Man's Best Friend

She awoke with a severe need to drink. It had been far too long since she had eaten, but she knew she needed water as soon as she could get to it. However, there was the obstacle of her angry, abusive parent. She took a quick peek out the door. Her father, an angry, often drunk man named Ronald Glass, was drinking already. It was only the afternoon, but he had downed several bottles. Broken shards lay at his feet, where, unfortunately, her water bowl lay. However, someone had filled it up recently, at least. The girl without a name crept out of the bedroom as quietly as she could. As a Maltese dog of two years old, she should have weighed between six and twelve pounds, but she was weighed only four. She managed to make her way up to the water bowl, and get some water into her system, but then he noticed her.

“Fucking dog,”, he muttered, and kicked her. It didn’t hurt as bad as his attacks usually did, but he was pretty out of it. She did not wait to see if it would get worse. Instead she made her way through a broken screen door, into the world beyond. Perhaps there would be nice people out there today. Perhaps, she thought hungrily, they might even give her food. She licked her lips, then made trotted forward, wincing from old cuts and bruises , a result of days far worse than this.