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The first thing I remember seeing was my mother. She was beautiful. Brown and tan, with big brown eyes. She looked at me so lovingly. Over the next couple of weeks me and my brothers and sisters all started romping around. Then, one by one my brothers and sisters started to leave. My mother was sad, but told me that this happened every time she had pups. Soon it was just me and my brother. This family came and stopped near our pen. They had an interesting smell. There were two boys and a girl with this family. The wife and husband kept arguing about something and the older boy kept poking at me and my brother with a stick. I didn't like him. Soon, the husband picked me up and turned me all around. I was then put into a box and it got dark in there. I was scared and wanted my mother and brother. I over heard the wife tell the kids that I was only 5 weeks old, and because of that they'd gotten "a great deal". Not to mention that I was a mixed breed. I didn't understand what was being said, I just knew that it was dark, I was being bumped around in this box thingy and I was alone.Soon the bumping stopped and I felt the box being lifted out. Then it got really bright as the husband opened the top and let me out of the box. It smelled funny... AND it smelled like another dog. Pretty soon I saw him. He was a min pin and he smelled older but, he was my size! Someone to play with! I bounded over to him, but he snapped at me! He wasn't nice at all. Kinda grouchy.
After a week at my new home, the husband and wife put me outside. Something about me peeing in the house too much and "didn't have no time for that crap". I huddled outside the front door all night. It was chilly and it was so big out here! Where was my mother? Why wasn't that mean snappy dog out here too?
I got hungry and cold. My whole body was shivering. The wife would throw me scraps sometimes, and I'd gobble them up. Sometimes I wasn't fast enough and the mean snappy dog would run to them first, or the big neighborhood dogs would come around. They were scary cause they were much bigger then I was. My tummy started to ache from eating all the greasy scraps of bacon and such.
Then I noticed this lady who lived in the duplex building next door. I started following her around when she'd be outside taking the trash out. She smelled good. She didn't have a dog smell, but she did smell like kids. Wasn't sure if her kids were nice or not though. The kids with the husband and wife were not nice. They chased me and yelled at me. One time the older boy threw a rock at me and told me to "get outta here!". I wasn't sure if I liked kids or not... They'd throw shoes and chase me with sticks.
Soon the nice lady started petting me and telling me how beautiful I was. I heard her say "so thin" under her breath as she ran her hands down my sides. Just then the wife came outside to yell at one of the boys. The nice lady picked me up and brought me over to her. "She's so pretty" said the nice lady. "yup, bought her for my mother in law, but she don't want a dog, so now she's the kids' dog" said the wife. The nice lady handed me over to the wife, who put me back down on the ground. The nice lady looked at me sadly, then at the wife and went to her house. I think she felt bad, because she'd seen how they were treating me. But I didn't know any different. I only knew what I'd witnessed being with my mother and then here with the husband and wife and their kids.
When the wife went back into their house, I turned and ran for the nice lady's house. I had been at my new house for two whole weeks, one of which was spent outside the entire time. I curled up next to the nice lady's back door and went to sleep.
Over the next couple of days the nice lady put out bowls of food. It was sooo good, and I was so hungry I'd gobble it right up. She'd sit outside and pet me talking about how pretty I was. Even her boys would pet me. The husband and wife's kids would come over, saying I was their dog, and the nice lady would say that she knew. Then she'd continue to pet me. One day I was laying in the shade of the nice lady's back door, when the husband and wife's oldest boy came over. He started yelling at me that I was his dog and to get in his hard, and then he hit me with a stick! The back door came flying open and the nice lady was standing there. "Don't you dare hit that puppy again". She didn't sound like the nice lady.. she sounded mean. The boy looked at her and said "she's my puppy". " the nice lady said "I know she's your puppy, but you shouldn't hit her at all, let alone with a stick." The boy left. The nice lady sat down and called me to her lap. I shyly went over and put my head on her leg. She checked me over to make sure I was ok. " So Young, yet you've had a difficult life" she said softly as she stroked my head. She sounded like she wanted to cry. I sighed and closed my eyes to let her know that I was ok, and she would be too.
Another week passed. It rained that entire week. I was wet and cold. I tried to go into the husband and wife's house to stay dry and warm like the mean snappy dog did, but they kept kicking me back outside. I ended up back at the nice lady's back door. If I huddled up to the door, the rain didn't get me as bad. The nice lady noticed me huddling there, and a little while later there was a blue plastic box, tipped over on it's side to make a little den with a roof and walls to keep the rain out. It had a nice warm blanket and towel and a small bowl of food set up for me. She kept saying that she wished she could let me in, but that I wasn't her dog, I was the neighbor's dog and she didn't want to get in trouble or make them mad if she brought me into her house. I curled up in the box and tried to go to sleep. Every so often I'd open my eyes and look up into the door's window to see the nice lady watching me.
The next morning, after another bowl of what the nice lady called "blue buffalo" (which I didn't understand because it wasn't blue at all) she picked me up and took me back over to the husband and wife's house. I started getting nervous that she was going to make me stay there. The wife answered the door.
"You know that it's been raining the past couple of days?" ~ Nice lady
"Yeah" ~ Wife
"You know that your puppy has been sleeping on my back step?" ~ Nice lady
"We were hoping she'd just run away" ~ Wife
"What?!" ~ Nice Lady
"She kept peeing and pooping in the house, and ate more food then we thought she would" ~ Wife
"So you just put her outside and hoped she'd run away?" ~ Nice Lady sounding irritated.
"That was the plan." ~ Wife
"Were you feeding her anything?"~ Nice Lady
"At first I'd throw some bacon grease and scraps to her cause I felt bad, but then I realized that she wasn't going to go away so I stopped. Do you want her?" ~ Wife
At this point the nice lady put me down and told the wife she'd be back in a little bit. She went into her house, and then got in her van and drove away. The wife had gone back into her house, so I went back to my back step (being at the nice lady's back door of course) to take a nap. It was early evening when the nice lady came back. She didn't even stop to say hello to me. She went right over to the wife's house and knocked on the door. I followed her over. The wife opened the door and the nice lady handed her a piece of paper.
"I want you to sign this stating that you are giving me the puppy. That way she will officially be mine." the nice lady said. The wife said that wasn't necessary but the nice lady insisted. I later found out that the nice lady wanted her to sign it, so that later they couldn't come and try to take me back, saying I was still theirs. The wife told the nice lady that I was part German shepherd, and Siberian husky. That I was now 8 weeks old because I was born March 30th. That was about all the wife could tell the nice lady about me. She didn't even tell her if I had a name.
The wife signed the paper, and the nice lady picked me up and left, finally taking me into her house. It smelled nice. And three little boys came running up to see me. The same nice boys who would pet me when I was outside. The nice lady started saying that it took so long, because she had to go get some things for me before I could come into the house.
The nice lady put me into this white tub thing and sprayed water on me. Then she put this smelly stuff that smelled like trees on me. She said it was a flea killer. It would help me stop itching she said. Then she put a really cute pink collar on me. It had a tag on it. The tag had a name on it: "Mystique" and a home phone number. Wait... a HOME phone number? Was THIS truly my home? A warm cozy place where I had my own warm bed in my own comfy crate? Where I didn't itch from fleas and my belly was full of good food? Where I'd be taken to the vet when I was sick and for check ups to make sure I didn't get sick? Where three boys would pet and play with me and not throw rocks or hit me with sticks? Where I didn't feel lonely or worried that at any minute I'd be thrown outside to fend for myself. A Momma and a Daddy and THREE human brothers that loved me.. yes, I think I was finally home.
I've been in my forever home for almost a year (come May 27th). I now live what I consider the perfect life. Eating Raw, playing with my brothers (both the human and the kitty kinds), chewing and destroying stuffed toys, taking car rides and going to grandma's house to play! And I only had one accident since living here.. and guess what, I didn't even get spanked! Momma just said "next time we'll get to the door faster" as she cleaned it up. That was the first week I was home.
I know that there are other pups who have had it worse in life, and that my story is one of many. Born into a Back Yard Breeders life, bought by people who didn't really want me, then finally rescued and adopted by my real family. I am finally part of a real family. And it's good to be home.
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P.S~ On a side note the husband, wife, kids and mean snappy dog got another dog, and ended up moving 3 months after my momma got me. We haven't heard or seen from them since. Momma says a small prayer for the pups that they have, that they are treated better then I was.
**In My FOREVER Home**
~Tiki
Me Now