Mutt's Promise Read online

  “Teach him a lesson, Hades,” Raymond said to the Rottweiler, who instantly obeyed. He bit down on the neck of the poor animal and started shaking him like a rag doll.

  All the other dogs watched, misery in their eyes. None moved to interfere, not even the ones whose cage doors had been opened.

  Luna could feel the tension ripple through the barn as she and the other trapped dogs fought their primal instinct, forcing themselves to sit motionless. Her sense of helplessness stung like a slap, more painful than the hunger that was gripping her insides, or the anxiety that was squeezing her breath.

  Chief placed his paw on hers and she placed one of hers on his. It was as though they were creating a chain of love to keep them strong.

  “You two catch on quickly,” Charlie whispered with quiet admiration.

  Finally, Raymond reached over and touched Hades on the back.

  “Let him be,” Raymond said. “I think he learned his lesson.”

  Hades immediately opened his mouth and let the other dog drop to the ground, where he lay on his side, gasping for breath.

  Raymond pulled on a pair of work gloves and leaned over to pick up the panting dog, who was covered with scratches from Hades’ teeth. The cuts were minor, but Luna knew that the deepest wounds aren’t always physical.

  “That’ll teach you,” Raymond snapped as he tossed the dog back in his cage, slammed the door shut, and latched it. “No food for you today.”

  Luna watched him squat next to the cage so that his eyes were level with the dog.

  The dog lowered his eyes.

  “Look at me,” Raymond said softly.

  The dog turned his eyes toward the man’s.

  “I’m doing this for your own good,” Raymond said. “I will teach you to appreciate kindness, make you desperate for love and attention. That’s what people want.”

  That’s not true, Luna thought to herself. Gilbert was a person and he didn’t use kindness as a reward. He was just kind. She wanted to please him because he encouraged her, not because he made her feel afraid.

  Glancing at Chief, she could tell that he was thinking the same thing. He caught her eye and shook his head, just enough to warn her to remain still, to pretend she hadn’t noticed the frightening cruelty taking place just a few steps away.

  When Raymond reached their cage, he opened the door and waited.

  The puppies didn’t move.

  “How did you enjoy your first night in your new home?” he asked.

  Luna and Chief sat very still.

  “Let me introduce you to your boss,” Raymond continued. “This is Hades, king of his domain.”

  Hades glared at the puppies and growled, just to prove how tough he was.

  They didn’t need convincing. Neither of them moved a whisker.

  Raymond’s eyes revealed a flicker of respect.

  “You catch on fast, don’t you?” he said. “Maybe someone will actually want one of you mutts.”

  Luna’s heart skipped when she heard her mother’s name.

  Then, through the fog of hunger and fright, she was pierced by the realization that there were a few pieces of dog food next to her paw.

  She remembered what Charlie had said the night before: Total obedience was the way out of here.

  Luna didn’t know how she restrained herself. But she did. Once again she thought of Gilbert, and the patient way he had taught her to do tricks.

  “You have to concentrate,” he would tell her.

  So she willed herself to look like a statue from the outside, while inside she was squirming with desire for the food that was right there.

  For a few minutes that felt like forever, she didn’t move, not even her eyes, ignoring Raymond and Hades, who stood on the other side of the barn watching her and her brother, waiting for them to give in to their hunger.

  Luna ignored the dust that made her feel like sneezing, and resisted the urge to look at Chief, to see if he was also holding himself back. She silently sang the words to Gilbert’s song about the moon eating olives and pretended she was lying in the grass, exhausted from running through the fields.

  Then she felt, rather than heard, Raymond’s words.

  “C’mon, Hades, let’s get out of here,” he said.

  As Hades passed their cage he growled. “We’ll see how long your willpower lasts,” he taunted them.

  The puppies ignored him.

  They didn’t budge until Raymond and Hades left the barn and shut the door behind them. Then they gobbled up their pathetic dinner.

  “How will we survive on this little bit of food?” Luna asked Chief mournfully. “I’m soooo hungry.”

  “We’re all hungry,” Chief said.

  Luna lowered her head in shame.

  Chief nuzzled her.

  “We have to stay strong,” he said. “Like Mother. Remember what she told us: ‘You are more like me than you know.’”

  Luna forgot her hunger for a minute.

  “She said that to you too?” Luna felt her spirits fall even lower.

  Chief laughed. “I heard her say it to Alegre and Happy too.”

  Luna didn’t want to ask the next question, but she couldn’t help herself. “Did she promise you anything?”

  “The same thing she promised you,” he said. “That I would find my talent.”

  Luna couldn’t believe her ears.

  “How could she do that?” she asked. “How could she promise us the same thing?”

  Chief laid his head on his sister’s. “Why do you think, Luna?” he asked gently.

  Luna thought for a minute. “Because that’s what she hoped?” she asked.

  Before Chief could answer, the barn door opened again.

  chapter fourteen

  LOUIS

  Oh, no,” whispered Luna. “Now what?”

  It was hard to make out who was walking through the barn. The light was dim, even in daytime, and Luna found that her usually acute sense of smell was blocked by the strong odor inside.

  Her ears perked up. Cage by cage, dogs began rustling around, unafraid to make noise. Some of them even gave weak barks of greeting.

  Luna felt brave enough to ask Charlie, “Who is that?”

  “That’s Raymond’s helper,” said Charlie. “His name is Louis. He’s just a kid and not so bad. He’s never mean unless Raymond is around. He does all the dirty work. Every few days we get to go outside into a pen while Louis cleans out the barn. And his other job . . .”

  Charlie fell silent.

  “What?” barked Luna.

  Charlie muttered, “You’ll find out soon enough.”

  Louis walked over to Luna and Chief’s cage. He had soft brown eyes that reminded Luna of Gilbert.

  “Sorry, puppies,” he said.

  He disappeared for a minute and returned carrying a machine of some kind. He opened their cage door and then pulled Luna out with both hands and wrapped her in a big towel, so only her head stuck out.

  Louis checked something on a piece of paper he pulled from his pocket. Then he looked at the puppy’s face.

  “You are Luna, I can see that,” he said, touching the moon-shaped mark above her eye.

  She whimpered.

  Louis said gently, “Raymond told me your names.”

  Then he took a belt and wrapped it around Luna so her legs were trapped tight inside the towel. He pulled out a razor and, before Luna knew what was happening, he shaved the fur on the inside of her ear. With shock more than pain, she yelped.

  “Shhhh,” said Louis. “You don’t want Raymond to hear. We’ll both get into trouble.”

  He gently wiped her ear with alcohol and then rubbed some Vaseline on the fresh pink skin.

  Luna’s eyes widened in terror.

  “Don’t be afraid, little one,” said
Louis.

  The kindness in his voice calmed her down.

  The next step in this procedure happened fast. Louis brought the machine to her head. There was a needle at the end of it, and he placed that needle against Luna’s ear with one hand, while holding her steady with the other.

  “L-U-N-A,” he said as he printed her name on the inside of her ear with the sharp tool.

  The needle pinched rather than hurt. Even if it had, Luna was too weak to object.

  “This was my idea,” Louis said as he stroked Luna’s head. “I convinced Raymond to tattoo the puppies’ names inside their ears, instead of numbers.”

  Luna whimpered again.

  “No matter what happens, you’ll have your name,” Louis told her.

  He jerked his head toward the door. “That makes me feel better about working for him.”

  Just then Raymond yelled from outside.

  “What’s taking you so long in there, boy?” he called out. “I’ve got other things for you to do.”

  “I’m almost done,” Louis replied with humor in his voice. “These mutts have tough skin.”

  He winked at Luna as he put her back in the cage and took out Chief, who stepped into the towel and stood waiting.

  “You’re a smart one, aren’t you?” said Louis. “Okay Chief, here we go.”

  Despite the stinging in Luna’s ears, being around Louis made her feel hopeful.

  Then Raymond called again, louder.

  “Get out here now!” he yelled. “We have lots of work to do.”

  Louis locked the puppies back in their cage and began to walk away. Then he turned around.

  “I know you must think I’m terrible for working here,” he said. “But it’s the only job I could get. I only wish . . .”

  Before he could finish, Raymond called his name again.

  “I have to go,” Louis said, a shadow crossing his face. He left his wish unspoken, to Luna’s disappointment.

  Louis’s sweet nature had cleared the air. It actually seemed to smell better in the barn. But the instant he left, gloom descended.

  “Nothing has changed,” Luna whispered to Chief. “Louis is nice, but he can’t make this loathsome place any better.”

  Chief swatted Luna with his paw.

  “C’mon, Luna,” he said. “Show Charlie how you can dance.”

  Luna sank to the bottom of the cage and shook her head.

  But Chief didn’t give up. He kept poking her until she got to her feet, just to make him stop.

  Somehow she found room in that tiny space to move her feet the way Gilbert had taught her. Somehow, she was able to remember the moon and hoped it still existed, somewhere out there.

  chapter fifteen

  WHAT LUNA REALIZED

  It didn’t take long for them to lose track of time. Luna could barely remember what it had been like to go out and play whenever they felt like it. Their new “home” was a prison.

  Once every few days the dogs were taken outside to a closed-in pen while Louis came in to clean out the barn. Most of the dogs were too weak to do anything but lie down in the sun, shivering in the brisk winter air. Chief forced Luna to run around.

  “We have to be ready,” he told her.

  “For what?” she asked him.

  “For whatever might happen,” he said.

  Charlie became a friend—the only friend they found in this miserable place. They were shocked to discover he was only a few months older than they were. He sagged like an old dog, even though he was not much more than a pup.

  He told them stories about where he’d come from. Like them, he’d had a good life until one day the people who owned him had to move. They took his mother with them but gave away her puppies, including Charlie. Charlie missed his mother but liked his new owners—for the short time he was with them. Something happened that changed their plans and then Raymond showed up at the door.

  Charlie taught them the ropes. He told them which dogs to avoid and how to keep Hades from bothering them.

  “Let him know you respect him but don’t look him in the eye,” Charlie said one day, during a rare moment in the sun. “Don’t let him know you’re scared of him but don’t make him think you aren’t.”

  Chief hadn’t lost his sense of humor. He poked Charlie with his nose, and asked, “How do we manage that? It’s like saying, ‘Smack him in the face, but don’t hit him.’ ‘Despise him, but show him you like him.’ ‘Be quiet, but bark.’”

  At first Charlie looked hurt, but then he realized Chief was teasing.

  “You remind me of my brother,” he said to Chief. “He was a tease too.”

  Then he lowered his voice. “You have the right idea,” he whispered. “I know it’s another of my contradictions, but it’s good to keep your sense of humor without forgetting this is a dangerous place.”

  Things brightened momentarily whenever Louis showed up to clean the barn. He reminded the dogs that there were humans who weren’t hateful. He was brave too, sneaking them treats even though he knew he would probably be fired if Raymond found out.

  Most important, Louis gave them hope.

  “Remember Miranda?” he’d say to the dogs when he opened their cages. “The black terrier that was here for a while? Some nice people came to get her.”

  He never mentioned the dogs whose stories didn’t have happy endings.

  Louis never said anything bad about his boss, but the dogs could tell that he didn’t like the way they were treated.

  “It’s disgusting in here,” he would say when he came to clean the barn. “Don’t worry, I’ll make it as nice as I can.”

  Luna could tell that Louis did his best to rake out the filth. For a day or two the barn would be bearable.

  Even Hades acted different when he came to the barn with Louis. The guard dog still growled and looked tough, but he didn’t bite or bully any of the dogs. Sometimes he almost looked sad, like he realized he was a traitor to his own kind.

  The worst times were when Raymond walked through the door. Luckily, he rarely came into the barn. When he did, it meant someone was coming or going. These were always terrible moments. Luna and her brother became accustomed to watching newcomers endure their first exposure to this unhappy place without offering a word of comfort. They felt themselves change. They had been good-natured puppies accustomed to love, but now they knew they had to harden their hearts or they would be destroyed.

  It was almost as bad watching a puppy being taken out. Maybe the puppy had escaped to a better life, like the ones Louis told them about. But what if it hadn’t?

  At first Chief talked a lot about what would happen when they got out. But day by day it became harder to dream. It takes strength to dream, and the puppies were growing weaker.

  Then quite by accident, Louis gave them back their strength.

  He was working in the barn when he began to sing quietly to himself.

  When Luna heard Louis sing, she felt her feet begin to move. She had stopped thinking about their cozy haven under Gilbert’s house, but now her feet were remembering for her! Only a few months had passed since those lovely days, but it seemed like forever. It hurt to think about what she had left behind, but it also reminded her of who she was.

  “Chief,” she said to her brother with remarkable assertiveness, considering her weakened condition. “We have to get out of here.”

  chapter sixteen

  BACK ON THE FARM

  Mutt carried on the way she always had. She patrolled the farm, as she promised Mr. Thomas she would.

  When she finished her rounds, she often stopped to visit Penny.

  “How’s your empty nest?” Penny would ask Mutt with a cackle.

  Sometimes Mutt confessed she worried about her offspring. Penny reassured her. “They will take care of themselves,” she said. “You g
ave them part of you, and that’s a great deal.”

  The chicken always asked, “How’s that cat treating you?” Penny wasn’t a fan of Butch.

  “He isn’t exactly dog’s best friend, but he’s okay,” said Mutt. “When it got cold, Mr. Thomas invited me to stay inside the house. Butch has his places and I have mine. It feels like peace to me.”

  The dog noticed the way the winter sun bounced off Penny’s copper-colored feathers.

  “Your feathers look very pretty in this light,” Mutt said.

  Penny lowered her head modestly.

  “Thank you,” she said. “And how is Mr. Thomas?”

  Mutt thought for a minute.

  “He said the most remarkable thing the other night,” she said, “just sitting in his chair talking to the cat.”

  Penny ran around in circles and chortled, “Talking to the cat?”

  Mutt nodded.

  “What did he say?” the chicken asked.

  “He said, ‘I should have waited for another little girl or boy like Lisa to come along to take care of the puppies the right way.’”

  Mutt paused and cleared her throat.

  Penny squatted on the ground, waiting for Mutt to continue.

  “He looked at me and said, ‘I know I did the wrong thing. I just got impatient and when Raymond came around looking for puppies I trusted him even though I didn’t believe he was trustworthy.’”

  Mutt sighed. “I must have groaned a little, because Mr. Thomas said he was sure Raymond would find a good home for poor little Luna and Chief—but I could tell he didn’t believe his own words.”

  Penny began to cluck sympathetically.

  “It must be hard for you, not knowing where your puppies have gone,” she said.

  “I tried to make them strong enough to face the world,” Mutt said, feeling sad. “But the world keeps changing. I don’t know if they’re prepared.”

  “How can you ever know?” Penny asked.

  The two friends sat in a companionable silence for a couple of minutes, thinking about the mysteries of existence.