saying how cute we look and stuff. But less people came to me and another pup, my brother, because we were the only ones who had wolf-like faces. But I was the only one of the two who inherited my dad’s (The
“Hey there, little guy.” He said as he ruffled the fur on my head. “Ya need a home? Well, I guess I could use a companion.” I laughed because now the ruffling tickled! “And a spunky one at that. I’ll take him!” When those last three words were said, a spark of thrill went through me as he carried me home, telling me that this was where I truly belonged. I waved goodbye to my parents, who waved back, tears running down my Mom’s cheek. But I knew those were happy tears.
The man’s name was Judge Miller, and he was exactly the kind of person I wanted as an owner. It was like a miracle! Judge named me Buck because of my big size (figures) but I liked it, and it suited me.
Watching me grow is almost exactly the opposite of watching paint dry. By the time I was full grown, I weighed about 190-200 pounds! (Not my fault!) Well, partly. I just love to eat!
The two years I had lived with Judge Miller had been one of the happiest moments of my life. He took me for walks every day, played with me in the yard, I took care of him when he was ill, and almost every night we would sit by the fire place (whether it was lit or not) and he would talk to me. He could talk to me about everything! His problems, the weather, a book he read recently, anything! One night, was the night I’d like to officially begin my adventure.
This night, he decided to talk to me about money. In this time (around the 1920’s) money was scarce and it was very hard to find jobs. He said we were one of the luckiest people in
There was one other person I forgot to mention. The Gardener. Judge Miller had a few people to do things for him while he works or plays with me. And one of them was the Gardener. I forget his name. But he was always so devious of me. He was only doing this to make some money, but he feels he’s not being paid enough, and he feels that Judge is lazy because he can’t to his own work. And when he plays with me, he’d just have to watch while he waters the plants. I felt kind of bad for him over the years, until that night. You see, he had a devious plan. A plan to get rid of me, for good. And he knew just how to do it.
When I awoken from my sleep, I was being dragged out of my house! I squirmed, trying to break free, but I was on a leash. Then I looked up to see the Gardener, pulling me. I didn’t squirm around as much because and as much as I felt bad for him, I trusted him. I looked around and saw he was dragging me to his car. I always loved car rides, so I didn’t bother escaping when the Gardener carried me in the back seat. I didn’t know why the Gardener was driving me around this late, but it was a short five minutes before the car stopped. I got ready to jump out of the car and run back to the house, but when he opened the door, I wasn’t home. I was at a train station! I watched as the Gardener got out of the car to meet a huge man. The man gave the Gardener a stack of cash, and he smiled and griped it in his hands. Next he went to the car and carried me out. I was squirming like crazy because I didn’t know what was going on! In a minute, I was being thrown into a cage beside a train that looked like it was about to leave. The Gardener said bye to me, and then he laughed, an evil laugh. Next thing I knew I was being carried inside a car on the train by the big man. He put the cage with me in it on some boxes and he went to another room. As soon as he left I tried to break free, but I couldn’t reach the hinge because I had huge paws. So I just barked repeatedly, over and over again for someone to let me out. Soon the big man was back and I quieted down a little bit, but didn’t stop barking. But then I saw the big club in his hands, and then he yelled at me, but I couldn’t understand human words unless they were simple commands like, “sit”, “lie down”, or “stay”. So I still didn’t stop barking. So he threw the club over his head, still gripping it tight. And suddenly hit the hinges off the cage. I was free! Or so I thought…
Right after that I jumped out of the cage as a huge whistle was being blown from the train. But I really didn’t know what happened after that. Everything went completely black, at least for a minute. When I woke up I was in another cage with a stronger lock. There was really no point in getting out this time.
Days passed, and I was parched and starving. I was not used to not eating for a day or two. And I couldn’t run around either. Yeah, I could get up on all fours and turn around in a circle, but that was it! And the worst part was, if I barked for any reason, even growled, I would get clubbed. I had no idea why I was here, or where I was going for that matter. But all I knew was, I didn’t like it here.
Luckily, the train stopped in a matter of three days. I didn’t really care where I was anymore, I just wanted food. The huge man carried me out of the car, and guess what? I was put on ANOTHER train! But this train was different, instead of just me, this car had a lot of dogs in it! I couldn’t even count the endless rows of caged dogs, whimpering and barking, wanting to get out, just like me.
They put me in a new row, so I wasn’t next to anyone. I sat alone, hungry as ever. But at least I was aloud to whimper, as all the other dogs were continuously doing. After three minutes, the train finally pulled out of the station, and I was going somewhere else now.
I was now lucky. Because they brought me food this time! Even though it was less than half of what Judge Miller used to give me, it was still food. So I ate it. When the food was gone, I could finally think of other things right now. I thought about Judge, how he was so happy when he found me. And now, two years later, I was stolen by his own worker! I couldn’t believe I was so mindless back then, thinking it was just a simple car ride. Well, I actually had no choice anyway, because I was leashed. I wondered how Judge would be feeling right now. He must be looking everywhere for me. Poor Judge Miller. Now he probably thinks I’m a goner, or worse, that I abandoned him! I gasped mentally. He could actually be thinking that I took advantage of him these two years and finally left for another place. That Gardener could tell him anything! I cried myself to sleep that night, thinking about how Judge Miller could ever think I just abandoned him!
CHAPTER 2: Curly
The next morning was a better one. I had eaten breakfast, and drank out of my small water bowl, which was now empty (again). And thought positively. Maybe Judge didn’t care if I was apart from him, just as long as I was okay. And I was, for the most part. And love has no boundaries, so we will never be apart technically. I was still sad, though, that I will probably never see him again, but I had to be strong. I had to be brave.
I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out where we were going. I had to yell to another dog in front of me, it was so loud in here. He yelled back saying he didn’t know. None of them knew, actually. I didn’t get it. What do humans want with dogs anyway? What do they have against dogs? I didn’t know at the time, but soon I’ll find out.
The next day, well, could’ve gone better. Here’s what happened.
I was taking a short nap after my small breakfast. That was the only thing holding me back from going into a frenzy was the little food I’d gotten. I was getting pretty used to it now, though. But I was woken up by the sound of the train stopping. I thought to myself, Yes! I’m finally getting off this train! But sadly, it only stopped to pick some more dogs up. Everyone was practically silent as they waited for the new arrivals. They were never this way when I came on board, I thought. I guessed they never noticed me.
Three dogs came on board the train, two were scared to death, but one was actually IN a frenzy! This dog was snapping and biting and growling and clawing it’s way out of the cage. The man holding the cage reached into his pocket as fast as he could, and pulled out something like a small rocket with a point at the end. Then I realized it was a dart. It kind of looked like the darts Judge Miller used in his Dart Board game, but this one was far more dangerous. The man put the dart in a special container, and then blew into it. Then, after a few seconds, the spazzing dog finally stopped and fell to the ground of the cage. The man breathed a sigh of relief, and picked the cage back up again, because it dropped while the dog was in the frenzy. He put (I mean threw) the cage next to me and left. I looked at its non-moving body in horror. What did he DO to it?! I sniffed as close as I could and could tell it was a girl dog. Okay. What did he do to HER?! I stood there, waiting for her to move, but minutes passed. Nothing. I tapped another dog on the shoulder.
“Excuse me.” I said.
“AAHHHH!” The dog jumped and slammed his back on the wall farthest from me.
“Hey, it’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you.”
“I-I’m sorry. I’m just a little scared, t-that’s all. Do you know w-where we’re g-going?”
“I’m afraid not. No one knows. But I can tell you this: I’m not sure we’re going anywhere pleasant. But can you tell me what happened to her?” I pointed at the girl dog still motionless next to me.
“Oh. She’s just unconscious. That dart has some sort of poison in it to make you sleep. It’s only temporary. But I’m telling you, I wouldn’t want to get anywhere near her when she wakes up. She’ll go MAD!!”
“Have you guys known each other?”
“Only for about 10 minutes, and those 10 minutes were the worst of my life…”
“Well, thanks for telling me. I was just worried about her.”
“It’s just nice knowing you.” He said as he turned around to sleep.
Now I was a little afraid. She could kill me if she wasn’t in that cage! But she could still do a lot of damage even inside the cage. But she’s not moving now, so that’s good…for now.
About an hour later, while I was sleeping once more, this huge banging sound filled my eardrums. As soon as I woke up my cage was bumped and it fell to one side! I landed with a crash and looked up immediately. She has awoken…!
I screamed in horror at her while she was going crazy once more. I was just lucky she wasn’t rabid! Some of the dogs next to me screamed as well, and tried to break open the cage, but only I knew that they would fail. The loud barking that was going on almost constantly got even louder! My paws raced to my ears to block the horribly loud barking, but it was still coming through. I looked at the crazy dog again. She was spinning in her cage clawing every inch of the metal bars loose, but all she left was a small dent in one small bar. She snarled loudly in fury, and jumped in her cage. It jumped with her. Soon her feet were hurting terribly, and now she started to howl in fury. I had to stop the madness, but as soon as I touched her shoulder, she whipped her head to my cage that was still on its side. And she growled deeply in anger. I looked into her eyes. They were red with the fury that controlled her. I could almost see them burning with rage, but underneath all that anger, I could sense a warm, soft, true heart, but only broken. I stopped the screaming at once and talked to her.
“Please! Don’t do this! I’m a friend! You have to stop causing havoc, and scaring everyone!”
“…What’s he DOING?!...” The scared dog that talked to me earlier said to himself.
“I know you’re not always like this! I know you have a heart, a GOOD one! Please listen to it! Be who you are!” I said to her. And I actually got through to her! Now the clawing and the growling got softer, and softer, and her eyes were cooling down. She was listening. Soon, all she was doing was gasping and breathing loudly from all the movement she has made, and her eyes were now a twinkling dark blue. All the other dogs were amazed at what he’d done. And I, was proud of her.
“Thanks.” She breathed. And that was all she said before she collapsed from exhaustion. I was still smiling, knowing I had done a good thing for her. And I rested as well, ignoring the staring from nearly all of the dogs in the car of the train!
One dog put his paw to his heart and looked up to the sky. “Whoever you are, you’re a true hero…”
The next day I woke up and had breakfast as usual. Then I looked over at the cage next to me. The female dog was still sleeping, but soudly. I smiled again. I had no idea how good this would feel until now. I waited a few minutes before she finally woke up. She glanced at me, then looked away and put her head down again.
“Uhh. Hi.” I said to her. She turned her head to look at me, and she had an annoyed expression on her face.
“What do YOU want?”
“Well, since I helped you, I wanted to formally introduce myself.”
“What do you mean you HELPED me?!”
“Hey, hey. Easy! All I want is to introduce myself.”
“Well all I want is for you to shut your mouth! So stop talking to me!”
“You know, I really thought you had a heart. A good heart. But I guess I was wrong. Sorry I helped you see that.” I said as I turned around and sat down. All the female dog did was scoff and lay back down for the next three hours.
When I was ready to face her again, to tell her what her problem was, I turned back around to see, that she was crying. I immediately stopped thinking of the horrible things she said to me and comforted her.
“Hey, what’s the matter?” I asked softly.
“You’re not mad at me?” She said in a surprised tone
“Well, I was. But why are you crying?”
“You were right.” She almost whispered that. “I don’t have a heart. I’m just a wild havoc-causing monster!”
“No, no. I didn’t mean that.”
“Yes you did. And you’re right.”
“No. I was wrong. You DO have a heart. Everyone does. I was just mad about the way you yelled at me.”
“I’m very sorry for that. You see, my life wasn’t really…peaches and cream. I was a street dog all my days until I was captured and put on this stupid train.”
“Really? I never would’ve guessed. You’re just so…ah! What’s the word? Pretty?” I smiled, thinking I was as dumb as a post.
She giggled and officially stopped crying. “Yeah, thanks. So what’s your name?”
“The name’s Buck. And yours m’lady?”
“Don’t call me m’lady or you’ll wish you had never been born! And my name is Curly.”
“Curly.” I repeated.
“It’s a stupid name huh?”
“No, it’s perfect.” I smiled, thinking I finally stopped her rages for good.
CHAPTER 3: A Powerful Street Dog
Curly then talked about her life on the streets. “My mother gave birth to me in the same alley I’ve lived in for years. I also had brothers and sisters, for a while.”
“What happened?”
“You see, I had a brother named Scruffy. He was my best friend in my pup hood days. He would always stand up for me, and stay by my side when I was sad. Helped me when I needed it, and played with me when I got bored. But one day, he started to cough, almost nonstop. And then he was burning up. I was getting worried. My mother couldn’t do a thing about it. On the last day, he told me never to hold back any fears, show courage, and true heart.” Then she sighed. “He was the first to go…”
“You mean, your siblings caught the disease, too?”
“And died from it. I was the only one to survive, and I mean the ONLY one.”
“Are you saying your mom died of it, too?”
She nodded slowly.
“Aww man, I’m so sorry.”
“No, really, It’s fine. I knew it before it happed to her anyway.”
“So, you lived on the streets yourself?”
“Yep. I taught myself everything on being a street dog, with a little outside help. Soon I became the master of my alley. And then I became the master of my street when I turned 1. Everyone, besides the humans, had to do whatever I say as long as they were on my street. I was on the top!”
“I guess you were pretty happy then.”
“Well…yeah. I was kinda happy, but I did miss my family. I mean Scruffy’s last words were the reason I became the queen of my street. I just wanted them to be there with me. But that all changed through the months, because I was so consumed by power, that I went crazy! I gave everyone unnecessary orders and told everyone to pay up even their last bit of food for almost no reason. And if they even so much as touch me, they either get thrown into the Portal of Darkness and Evil, or get killed, depending on how MUCH they touched me. I just didn’t realize that I was power crazy back then until just hours ago.”
“Wait, you had a Portal of Darkness and Evil? How is that possible?!”
“No, it’s actually my kingdom’s name for the Dump.”
“The Dump?”
“You don’t wanna know how it got that name. It’s a long story.”
“Okaaay. So how were you put on this train?”
“Oh, one day I decided to take a stroll around my kingdom/street, so I hired a couple of dogs, those dogs right next to you, actually.”
I turned around to them and they waved, knowing they were toast for listening in on the conversation. I turned back around to her.
“Anyway, I made those dogs carry me around my street, one carrying an umbrella because I was so used to the darkness, a little ray of light could BLIND me!” I stared at her. “Well okay I was overreacting at the time, but anyway. Soon, I told them to slow down, because the cold wind was getting to my face, but they said they couldn’t because they were suspicious about a white car following them. I didn’t care at the time, and just told them to do what I said. Later we were close enough that people got out of the car and started chasing us. Now I ordered them to go faster, and faster, and at some point, I was home. But they cornered me against the end of the alley, with the other dogs. I wasn’t afraid though. I ordered them to stop, but they still kept coming toward me. That was very new to me, well not brand new, because I couldn’t order anyone before the sickness epidemic. I ordered them again and again, and they still stayed. I was getting frustrated! So I ordered the dogs to fight the men. And all that was left were some chained up dogs in the back of the car. I was the only one left. They started to come toward me again. But one of them stepped on a small blanket. He picked it up and looked at it, then he tore it to shreds and threw it on the ground. And then he stomped all over it and shouted stuff. I can’t speak human. But the men didn’t know that was all to personal, because that very blanket was the prized possession of Scruffy!! Then I remembered those last words he’d said to me, and put them into action. I was so mad, because they destroyed the last connection I had to my brother! But I didn’t know what happened next because it was all a blur before I got thrown into the car. I was in a frenzy the whole way to the train station, and I couldn’t stop! It was madness I had! MADNESS!! And you probably know the rest of the story because you were there. Not much happened after that.”
“Wow…So now you’re yourself again, because of me?”
“Yep. I owe it all to you. Now that I’m not ruling a kingdom anymore I can start a new life.”
“But are you going to miss the old one?”
“Of course I will. I mean, what’s better than for people to listen to you for once?”
“Do you mind if I ask where your alley was, what state?”
“
“
“Yeah, why?”
“They’re taking us north!”
“Huh? Ok, what are you saying, Buck?”
“I’m saying that I’m from L.A!”
“L.A? What does that mean?”
“It means
“Ohhh! I get it. So we’re traveling north. Why north?”
“How should I know? Oh man! This is big! At least we know what direction we’re going.”
“But we might go as far as
“
“I’m just saying. I mean this train could stop any minute.”
“But we could already BE in
“I’m sorry, Buck. But there is nothing we can do to stop this. Even when I was in my frenzy I couldn’t bust this cage open! We’re just going to have to wait and see where they take us.”
“I know. I just wish I could go back to my owner again.”
“Ha! So you ARE a housedog!”
I just rolled my eyes, and I tried to look at the train window, but all I could see was white.