La Liberté du Chien Sauvage

The Foster

PROLOGUE
The pup laid in the hot sun, panting. Heat exhaustion wasn't something such a young dog usually made it out of but he was stronger than the others. There was a sudden howl from the den and he knew it was a danger call. He lifted his dusty head off the gravel and slowly got up, stumbling towards the small cave. Slowly but surely, he made it back and looked at what had caused this outcry. There was a man holding a long loop of tubing in his right hand. It looked like something the dogs' heads would get stuck in if they were caught. The five dogs watched in caution and passed each other expressions of fear, mixed with aggression.

TODAY
It felt strange to wake up in a cold room with lots of pillows and soft toys. He felt a pang of longing to hold a pillow between his paws and chew it to pieces, but something told him that wouldn't be acceptable. He climbed off the bed and stretched, knowing that he would be expected to wake up soon enough. He had learned that the word "Boxer" was used to call him over. The nice lady walked in and greeted him with a swift, yet satisfying, stroke across the top of his head.
"Hey buddy, how are you this morning?" she chuckled. He groaned at the wonderful feeling of kind human contact again after so long. She looped a collar around his neck and snapped a leash onto the ring. This was a feeling he knew happened when he was going for a walk. That excited him and he jumped in the air and whipped his tail around in continuous figure 8s.
"Woahhhh, calm down a little, we're going for a walk to the park to do some training," Boxer tilted his head at this new word, "Training? Training!?"
More head tilts.

At the park, the lady told Boxer to sit, obviously he had no idea what that meant so he ignored her and marked a tree.
"Boxer come here!" She used a firm tone this time. That wasn't good. He trotted over to her and sat at her side.
"Yes! Good boy!" She stroked his ear and gave him a treat. He loved this new game, although he didn't fully understand it. Every time he sat, no matter how simple this task was, he was given a treat and lots of positive words came his way. Eventually he learned to sit when the lady told him to. Training was this fun game where he did something that impressed his new master and she would reward him for it. The park quickly became his favourite place, replacing the car. His new master was so generous towards him and she would never leave him for any longer than four hours at a time. It was nice to feel safe.

After weeks of going to the park and playing training, Boxer began getting sick of this game. He would sit instead of listening and that made his master angry. She would give him a command and when he got confused and tilted his head, she would kick the ground and release him off the leash. He didn't like when she got angry, but he couldn't help being confused. Eventually he had learned everything his lady asked him to do. He felt as if he had less control, so sometimes he would disobey her orders which was funny to him.

The weather changed from hot to cool very fast, leaving Boxer out of sorts. Having desert-dog in his blood meant he had the advantage of being able to lay in the sun for hours without overheating. When it got cold, it was hard for him to be happy. His master started to get sad when the weather changed too, for whatever reason he couldn't quite figure out.
"Soon I'm going to have to say goodbye, okay bud?" Salty liquid often left her eyes when she told him things like that, so he would lick her cheeks which made her laugh. But one day nothing could make her laugh. She was so sad and he didn't know how to change that. She took his collar off and put that red slip-collar on again. He knew this situation all too well. She was taking him back to the place she had saved him from. She opened the car door but he sat on the ground and looked at her.
"I know baby, but I can't keep you. It was only temporary." He whimpered and jumped into the car. She was sobbing by that point and he felt pain in his stomach. They drove for a little while before pulling into the long gravel driveway to that same white, green and blue building.