When a dog barks, or a cat meows, do you feel joy? Do you feel sadness? Do you own animals? Now think about where these animals are, where they came from, where they are going. How often do you think about your animal’s voice? Do they have one? I think so.

About the Author: Cierra Mincher (Creative Writing, Class of 2017) writes all the time when inspiration takes hold, which could be found anywhere and everywhere. She writes short stories, poems, and creative fiction from observances of everyday life.  She is currently enrolled in SVC’s Shires Press Publishing Program to publish her first book through the Northshire Bookstore in May of 2017. She is hoping to continue on this path of writing and become a famous author someday. Along with her love for writing, Cierra is a lover of animals and hopes to someday become a Humane Officer and work in animal rescue.

WARNING: This piece contains explicit content (graphic violence, swearing) and may not be appropriate for all audiences.

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I Can Promise You

Cierra Mincher

I’m stuck. I. Am. Stuck. I used to look through the plexiglass window every day. I used to look through the cold steel bars every day, any time I heard somebody walk by. But I  don’t do that now. I lay in my bed facing the corner because I have become hopeless and I know I am going to die. It might not be today, it might not be tomorrow, I might get moved around a few times, but if I continue on like this, I will die.

I don’t know my name and I guess it doesn’t really matter. You can give me any name you like. My last owners called me Stupid, Pig, Bitch; It hurt. Eventually they stopped calling me anything. They put me outside, a heavy metal chain tied around my throat. It got tighter and tighter with each passing month, and then a year had gone by and it was beginning to dig into my skin. Sometimes I could feel the blood dripping into my fur.

I’m a dog. I can be any dog you would like to think of: German Shepherd, Golden Retriever, Bulldog, Pit Bull, Boxer, Chihuahua, Pomeranian, Bull Mastiff, Labrador. It doesn’t matter because I can feel things too, just like you. I don’t think people realize how hard it is for us here. I sit and wait and I used to get excited when people walked through looking at me. I used to try to gain their attention with my little yips and while I wagged my tail, I used to stand up on my hind legs against the wall waiting to be picked up into their arms.

But nobody came to touch me or pick me up. Nobody wanted to play ball or run around with me. Sometimes somebody would come in and pet me behind the ears and scratch my chin, I’d flop over and they would rub my soft belly for a couple minutes, but then they would leave and I wouldn’t ever see them again. So I’ve lost hope, and that’s a hard thing to lose.

I don’t know how I’m in this shelter now. Somehow I was rescued, a lot of the people here say I’m lucky. Am I though? Is it lucky to be in a place where you’re ignored, kept in a cold box with nobody to play with, no family around, waiting to die? Or is it worse to be owned by somebody and be called names, be kicked and tortured, be starved and thrown into a fire until you’re dead, to watch your family die in front of you. What is worse? I’m not quite sure.

I saw all of that too. I had a mother and siblings. They all got taken away from me at some point. Most of my siblings were given away just a few weeks after we were born. I never saw them again. Then it was just my brother and my mother and me. My mother used to whine sometimes because she missed her babies.

Our owners used to yell at her and kick her, they would take her away from us and we would starve while we waited for our mom to come back so we could get some milk. They starved her. They let a chain sink into her fur too. It was terrible and bloody. She tried to protect us. Our owners went to grab my brother one day because he was whining for her and she bit one of their hands. They yelled and hit her in the face, they kicked her until her teeth were falling out and her ribs were broken. They left her laying on the kitchen floor that night.

Then they left for a week. They didn’t come back at all that whole time. We couldn’t get outside so we peed in the house. We shit all over the carpet and in the kitchen. Then when they came back they yelled some more and locked my brother and me outside. They took my mother out back and skinned her right there. We could hear her wailing and howling in pain. We watched the fire go up and they tossed her on it. She kept howling and howling until she couldn’t; she died that way.

They took my brother and beat him real bad then. They broke his leg, I could see the bone sticking out through his skin. It really hurt him. Then they left us outside all winter and we had to huddle together to stay warm. I guess somebody noticed because after a week of heavy snow and ice cold temperatures, somebody came to get us and brought us into a nice warm room. They coddled us in warm blankets and held us to their chest.

We thought we were saved. Somebody finally loved us, but we were wrong. They took us to this place where a man examined us and stuck us with needles. Our chains got taken off our necks and it hurt, they cleaned out our wounds and put something called stitches in. We had to be sedated, but when we woke up, we could finally breathe again. We had one needle hooked into our paws and we were sleepy most of the time, but we got to keep the blankets. Then my brother showed up one day and his left hind leg was missing. It was hard for him to walk after that, but he finally got up and started moving around.

Then they brought us to this place and we stayed in this room together. Sometimes we get taken out by trainers. They throw a ball or try to run with us. I just want to smell the air and roll around in the grass. But I look out at the gravel lot and I see all the people getting out of those fast things with the rubber wheels.

All we want is love. We, all of us, want somebody that is going to pet us and hold us; somebody that will let me jump up into their lap and snuggle with them. We want somebody who will pet our belly and feed us regularly. We want somebody who will take us out to the bathroom and throw a ball and bring us back in.

Please don’t come to pet me and then leave me here. I’m sad and depressed and I’ve lost hope this way. Please don’t come to get me and then take me home and not love me. Please don’t leave me out in the cold. All we want is to be loved. We want to lay in bed with you all night, and if we can’t do that we will settle with a spot on the floor next to you so long as you rub our ears until we are fast asleep. I can feel just like you do, I cry when I hurt or when I’m sad and I get mad and I retaliate. When I get kicked or stepped on I yell out because it hurts, my feeling are the same as yours so please don’t separate your rights from mine.

I ask on behalf of all of us; cat, dog, rabbit, lizard, fish, any and all animals that need adopting; somebody come find us and take us home. Come and let me lick your hand and show you how loving and loyal to you I can be. Somebody took my brother so now I’m alone and scared. I see dog after dog, just like me, get a leash tied to their collar and taken down the hallway to never return. I know what’s on the other side of that door. There’s a man there that is going to kill us. Maybe he will be kind and hug us before it happens, apologizing for not being able to save us, and maybe he won’t. Maybe he’ll just do it and get it over with, and then we’ll be tossed on a pile of other dead dogs; two, three, eight, ten thousand high.

I can promise you a million things if you promise yourself to me. I promise to love you, to never let anything hurt you, to always look after you, to miss you before you leave, to kiss you until I can’t anymore, to lay beside you when you’re sick, to always show you my love. I can promise you my whole world. So please take me home and look at me like I’m your best friend. Look at me and promise to never leave me alone, promise to always love me and feed me and be my savior because if you give me your best, I will love you with my best. Let me into your world and I promise you will become mine.

Copyright © Cierra Mincher (2016) All Rights Reserved.