To Be Loved

I was just a small puppy then. I had no knowledge of the outside world and I didn't know what was going to happen to me. They had just brought me home from that place, the place where I was in the cage, with the glass window where people would look at me and smile. I would get excited but the people would just walk away and leave me there alone. I didn't know of anything different at that point so it didn't really make me sad. One morning, I was brought out of the cage and into a small room full of toys and brushes. It was amazing. The people started to pet me and play with me. I jumped around and it made them laugh. I fetched the toy when they threw it and they rewarded me with a belly rub and a hug. They put a collar around my neck and walked me out of the room. I went home with the people I played with that day. They loved me. I played with my humans all day and slept with them at night, and I started to think that maybe this was how it's supposed to be. Maybe I'm meant to be loved all the time, not just sometimes when someone wanted to comment on how cute I was then lock me back up in a cage.

But as I grew, the humans started to play with me less and less until finally they just started leaving me outside all day and would bring me inside only at night, condemned to a kennel. After awhile even that stopped. They would leave me outside all day and night and didn't feed me as much as they used to. Sometimes, I would go days without a meal. When I begged to get inside with a bark and a whine they would scold me when all I wanted was a hug. That was something they used to do often but now they didn't even acknowledge me...unless I did something bad. I barked all night and whined all day, just hoping that it would pay off, just one more belly rub. Maybe I would be able to see their face again, even if it just was a face of hatred towards me.

Finally, they opened the door to the small yard and lifted me into their arms. I was so excited! Maybe they were bringing me in to play or maybe they just wanted to cuddle. Either way I knew I was going to be happy. They didn't set me on the floor to play or put me on the couch to cuddle, however. They carried me out another door. I was outside again but they kept walking with me until we got to the strange machine my human called a “car” and we began to move. I wondered where we were going. I wasn't sure if we were going somewhere fun. We drove up to another strange place. Was it somewhere fun? What was going to happen here? They took me inside. This was odd. It smelled of other animals, just like me! They carried me over to the desk where the lady sat. They talked to her for a minute and she took me from them. I didn't know what was happening. The lady took me out of the room when the door closed behind me. The last glimpse of my humans face I got was them standing there not looking at me. Why were they not looking at me? What was wrong?!?! I had to know! I flailed around trying to get out the grip of the woman's arms but she held on tight and wouldn't let me go. I whined and whimpered. What was wrong with my human? Then she set me down on the concrete floor, amongst the barking and whining of all the other dogs around me and turned around. I tried to follow her but she pushed me back into the enclosed area with her foot. What was happening? 

Then I understood. She slammed the cold metal door behind her and walked away. It was happening again. I wasn't meant to be loved, played with, or hugged. I was just meant to sit in a kennel all my life. No one loved me and I knew that now. I didn't know why though. What did I do wrong?