THE YARD

Chapter 11

"I think I'm going inside their den." Mocha seemed to make an attempt at sounding confident, but again she tried to turn backwards. It was only a few moments more until they were on the porch, and Flare glimpsed her brown brindle back before the door shut. Quite literally, Grey Dog had the door slammed in his face. He jumped back as his muzzle was struck from it closing.

"This has happened before; it's alright." Grey Dog announced to the other dogs in The Yard, who hadn't been particularly worried in the first place. So he was probably saying it for himself.

"The last time Mocha was about to have puppies, they kept her in there for a day or two," White Dog put in.

"Yes," Grey Dog began to agree.

"She delivered her pups and they let her back into The Yard every day to see us."

"And she'd go back in for the pups?" Asked Jax.

"Yes, quite often," Grey Dog confirmed.

"Then what happened to them, if they were in the den at first?"

It was White Dog who answered for him. He sounded tentative, as if he were carefully choosing his words.

"Well, at some point they must have taken the pups into their rolling-den and brought them somewhere else. Because Mocha was returned to The Yard again after that, and she said her puppies had been taken from her nest."

"Hush. What The Man does with the puppies doesn't concern us," Grey Dog said.

But Jax just had to open his mouth again.

"You know they probably get sent to other Yards to become breeding or fighting dogs," stated the male plaintively.

That sounds horrible! Flare cringed at the thought of many other puppies being dumped in a yard like this one.

Grey Dog snapped his teeth, causing the other males to flinch.

"I said, hush!" The male's ears would have been flattened, if he'd had any. Instead, a pained look crossed his face as he turned away. He knows he won't be seeing Mocha for awhile.

~

"Come on, White Dog. Let's race again!"

Jax hurled himself across The Yard without waiting for a reply. White Dog was catching his breath across the Yard as Flare and Shadow idly watched.

Jax reached their end of The Yard within a few seconds. He came close to the porch, then turned around with his tongue sagging, waiting for his companion.

This time the older male didn't bound to the porch like before. He loped across The Yard in a tired trot, bony hips shifting to and fro. Still panting, his reply was breathless.

"I can't do that anymore." White Dog panted and plopped onto his haunches.

"Jeez, White Dog, you're getting old. And we're gonna have to start calling you Bone Dog soon, because that's all I can make out of you."

Though Jax's intent probably hadn't been to insult, White Dog's face turned grim. He angrily stared down at Jax before lifting a giant paw and thumping it down on the bully-breed's forehead.

"Watch who you're calling old. May not be able to outrun you, but I can still outfight you."

"I know," the stout black-and-white male replied sourly. He shook his nubs for ears and looked around for something else to do. Flare instinctively crouched, trying not to be noticed- but the other dogs were only a few paces away.

"Come on, let's get away from them." Jax pointedly threw his gaze their way and then turned his rump on them. White Dog looked at her without expression, but as his eyes met Shadow's they hardened.