Angel On Earth- A Dog Novel

20 🐾 Save Him

Gypsy's mind was still half-reliving the memory as she picked up Finn and crossed the road.

I shouldn't have bit him. It didn't accomplish anything in the end. But what else was I supposed to do?

The young pitbull heard claws clacking against pavement behind her and turned to look. North was crossing the road without even looking, her fur buffeted against her skin as the two vehicles jerked to a stop in avoidance of hitting her.

She didn't even wait! Gypsy thought with her heart in her throat, turning on her heels and speeding up into a loping run. Her dislocated leg bucked then began dragging behind her, as Finn smacked against her chest.

The path to the animal shelter wound down several rich-people neighborhoods, and then past an elementary school. A few children and parents yelled or gestured Gypsy's way, but she ignored them and continued on.

North was behind her, tossing threats every now and then that were only halfway caught by the she-dog s ears.

"Keep running- see where it gets you! I'll kill that pup slower than a snail climbs a blade of grass. I'll-" she sounded hysterical.

I've done it now. North will never forgive me for losing Lavender.

And Ghost was right.... This is the only way to protect him. Gypsy's paws stepped off of a curb and into a dirt road; which was quite sparse of cars driving along, thankfully.

She then looked down at her butterscotch-brown and white male pup. The one, single pup she had left out of two different litters.

"Finn," Gypsy said testily as she set the puppy down in another ditch beside the last road. The animal shelter was across the street, visible past the speeding cars and bustle of cityfolk. One man looked over at the two dogs from across the street, then shrugged and carried on with his phone in his hands.

"You see that building across the street? That is where you must go."

Finn turned his floppy ears and white-splashed muzzle to look up at his mother; confidence receding now that he was finally so close to separating from her.

"But Mama, I don't-"

A throaty bark from North cut him off. With a squeak of surprise, the male pup backed underneath his mother's belly while Gypsy flipped around to watch North galloping onto the road she'd just crossed.

The curly black shepherd was only a few yards away, her eyes filled with the pure hatred she'd had for Gypsy since the first moment she'd saw her.

Though the side road, made of nothing but flattened dirt, was entirely vacant of cars when North began advancing...Gypsy saw a large red one turn out onto the dirt path and speed up towards North.

The truck appeared not to notice, or care that North was in the way. As the she-dog's deep brown eyes fixated on Gypsy's with a quelling determination, Gypsy blurted out; "North, wait! Go back!"

But the she-dog was mowed over by the advancing vehicle, her head and shoulder's forced to the ground and then momentarily disappearing beneath thick black tires.

After the dust had settled, and Finn had fallen silent, the two dogs were finally able to see North's crumpled body just a few inches from where it had been struck.

North's skull was sunken in on one side, as a pool of blood slowly gathered beneath it. The she-dog's fangs were still bared and exposed, some parts of her snout even ripped off from her sustained injuries.

With an uttered murmur of disbelief, Gypsy turned away and moved Finn behind her with a paw, shielding his eyes from the deathly scene.

"Mama, don't we have to help her?"