Home is a feeling

Chapter 10 Zeus

I wish I could be here forever too . Even though we'veknown each other for such a short time, you are thekindest person I've known . I owe you my life forsaving me when I was down and I could never everrepay you but now matter how loud I say it to you, you'd never understand me. So I stay quiet. You'relooking for my old mom and dad and I appreciate itbut you don't understand that they don't want me. Iwhisper in my head to Andy.I still have tons of energy left . I'm nowhere near tired.I play around with the chewy and squeaky toys Andybought. I love the tennis ball the most. I roam aroundthe room. He has an amazing living space. I almostbroke a flower pot kept in the room. I hit my head andmoved back."Ow" I barkedAndy came rushing to me immediately. For the firsttime since I met Andy , I was afraid of him. I expectedhim to start yelling at me and kicking me away andmaking me stay out of his place for being clumsy andcaring about how hard he probably worked for it, butthe yelling never started .Andy bent down and hugged me close. He patted myhead and asked if I was alright. So no lecture? Hecontinued to search me to see if I was hurt at all. Heproceeded to talk.
"You should be safe. This is not aproper place for you to roam around." So you areasking me to leave?

"I forgot you need daily exercise. Let's just go for awalk ."He's coming with me? He's not angry at me , He'staking me out to play so I am happy. Tears well up inmy eyes before I can stop them. I whimper and Andyonly looks more worried. He kissed my forehead. Andthen he did the thing I would have never imagined waspossible. He apologized to me for not having theflower pot removed. I think it's safe to say that Iost mymind when he said those words. 

My heart swelled uplike a balloon and I licked and tickled him till he wasin a fit of laughter.But then he got up abruptly with no signs of hisprevious laughter. I tried going up to him to make himlaugh again but he stopped me, petted my head andgave me a hug. Then he said , " Your owners will getyou in a few days, Zeus" with a forced smile . Thesentence was like a bin that immediately deflated myheart."Let's go on a walk," he said .. I like walks and outsideand that sounds fun but I can't help but wonder why hewasn't keeping me with him . He did say he wished hecould have me forever. Is it because he thought I wastaken or was he lying altogether ? He will probablyfigure out that I'm not worth it and too time taking andtoo expensive. 

He walked away and came back with something in hishand . He bent down on one knee and brought hishands around my neck. He put a brown collar aroundmy neck . He fastened it in a way that I had more thanenough breathing space. It wasn't tight at all. I felt tonsof different emotions and I could not understand whichemotion to focus on. I felt like this was one of the mostimportant days of my life. I stood there quietly andlooked at him and his shiny eyes. But the feeling ofhappiness was accompanied with a crushing sense ofsadness because it meant one day this collar wouldcome off and I wouldn't have him anymore. I did notwant to think about that. But a bigger part of me hopedthat when he found out there was no way my oldfamily would take me back , he would keep me withhim. I noticed the name on the collar and it read'buddy' but for some reason I couldn't bring myself tobe angry about it.

 I am Zeus and I love being Zeus butif becoming Buddy meant being able to spend timewith the kindest, nicest human being I've ever met andto stay by the side of the person who saved my life , Tobe able to be his companion, his buddy I would gladlycall myself that.We walk out and this time he doesn't make me go in abox. A huge guy in a black t-shirt and trousers met us."Hey Roger, thanks for coming at such short notice.We were about to head out for a late night walk

"Sir, you can not go out right now. The paparazzi isinsane and everyone is wondering who your new petis. I got a message from Sr. Mr.Moore and he said thatwe were to take extra care in hiding the dog especiallysince you were returning him. You are the boss and itis up to you but I would suggest you stay insideconsidering that you giving a pet up would not look forthe PR." says Roger.But I wanna go out, I look over at Andy and he seemsirritated too. I don't want him to get in trouble ."All right we won't leave the hotel . But we will roamaround downstairs and that is non negotiable. No partof this conversation should get back to my father. Youwere right when you said he's not your boss, I am . Ifyou send information about me to him now or in thefuture , your job will be terminated immediately. Isthat clear?"The features of his face remain neutral but there is anunmistakable glint of irritation in him whenever hetalks about his dad.We go out and walk around. It's nice. Slowly butsteadily Andy picked up the pace of our movement tillwe were jogging around the hotel. This is fun .We go to the grass area and Andy pulls out a tennisball from his pocket. He threw it on the ground and I picked it up from the ground. When I picked it up hiseyes lit up and he rubbed my head and called me agood boy. I like that. He repeated this a few moretimes. My wounds weren't that bad or scratchy.Then he started taking the ball and moving it furtherand further. I kept getting the ball and he called me agood boy each time. Then he threw the ball across thegrass park and said, "FETCH!"

 I went and got the ball back . He bent down to me andgave me a treat too this time."Do you know what we just did was? That was a gamecalled fetch." He said ,answering his own question."You learned that really quickly, if you didn't alreadyplay before."Wow. I had seen other dogs play fetch with their ownerbut mine only took me for walks and they were neverhappy doing it. I played fetch for the first time today.My mouth curved into a giant smile as I planted kissesall over Andy's face . He laughed and got back up."So, you like fetch huh."Yes I do. I love it.We were crossing the park and going when a snakejumped out of nowhere towards Andy. I jumped infront of Andy and the snake latched on to the furaround my face. I pulled the snake off and threw it far.I looked back to see if Andy was hurt. He wasn't physically hurt but the look of worry on his face washighly concerning.He grabbed me quickly and everything became a littleblurry...