Life as a dog

I’m a golden retriever, and I must be a purebred kind because I’ve heard that my mom and dad have won awards in beauty pageants before.

I’ve been in this sad shelter for I do not know how many days now. Whether it’s the smell or the environment here, it makes me a bit uncomfortable to live here. I wonder if my life is going to end here, It’s scary to think about. I want to taste the food those human eats, those are much better than the food here, at least the smells of those are good. The best food I can remember eating was at my previous owner’s house. I found it on the kitchen floor and it was very tasty.

Speaking of my former owner, he was a good guy who gave me food, although many times he would forget to feed me. Maybe he just preferred to enjoy his own life rather than having me around. At that time, I could only see other dogs playing with balls on the lawn from the balcony, and I also wanted to try out how fun that thing was. Maybe the last owner thought I was stupid or something, or I don’t know why he would beat me so often, I think the reason may be that humans express love in a different form than we do, just like we wag our tails when we are happy.

As I was fuming, I heard a noise at the door and someone came by.

“That’s it.” A man said.

It was dark in here and I couldn’t see the man’s face, but I was sure he was smiling. He chose me probably because he was attracted to my looks.

Somehow, I was taken to a new place. I have to say, this place is fantastic, with a furry ground and a pleasant smell. The man told me that this would be my new home from now on. He also gave me the name Jubby, which I have no idea what it means, but I love it.

The sun was shining very well inside this new home, and that’s when I got a good look at this man’s face. He had a lot of hair on his mouth, so he looked a lot like me. “My name is Shawn, Jubby, this will be your new home from now, I believe we will get along very well.” He said excitedly.

All of a sudden, I wanted to pee and could hardly hold it in, so in that case, let’s just finish it here. Just in time to mark my new home.

“Ohno!” Shawn yelled at me. “You’re not allowed to do it in here!”

I was stunned to see his reaction because I didn’t quite understand why he wouldn’t let me do it here. At this point I thought he was going to hit me, I closed my eyes and kept trembling. But immediately after that Shawn carried me to another room, “You will use this room as your bathroom.” He pointed to this area as if he was trying to tell me to go to the bathroom in this place, I think.

For some time after that, Shawn taught me many things over and over again, like shaking hands and sitting down. I didn’t know what it meant for them, but for me doing that would get me a snack, and that was all I needed.

Shawn has given me so much and I often wonder what I can do for him, but I know that whenever he is upset, I always kiss and hug him and try to help him be happy. I know one trick that works every time, when Shawn is down, all I have to do is bite my tail and spin it around, this will make him laugh every time. In the days that Shawn and I spent together, I learned to detect human emotions and I learn one of the purposes of my life, is companionship.

One day, Shawn brought home a woman, the woman seemed happy to see me, kept touching my head and hugging me, I could feel that she should like me too, right? Since this woman appeared in the house, there was one more person who loved me, and I was like the heart of the home.

But soon a child was born in the house, he’s the baby of two of them. They care for him so much that they focus less and less on me, and the existence of this child reminds me of what happened in the previous owner’s house.

The previous owner also had a child at the time, but it was noticeably older. One day while I was sleeping, I felt someone pulling my hair and riding up on me, and hitting me on the head. I tried to shake him off, but he didn’t stop and hit me even harder. But it was so painful that I had to let out a growl to alert him. At this time the previous owner thought I was going to hurt his child and came over to hit me. I was so scared that I could only close my eyes and kept shaking. He beat me for I don’t know how long before he stopped, and I thought I was going to die. That painful sensation is still vivid in my memory, even after so much time has passed, every time I see a human raise his hand in front of me, I will subconsciously dodge it, is a memory I can not forget in this life. It was also at this time that I began to resist children somewhat, always feeling the presence of children, which will increase my chances of being beaten. I really did not want to hurt the children, I just want to tell them that they made me very uncomfortable, I just want to try to warn them.

Now there are little kids around and it makes me a little nervous. all I want is to avoid them, maybe if I stay away from the kids parents won’t get angry and try to hit me again. The parents may have noticed that I’ve been acting strange lately, and they’ve tried to communicate with me, and they’ve tried to bring the kids to me for me to get close to. But I couldn’t control my shaking and screaming as I remembered all the pictures of the beating. My reaction made my parents feel a little worried, and they didn’t know what to do to solve this situation.

Now the player has to make the decision:

A: I can never let go of my anxiety about children.

http://interactivestorytellingsummer2022.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2022/08/10/life-as-a-dog-option-a/

B: Try to get along with the kid regardless of the past

http://interactivestorytellingsummer2022.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2022/08/10/life-as-a-dog-option-b/