DOG TAILS | KIBA INUZUKA

11. String of Fate

Why couldn't they have found me? I wondered as I watched a mother and her young son play with Mari and Maya. The little boy sat in the grass and giggled with glee as the excited puppy jumped all over him and licked his cheeks. Next to them, his mother was cuddling the puppy's equally energetic sister, saying how sweet both puppies were.

They seemed like a nice family, a happy family, and I knew they would give the puppies a wonderful home filled with unconditional love. What more could a dog want? What more could anyone want in a family? And yet, there Mogu stood, ignoring them all. His sisters were being showered with affection, but he seemed more interested in head-butting me. After ramming into me a fifth time, the white puppy collapsed onto his side and just stared at me with those big black eyes of his, and he looked perfectly content right where he was, like he wanted nothing to change.

Don't you want to get adopted? I wanted to ask, but I knew he wouldn't answer.

As for me, I would've done anything to get out of this place. I would've gone home with anyone, anyone at all. I should have been grateful to the Inuzuka family for all they had done for me — and I was — but this wasn't the place for me. I didn't want to become a member of the Inuzuka family, and I didn't want to become his girl. I just wanted to go home and return to my normal life. So as the families came and went, I couldn't help but hope to see my parents.

Maybe they were lonely without me. Mother must have been lonely being trapped in a house all by herself, and maybe she wanted a puppy for herself, something to fill the emptiness. She would recognize me right away because a mother could always recognize her child. And she would run over to me and throw her arms around me, and she would tell me how happy she was now that she had found me. Just the thought brought me comfort, but it would stay only a thought. She never showed up.

"Can we keep them, Mama?" the boy asked, hugging Mari tightly in his arms. "Please, can we? I'll take care of them myself, I promise!"

"Both of them?" His mother looked down at the puppy's sister, who stood next to her, wagging her tail playfully. "I don't think we have the space."

"But they're sisters. They would be lonely without each other."

His mother smiled. "I suppose they would, wouldn't they? And we can't separate a family, huh?"

Little did they know, they were going to be separating a family. Mogu would be all alone if his sisters were adopted, but the boy hadn't noticed the white puppy sitting beside me.

"Well," Hana said, "technically there are three siblings. Their little brother Mogu is right over there." She made a brief gesture toward us. "He's the little white one. He's very playful."

"Oh, wow!" Grinning, the boy came running towards us, but Mogu didn't seem to be in the mood to socialize. Instead, he hid behind me and started growling when the boy came too close. 

The boy gasped fearfully and cried to his mother, "This puppy is mean! He's nothing like the other two, and he doesn't look like them either. No, I don't want him!"

His mother looked relieved. "We'll just take these two home then, if that's all right."

"Of course," Hana replied. "We're just glad to have found them a loving home after all they've been through. And Mogu will start to come around eventually."

Would he? I wasn't so sure. He growled and barked at anyone who tried to get close, and he almost bit one man who tried to pet him. I didn't understand why he was being so difficult. His sisters were being taken to a better home, but he didn't seem to want that for himself. Although he whimpered a little when they were taken away, once they were gone, he just looked over at me with that same cheerful glimmer in his eyes.