Home Is Where Your Bark Is

Chapter 29

Out of the snow and away from people, Seven stretched out in the dim light underneath an overhang between two buildings. He’d sought refuge here once before. Before Jake. Before the family before Jake. He’d slept a whole night here that time, and not a single person had noticed him. It had been even colder then, and the heat coming out the vent next to the building had helped fight the deep chill that had set up inside him.

He hadn’t meant to run off this time, not from Jake. The blaring noises and clambering from all around and the people lunging for him had been too much, and Seven had run and run and run until he could no longer hear Jake calling his name even as he missed the comfort of hearing it as soon as the sound faded.

Unlike other times he’d run before, the running hadn’t filled Seven with joy this time. Perhaps this was because of all the running he’d been doing with Jake—along the sidewalks or along the vast stretch of water by the sand or even in the yard or inside the expansive building where he’d chased down Frisbee after Frisbee as his heart pounded with the joy of it.

Now that he was tucked safely back here where no one would spot him, the fear that had been driving him onward faded, and his limbs and body became his to notice again. When he’d run off, he’d been thirsty and scared and dragging a leash. He’d been hungry too. He wasn’t hungry anymore. His belly bulged from the food he’d gulped down after finding a treasure trove of it in a bag alongside the road. The bread had been stale, but the meat stuck to it had still been so tasty he’d wolfed it all down along with bits of the paper clinging to it, even though doing so had dried out his mouth and tongue even more and left him longing for more than the mouthfuls of snow he’d eaten afterward.

His paws stung sharply from whatever coated the pavement, melting the snow into water and clinging to his paws as he ran. His neck, throat, and the backs of his ears hurt from earlier when he’d jumped over a tall fence to get away from two strangers beckoning him from inside a car. The leash had gotten stuck, trapping him against the fence, filling him with wild panic and making it hard to breathe as he’d jerked from side to side until his collar finally slipped over his head, and he left it behind. The discomfort around his throat occasionally stirred up a cough, but the sound was soft and foreign to his ears, as if it wasn’t his cough but another dog’s.

As Seven watched the snow out past the awning tumble from the sky in its hurry to pile onto the ground, his eyelids grew heavy. He burped from the food sitting heavy in his belly and licked his lips before lowering his head onto his front paws. Exhaustion overcame him, and soon he dozed, dreams of Jake and Frisbees and the comforting chair where he liked to sleep passing over him like thin clouds on a windy summer day.

Sometime later, the shivers that had taken over his wet body woke him as did the ache in his belly, alerting him that in his hunger, he’d eaten something he shouldn’t have.

He’d only moved through this part of the city once, and he didn’t know what lay between here and the endless water to the east or to other places he’d been, like Jake’s or Jenna’s or the family’s home from before or the shelter where he hoped never to have to go again. He didn’t know how far any of these places were from here or what might get in his way if he tried to reach any of them—wide stretches of busy roads or buildings that rose up so high they disappeared into the clouds, or people who might very well lock him into a cage if they caught him—but he trusted instinct would guide him if he pressed on. The thought of doing so had him shaking from more than the cold.

Even so, Seven rose onto his four paws and shook himself off, spraying a mist in all directions from the not-yet-evaporated snow that had fallen on him earlier. Each paw burned and his belly ached, but he belched and licked his lips, knowing that even if he threw it up, if he encountered another bag of discarded food like the one he’d gobbled up earlier, he’d devour it all the same.

Stepping tenderly on his sore paws until walking on them dulled the pain in them, the dog headed along the pathway to the edge where snow was blowing in. So much snow tumbled from the sky, Seven feared it would never stop. The city had gone quiet, like it was sleeping, too, not a person in sight and the normally busy streets mostly empty of cars.

Stepping out into the snow, the dog gazed around him, licking at the flakes landing on his nose. Maybe the snow was playing tricks on him, or maybe his earlier dreams hadn’t fully faded because he could almost hear Jake calling his name.

He didn’t know how he’d get there, but he knew where he was going all the same.