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I am a good dog.
That is why I start barking when I hear someone coming through the window. The human is short, at least shorter than my human, and her hair is light like my own. I can smell danger on her, but the smile on her face tells another story. I continue barking until the human bends down and holds her hand out for me. I’m tentative, but I move in to sniff it.
The human smells… friendly. Against my better instincts, I circle the woman and by the time I get back to the front, I can smell something else on her. Another dog? My ears perk up and before I know it she’s scratching my head. I want to bite back, do anything to stop this intruder, but my god do these scratches feel good! The woman starts talking to me, her voice sickly sweet, and her hands move to my back. She manages to find my favorite spot, right behind my shoulder blades, and I’m helpless as my back leg lifts off the ground and begins shaking.
Suddenly, I hear my human’s voice. Kate! I’m able to break out of the intruder's hypnotizing embrace and I run over to her. Encircling her legs, I resume my protective stance and growl at the other woman. I’m surprised to see a smile on the intruder’s face as she starts talking to my human, but as Kate begins talking back, she pets the top of my head, telling me everything is okay. This woman isn’t a threat? That doesn’t make much sense to me, but I trust my Kate, so I stop growling.
Kate walks closer to the woman as they talk. There’s something to her voice that makes her sound… annoyed? Confused? I’m not quite sure, but as she leans up against the back of the couch, I can tell that Kate is content nonetheless. Knowing my human isn’t in immediate danger, I sit down next to her, but keep my eyes on the woman.
Before too long, Kate moves to the kitchen and fills up my bowl with food. This isn’t my normal dinner time, but I don’t question things as I bound over to begin scarfing down my meal. I’m so lost in the delicious flavors that I completely miss Kate grabbing her keys and walking out the front door with the other woman. My human says something sweet to me, causing me to finally look up, only to see her closing the door behind her. Walking over, I sit in front of the entrance as I hear the lock clicking and their muffled voices fading away.
Sitting in the now empty apartment, I’m confused about what just happened and why I’m suddenly alone, but I don’t think about it too long because I have a dinner to get back to.
↣
Over the course of the next few weeks, the strange woman continues to come through the window.
My Kate is usually very smart, but recently she’s been leaving the window open in the evening. I’m not sure why she’s forgetting to close it, but I have to protect her, so I stand guard at the window every night. On the nights that the blonde shows up, I growl at her until Kate tells me to stop. On the fourth night that the intruder comes, she brings me treats and I decide in that moment that this woman can come through the window as often as she likes.
Most of her visits end in the two of them leaving the apartment, only for Kate to come home alone a couple hours later. More recently, however, the two of them have been staying in. They’ll drink from various cans and bottles, hanging out late into the night. Usually when they do this, they start acting silly after three or four drinks. I’m not sure why they act like this, but my Kate looks happy and the other human gives me extra pets, so I don’t question it.
On this particular night, they’re both being extra silly. I’m only a little upset that they apparently seem more interested in touching each other than they are in giving me scratches. From my spot on the couch, I watch as the two laugh, stumbling over their own feet and finding their arms wrapped around each other. As their faces get close to one another, I hear their laughter starting to fade. I can feel my human suddenly getting very tense, so I pick my head up to get a better look at what’s happening.
In the silence of the room, the two’s faces move closer together until they finally touch. It isn’t a second later though before the blonde woman pulls away. My Kate begins talking quickly, her voice sounding apologetic as she also takes a step back. Something’s wrong and I can’t tell why. They were having so much fun just a moment ago. Did they hurt themselves when their faces touched? My human certainly looks hurt.
Without any warning, the other woman quickly grabs her things and leaves. At the sound of the front door slamming, I jump up from my spot. I walk over to the door and sit, waiting for the woman to come back. She never leaves without giving me a belly rub.
Suddenly, I hear sniffles and it breaks me out of my laser focus on the door. Turning around, I see my human crying. Kate? She’s lowering herself to the ground, both her hands covering her face. I run over to her, but she doesn’t react. Does she not know I’m here? I nudge her arm with my nose until she finally looks up. Seeing the tears on her cheeks, I let out a whine of my own; I’ve never seen her like this. I start licking her face, hoping that if the tears are gone she’ll be happy again. I must have done it wrong though because she lets out another sob before pulling me in for a hug. She squeezes me tight as she continues to cry and I lean my head into her, doing my best to let her know that I’m here.
I don’t know why my Kate is suddenly so sad, but it’s my job to fix it, so I don’t leave her side all night.
↣
The other woman doesn’t return for two weeks.
I can tell that my human is trying her best to be happy, but ever since the woman left she hasn’t been the same. I catch her crying a lot, sometimes in her bed, sometimes on the bathroom floor. But every time I cuddle up next to her and wait for it to stop.
One day, I hear a knock at the door and my ears perk up. I know that smell. The woman that smells dangerous and friendly at the same time.
I bound over to the door. Jumping up on my hind legs, I scratch at the surface, willing my Kate to let her in faster. She’s back, Kate! She’s back! This will fix everything! When the door finally opens, I jump up to receive my long overdue scratches. The woman is tentative as she pets me, her eyes never once leaving my Kate.
They share very few words before she finally comes in and they both head over to the couch. I want to jump onto the blonde woman to get more of her scratches, but my Kate uses her stern voice, telling me to get down. Now that the woman is back, my human no longer needs me, so I’m okay with going over to my bed and waiting.
The two of them talk. And talk. And talk some more. They talk for so long that their soft voices lull me to sleep. I’m not sure how long I was asleep, but when I do wake up, the first thing I notice is how quiet it is. Oh no. Did the woman leave again?
My eyes snap open, but I’m relieved to see them both still on the couch. They aren’t talking, but instead they’re… what are they doing? I tilt my head to the side, trying to understand. They’re sitting much closer together than they were before; my human’s hands are on either side of the woman’s face and the woman had her hands on Kate’s waist. Their faces are pressed together just like they were all those nights ago, but this time no one pulls away. Instead, they’re moving their heads in a way like they’re trying to get their mouths even closer than they already are. It doesn’t seem possible, but they’re dedicated nonetheless.
Confused as ever, I watch for a moment longer. Things only start to make sense when I see my human’s tongue stick out and swipe across the other woman’s lips. Oh! That’s what they’re doing!
Springing up from my bed, I run over and jump onto their legs. Joining in on the fun, I lick all over their faces, hoping they’ll understand how happy I am that things are back to normal. Breaking apart, the two laugh and give me scratches behind my ears, so I know they must be glad that I joined.
↣
Not only has the woman returned into our lives, but she comes over more now than she ever had before. I get scratches and treats whenever I want and my Kate is no longer sad. Everything is perfect. The only difference is that my human has started to lock me out of the bedroom at night whenever the other woman comes to visit. It makes me sad that I have to sleep on the couch so often, but I’m learning to be okay with it because of how happy she looks the next morning when she comes out.
On one of the rare occasions when the woman wasn’t over, my human clips my leash onto me and brings me out for my daily walk. Usually, as soon as I’m done doing my business, we turn around and head home, but today Kate keeps walking. Where are we going? We never go this way. Unless…
I smell the place before I see it. The dog park! I begin panting with excitement as I tug on the leash, urging my Kate to move faster. Coming to the dog park is a rare occasion, but from what I remember, my human is supposed to take my leash off and let me run free. At least that’s what all the other dogs are doing. So why is my Kate leading us to a bench and sitting down? Why do I still have my leash on?
I bark at my human, hoping to remind her of her silly mistake, but all I get in return are pets on the head and soothing words telling me to sit. Sitting is the last thing I want to do in a place like this, but I suppose I am a good dog, so I do as I’m told.
Minutes tick by as I watch the other dogs in the park. Right as I swear I’m about to die of boredom, I see someone I wasn’t expecting to see: the other woman! My ears perk up and my tail begins to wag. I look up at my Kate. Judging by the smile on her face, I can tell she’s seen her too.
I pull at the leash again; surely she’ll let me run free now. I only stop pulling when I notice the other dog walking alongside the woman. Who is that? And why does she have that dog on a leash?
As the pair finally reaches us, I look up at my Kate to get permission (apparently it’s rude to sniff other dogs’ butt without asking first). Nodding her head, I get the go ahead and walk up to the other dog. She looks just about as curious as I am and the two of us begin circling one another, sniffing every scent we possibly can. I’ve never met this dog before, so why does she smell so familiar? She almost smells like the other woman. Wait… This is the dog I’ve always smelled on her!
I jolt back, putting my head to the ground and butt up in the air. Based on the other dog's expression, I figure she must have come to a similar conclusion as she takes the same stance. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! A second passes before we both jump at one another. Our tails waggle furiously as we wrestle, rolling all over the ground.
Our humans eventually have to pull us apart as our leashes become tangled beyond recognition. My tongue hangs loose out of my mouth as I attempt to catch my breath, but my ears perk up as I hear the beautiful sound of my leash finally being unhooked. I run circles around the other dog as I not so patiently wait for her to be unleashed as well. The second she’s free, we bolt across the field. Weaving through one another, we do laps around the dog park, only stopping occasionally to wrestle and roll around in the dirt. But as my paws get caked in mud and my fur covered in grass strains, I know for a fact that I just met my new best friend.
↣
I hate when my human leaves in her fancy outfit because most of the time she ends up coming home hurt and scared. Tonight is no exception.
I startle awake at the sound of the door bursting open. Whipping my head around, I see Kate and the woman stumbling into the room, arms wrapped around each other. They only make it a couple steps into the apartment before I can smell it. Metal. I walk forward a few steps and can see the source of the smell; the side of the blonde woman’s stomach is completely saturated in a dark liquid. Her hand is clutched over the wet spot and her face scrunches in a grimace as Kate wills her forward.
I try to walk up to them, but my Kate yells at me to move out of the way. I flinch backwards as the two fumble their way towards the bathroom, leaving behind a trail of that dark liquid. Bending down, I sniff the liquid. Underneath the metal aroma I can smell the other woman, but I don’t like it. Something isn’t right.
I quickly follow the two into the bathroom, my paws slipping on the liquid as I go. Sticking my head into the room, I see the woman sitting on the lid of the toilet as Kate rummages under the sink. I’m not sure what she’s looking for, but maybe I can help her. I’m great at finding things.
I step forward right as my human stands back up and I accidentally bump into her, causing her to trip. In an attempt to steady herself, she steps on my front paw. I yelp at the pain and find myself scurrying back out of the room. She yells something at me even though I didn’t mean to trip her; all I want to do is help. So with my tail between my legs, I attempt to walk back into the bathroom, but I’m met with a door slamming in my face.
I’m scared. I want my Kate. I want the other woman. I want to be near them, but I’m not allowed in. The best I can do is curl up next to the door and try to block out the sound of the woman screaming in pain.
Lying there, I can smell the dark liquid again, but this time on myself. Looking down, I see it all over my paws, staining my light fur. I begin licking it away. I hate the taste of it. I hate that it’s all over the other woman. I hate everything about it. But I can tell that my human doesn’t like it either. So I’ll do everything I can to at least get it off my paws.
↣
A full day passes before I’m allowed to see the woman.
I eventually fell asleep waiting outside the bathroom, but when I woke up, the door was open and the room was empty. I panicked. Where did they go? Is the woman okay? I began roaming around the apartment, trying my best to sniff out where they could have gone and my nose led me to the bedroom. The door was closed, but I could tell they were inside.
I scratched at the door frame, whining softly. Kate? When she finally opened the door and stepped out, I saw that she had changed out of her fancy outfit. Now in shorts and a t-shirt, I noticed something I hadn’t seen earlier; her arms and legs were painted in scrapes. The worst of the cuts were now covered in bandages, but she wasn’t able to hide the angry bruises that bloomed across her skin. I whine again, jumping up on her to further inspect the damage. Oh, my poor Kate.
With a tired smile on her face, she led me back down to the ground and sat beside me. Before I could look over her any further, she pulled me into a tight hug. She began speaking softly into my ear and when she pulled back she had tears in her eyes, but this time she wasn’t sad. She was apologizing. I could tell she felt bad for what happened, but she didn’t need to. She didn’t do anything wrong. I was just glad things were better. I licked her face once for good measure, needing her to know that I wasn’t upset. She laughed as she scratched my back and then stood back up.
Knowing that my human was okay, I trotted over to the bedroom, needing to see the other woman. Before I could get inside though, Kate said something to me and softly closed the door. I’m not allowed to see her yet? I didn’t really understand why, but if my Kate said I have to wait, then I would wait.
A full day of waiting later, Kate finally lets me into the room.
When I see the woman, she’s lying in the bed under a bundle of blankets. She’s awake, but I can tell she’s not her usual self. She’s far more pale and sluggish. I can still smell the metal on her, but it’s much fainter; it’s no longer scary. She’s okay. Looking back at my Kate, I get the okay to jump onto the bed. Doing so, I gently step over the woman’s legs, working my way up to her side so I can sit down. I give her gentle kisses to make her feel better and I hear that sickly sweet voice of hers speaking to me. She ruffles my fur and scratches behind my ears. Her sleepy eyes begin to flutter shut, and it isn’t long before her hand stills on my back. I lay my head on her lap and close my eyes as well.
We both deserve a nap.
↣
While the woman remains in bed for the next couple of weeks, Kate brings my best friend over to the apartment and now she’s staying with us every night! I’m not sure why the blonde getting hurt resulted in play dates with my best friend every single day, but it seems like a pretty good reward in my opinion.
Wrestling around the living room, her and I play tug of war with my favorite toy. We keep this up until we’re both panting and I have to stop to get a drink. Lapping away at my water bowl, I hear the two humans laughing in the bedroom. Looking back at my best friend, I see her finding a comfy spot on the couch as she catches her breath. I figure it’s a good time to take a break, so I walk over to the bedroom and jump up onto the bed. The two women are lazily cuddling, both of their eyes threatening to close from sleepiness. I decide to plop down next to my Kate, making sure not to bump into the other woman and accidentally hurt her. They both smile and reach out for me, giving me pets on the head and behind my shoulders. I close my eyes as I let the glorious feeling take over. Resting my head on my human’s lap, I let out a deep sigh of relief.
I used to worry about the woman who came through the window. I worried about the changes she brought to our life and how she affected my Kate. I wasn’t sure if I wanted that. But now, as I lay next to my human, with her human next to her, I realize that I have everything I could ever want.
I am a very lucky dog.