THE YARD

Chapter 13

Each dog had the sense not to bound around the yard in careless glee. Grey Dog kept his back turned to them and seemingly slept. For the entirety of the day, into the next night, he didn't get up. When Flare awoke the next morning, every dog was hard-pressed for dog food. They scrambled over each other like a clutch of chickens in a panic.

Except for Grey Dog. He sullenly nibbled on whatever food fell close to him, and then dragged his feet back towards his area. Flare was glad to notice that he at least look a drink before he turned his back towards the tires.

"This place sucks," Shadow said glumly. Flare had been able to keep the thought out of her mind for awhile, but she was once again compelled to agree.

"If only the other dogs weren't so defensive, we could all work out a way to escape this place," Shadow said boldly. The tan-yellow dog nodded in agreement, but privately couldn't imagine what it may be like outside of The Yard. Is there more trees and grass, or less? Is there prey out there that dogs can catch, like squirrels that stay on the ground? Is the whole world full of human dens and yards like this one?

"Yeah." She sighed. "If only."

~

The Man came to fight Jax and Grey Dog late that night. It was cloudless and without a lick of wind, so the callous noises coming from the shed were easy to hear. Grey Dog seemingly took his remorse out on Jax, because the younger black-and-white dog whimpered even after being tied up in The Yard. Flare smelled his blood, even though she was a ways from the dog houses- but Grey Dog nor Jax spoke.

As the leaves on the trees grew as thick and luscious as they could possibly get, The Man began picking up on his number of fights. Sometimes he brought the dogs to The Shed as often as every weekend. Shadow was still involved in this, and he, too, accumulated fresh wounds each time. Some of them would never disappear, permanently etched into his pelt as scars.

Summer was here, and the dogs no longer begrudgingly dealt with windy or rainy nights that brought a chill. Instead, they appreciated any breeze at all, and began lazing about in the heat of the day. Grey Dog's old spunk for dominance never seemed to resurface; he was defensive as always, but rarely used any authority. Those who could once expect agressive action from him could now except reserved sulking. He still protected his water bowl, but it was a lot less now that Mocha was gone.

Jax became the most redundant of The Yard dogs, bossing around others when he found the chance to. White Dog was as slow as ever, and Jax also never took up the opportunity to point this out. You'd think the black-and-white male would better support his aging friend, and the only dog who often conversed with him, but no.

Flare and Shadow became restless more often than not. Though most of their time was spent in the refuge of shade near the house, it was not something they preferred to do. As both dogs aged into adulthood more and more every day, they felt the confines of The Yard closing in on them. Flare felt the days blending together to the point where she couldn't remember most of them. It was so repetitive to do the same things every day... To see, smell and hear the same things began to feel like a prison. On top of this, her belly ached every second that she wasn't eating, and Shadow's was probably no different. The meager amount of dog food they were fed was not enough for even one dog's daily meal. The most interesting thing to happen would be to get scraps or find a new stick in the yard.

This was why it felt like such an important day when Flare finally did get scraps again. The woman had a bowl of something clutched between her paws. She dumped them from a bowl onto the ground, and Flare found them to be very salty and meatless.

Immediately following, her long and thin arms stretched out to distribute thin slices of cheese to each dog fairly. Flare swallowed them as they landed, hardly chewing. They were soft and had such a delicious flavor, offering her more nutrition than she'd had from the dog food in weeks.