A hand grabs my neck, pulling me away from my siblings\u2014away from the warmth and safety at my mother\u2019s belly. I want to keep drinking and I latch onto a nipple but the hand is too strong.<\/p>\n
It belongs to a man who smells of smoke and sweat and something else. Something bad. He picks me up and looks me over and I squirm to get away. His grip on my neck pinches me and I don\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n
He puts me on a table. \u201cDarlene, grab this one by the head and hold it down.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you gonna do, Ray?\u201d A woman stands over me and holds me down.<\/p>\n
The man\u2019s hands move to my tail and wrap something around it. It\u2019s tight and I don\u2019t like it, but it doesn\u2019t really hurt. \u201cCut off the blood flow and it\u2019 fall right off. Don\u2019t hurt \u2019em none. Works real good too.\u201d<\/p>\n
He picks me up by the neck again and he puts me back with my mother and siblings. The ground smells like pee but at least it\u2019s warm here. My mother pushes me over to wash me and she smells the thing that squeezes my tail. She licks it for me but it doesn\u2019t feel better. It doesn\u2019t go away.<\/p>\n
I wake up in the cold air. The others have left our sleeping spot to go and nurse but I\u2019m not hungry. The thing is still on my tail and it\u2019s pinching me harder and harder. I can\u2019t feel the tip anymore but it hurts where the thing is.<\/p>\n
I feel warm and cold at the same time and I\u2019m so tired. I crawl closer to my mother\u2019s belly but the scent of milk is meaningless. I don\u2019t feel like nursing. I just want her warmth.<\/p>\n
So tired, I think I\u2019ll go back to sleep here, where it\u2019s safe.<\/p>\n
A wet nose nudges me awake. The scents of my mother surround me. Milk, comfort, dirt and pee. There is another scent. A bad one, coming from my tail. It hurts and throbs and I can\u2019t ignore it anymore.<\/p>\n
Footsteps pound on the wood above our heads and I smell him again. His smoke-and-sweat scent makes me want to hide in a dark, safe place. I whine and curl up against my mother but she can\u2019t protect me. She can\u2019t protect herself. He grabs me, pulls me away from her. \u201cLook at that\u2014barely hanging on. Ah, well. We’ll set him out somewhere. Somebody’ll pick him up.”<\/p>\n
He carries me to away to the big, loud, moving thing and drops me in the back. It roars to life and starts to move. Away from my mother\u2014away from home. I whimper as I try to hang on but I keep falling down. The rumbling voice of the thing vibrates through my body and rattles my bones.<\/p>\n
When the thing stops, the man gets out, picks me up and puts me on the ground. It\u2019s white, cold and wet and I can\u2019t stop shivering. He climbs back in the loud thing and leaves me behind in a world I\u2019ve never seen. I cry for my mother but she\u2019s not there. I\u2019m scared and I make myself small. This is a strange place and the pain in my tail is all that I recognise now.<\/p>\n
Another loud thing comes by and it stops next to me. A woman gets out. She smells clean and nice and she shows me her teeth but it\u2019s not scary. \u201cHi, sweetie. What are ya doing out here in the snow?\u201d She picks me up but her hands don\u2019t pinch my neck. They\u2019re soft and gentle and warm. \u201cI bet that rubber band on your tail hurts like hell. We better get that looked at.\u201d<\/p>\n
She lifts me into the inside of her loud thing and I\u2019m not even scared when this one starts to move. It\u2019s nice and warm here and I curl up and go to sleep.<\/p>\n
I wake up in a new place. The lights are very bright. A sharp, stinging scent tickles my nose, making me sneeze.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, look who\u2019s awake!\u201d The woman is still here and she shows me her teeth again.<\/p>\n
The pain in my tail is gone. It\u2019s\u2026 There\u2019s no pain but there\u2019s nothing else either. I look at it. It looks shorter but I can\u2019t tell. There\u2019s a sticky, white something in the way.<\/p>\n
Another woman walks up to us and she\u2019s wearing a white coat. \u201cYou can take her home for now, Becca. She\u2019ll need some serious antibiotics and I\u2019ll probably need to put her under again to close up that wound.\u201d She hands the nice woman\u2014Becca?\u2014a little bag and she reaches for my head.<\/p>\n
I duck, but she only strokes my ears and back and it\u2019s nice.<\/p>\n
I have a name now. Becca gave it to me. I\u2019m Eve. My tail is shorter, and I had to take a lot of medicine, but the pain finally went away.<\/p>\n
Becca is nice and she always has treats but I can\u2019t stay with her. There are always other dogs that need her help.<\/p>\n
She found a family for me, though. I\u2019m in another moving thing\u2014on my way to them. I\u2019ll get to stay there forever.<\/p>\n
Becca said so.<\/p>\n
This story owes a lot to a dear friend of mine, @johnkingwriter<\/a>. He inspired the writing of this rainbow.<\/p>\n As always, in writing these stories, I hope to raise some awareness regarding the animal welfare issues that are still far too prevalent everywhere.<\/p>\n Hugs<\/em><\/p>\n Jasmine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A hand grabs my neck, pulling me away from my siblings\u2014away from the warmth and safety at my mother\u2019s belly. I want to keep drinking and I latch onto a nipple but the hand is too strong. It belongs to a man who smells of smoke and sweat and something else. Something bad. He picks…
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