A Dog's Life: Part IV–Home

I was living at the edge of a town then, my instincts telling me it was time to find a farm for the winter, my old bones protesting at the prospect of the journey.

I was almost always hungry and thirsty; sometimes I was so hungry that I couldn’t even feel the hunger pangs.

I wasn’t fast enough to catch most animals, unless they were unsuspecting.

One morning I woke up in the gray dawn, shivering in a hollow under an outcropping of rock.

I was in the country, and I saw an isolated house here and there, but not a single farm.

When I awoke the next morning, stiff and freezing and famished and thirsty, I set out again.

It began late in the afternoon, just before the winter darkness seeped in.

I was sitting underneath a yew bush when a woman stepped onto the porch.

I could not go into her house. Not until the morning when the air was so bitterly cold that I couldn’t feel the bottoms of my paws.

She shuffled into the kitchen wearing a long robe, scuffy slippers on her feet.

She consulted a list that she pulled out of her purse.

I should probably check for worms and parasites.

Her vital signs are good.

A stout woman stepped into the hallway, tracking snow in after her.

“I don’t know how you’re managing out here all by yourself in this cold.”
Susan looked perplexed. “I have a furnace,” she said.

“She does not have ear mites, either. Or the mange. She’s in perfect health. She’s just old.”

“Really, my dear. How are you going to take care of this dog? She’s too large for you to pick up. And she’s decrepit. Is she even housebroken?”

“But really, Susan, have you thought this through? An old dog is only going to get harder to care for. What are you going to do if she can’t walk? Or if she becomes incontinent? If you ask me, you should take her to the shelter and let them find a home for her with younger people.”

“Did you understand any of that, Addie?” she asked, stroking my muzzle.

“I hope not. But if you did, I just want to assure you that I have no intention of taking you to a shelter. You’re mine, and I’m yours, and this is our home.”