I remember a time when I was around 10 or 11 years old; Nawal had a friend who had recently got into a divorce and had left his dog over at our house for a few months. His name was Space, he was a beautiful mix of gray wolf and husky. Space was full of energy even though he was an older dog.
Space was the only one there, I know it seems silly because Space was just a dog; but the way he ran up to you and jumped around all happy. It just made you feel like you were the center of his attention. The way his misty blue eyes looked into ur soul and his wolf-like attitude got you laughing was what really got me, it just made my heart melt. The way he would stare at me when I was talking and how he nodded his head as if he was listening and then huff and puff at me when I over talked as if he really understood. The sweetest part about having Space was when I would lay in bed deep in the night, crying myself to sleep. Space always knew what to do, he would jump onto the bed and lay next to me, lick my cheek, put his paw on over my chest and rub his face on my shoulder and fall asleep. I guess it's true what they say about animals being good for human therapy.
I was going through a lot in school and at home. I guess people couldn't understand the foreign girl who had a lot to say. sad thing was I barely even got a chance to say a single word before I was labeled "weird" by the cool girl who passed chips around eating it after every boy who licked it... To be honest I really don't remember a time when I had friends. They either end up being jealous of you, liers or trying to buy ur friendship. maybe I'm just not lucky in the friendship department or something is really wrong with me. At least Space understood me, and that's all that matter for the 6 months we spent together.
For the short while, Space was around I really didn't care what people thought, I didn't care about what they said. Especially my step grandma, when she got mad, I knew I was no "sharmouta", I knew I was not a "dumb ass" and for sure I was no ones punching bag when there having an episode of rage. Space protected me from her, When I would get in trouble he would bark at her and give her a smile; which even though his intention purely to protect me, it would only lead to him being put outside and my butt whooped.
Who knew the day Space would leave was going to be one of the most traumatizing days of my life. I remember that day like it was yesterday, it was like any other day, the owner came by as a surprise to pick Space up and send him up to D.C. to be with his mom. But I don't think space really wanted to go with him. The moment he saw his owner he started to growl and when the owner tried to get close to him he ran behind me whining. The owner got upset and told me: " I'm gonna show you what happens to dogs that don't listen". His anger quickly turned to a smile as my grandpa and step-grandma had approached us in the back yard. I started to cry ,falling to the ground hugging Space, begging them to let me keep him and of course they refused. (as always) The Owner then suggests I take Space with him to the airport so I can say goodbye, and without hesitation, they agreed.
As we got into the car I felt my stomach sink, I knew deep inside something was wrong and I wanted to just grab Space and run away as far as possible from His owner and them. But sadly that was not possible. On the way to where I thought was the airport the owner made several calls to some friend named "Owen". After 20 minutes of driving on the highway and 10 mins of driving into the long road with corn feilds, we reached to what seemed to be a farm of some sort. It had all kinds of animals, and it had tons of them inside and outside, some in cages, some free grazing.
As we stepped out of the car the owner's friend Owen showed up, He had this horrible smell of death on him, his clothes were stained in red and to be honest it kind of scared me. I asked the owner what we were doing here and he told me: "showing you what happens to dogs that don't listen and growl at their master". As we walked toward the big barn door Space started to get upset he was fighting his owner and Space was pulling on his leash while the owner pulled harder, he technically dragged Space into the barn which happened to be a fur farm. AS you walked in you could see the can long rows of fox's, bunnies, ferrets and wild cats; their cages reeked of death and their eyes were full of fear. The way the poor animals huddled in the corner of the cage, some with nothing covering their wounds and some screaming as they were getting beat by the workers for who knows what reason. I could see a few have already passed and it seemed like they were there for a day or two.
