Loving and Learning

Contributing

Dante rose up fairly early. He looked at all his siblings who were still in a deep sleep. He noticed Dolly, Dylan, and Dawkins in the center of the room, they looked exhausted from all the chores from yesterday. He thought about last night and what Dolly said to him.

"What a foolish sentiment, you don't matter at all to them. How often have they laughed at you and ignore anything you have to say!"

Dante shook at the thought at those words, he really didn't want to deal with his own negativity today.

He quietly and gentle moved himself out of the bed, Deepak was still asleep and hadn't moved away from him and he didn't want to wake him. He snuck out the room and headed down the hall.

"You really think you can be forgiven over letting your family nearly be killed?"

Dante walked down the stairs and into the living room and looked around, and noticed some toys in the corner behind a potted plant.

"Guess Dolly missed those, sigh...might as well pick them up. Dante said to himself.

He grabbed the toys and took them to a toy chest nearby. As he did so he thought more of yesterday, particularly when Dolly had asked about him becoming a top dog.

"Dolly is right, neither her, Dylan, or heck even Dawkins asked to do any of this, not like they were given a choice." He said to himself.

"He leaned up against the wall, thinking and debating.

"Maybe I should help." He thought.

"You're a lousy brother, you'll fail."

Dante shuddered at the thought.

"Then again I'm no good with pups, plus what if I....." Dante could feeling his anxiety rising.

He took deep breaths to try to relax and wandered into the kitchen, he looked around and noticed some more toys in the corner sitting next to a hand broom and dustpan.

"Really Dolly? Then again we have a lot of toys." He said to himself.

He went over to pick them up, they were a mouse and duck plushie. He held them up facing him and stared both of them in the eye, it has been years since he played with stuffed toys and the most toys he did play on rare occasions were simple dog toys for older pups like himself. Looking at both plushies he thought about his bat plushie he named Shadow in his chest in the attic. Dante use to carry it around all the time when he was little, it was like his best friend and loved playing with it, but he hasn't touched it shortly after they moved here, regardless he had no intentions on ever getting rid of it.

He took both plushies back to the toy chest and placed them inside. The thought that Dolly and Dylan have to deal with this everyday, no wonder they were so tired and it amazed him they could have the energy they do to keep doing it.

"Dolly and Dylan do work hard to take care of all of us. Cleaning up after us, feeding us, making sure we are safe." Dante said to himself.

He stared at the chest.

Flashback

A younger Dante along with his sibling were at home near the fire station being watched by some of the other fire dogs while their parents were at work. Dante was playing with his bat plushy Shadow, tossing and running around with it across the floor.

"Heh heh!" He laughed playfully.

He looked up at a nearby clock, it read as 2:30 which meant soon their parents would be home any minute now.