[Aliantha]

Adoption

I was really only a baby when they tore me away from my mother. I was just a tiny mite, helpless and frightened. Oh I knew they would come. My mother told me right from the start that they would take me, that they would take us all. I just didn’t think I’d be the last to go.

Jen was the first to go. We all knew she would be. She was so pretty and bright. She’d be the apple of any family’s eye. With her big blue eyes and inquisitive nature, it was only natural she’d be first.

Next was my little brother Joe. Such a handsome creature was he, shiny black hair and precise lines. Oh how he screamed when that wretched woman just picked him up and carried him away as if he were nothing more than a loaf of bread. I hope she treats him well, that woman. One day she’ll be sorry if she doesn’t.

Last was me. There were only three siblings in the family. I was the middle one. There was nothing special about me. I was just ordinary. No one likes ordinary these days. They all want something special. I guess I hoped they wouldn’t come for me at all. But one day someone did, an old man. He was so wrinkled and creased I thought he might blow away like a piece of crumpled newspaper. He smelled of fresh smoked tobacco and his hands were gentle. He picked me up and held me in the air as if putting me that little bit closer to the sun would help his tired eyes. He turned to the woman in charge and said, “she’ll do” and I was his. He paid the price and I was carted off.

My poor little heart wrenched as the distance between my mother and me grew larger. I could see the grief and sadness in her eyes as she watched helpless while I was taken away. They say the last one hurts the most, and I guess I know that it hurt my mother most when I was gone. Now she was all alone in that place. What now for her, my tiny mind wondered. Will I ever see her again? All that must be forgotten now as I’m jostled around in the back of the truck.



That first night I cried for my family. I curled myself into a ball in the box full of old rags that was now my bed. There was water for me to drink, and food. I had no desire for either. My poor little heart was breaking. I was so alone. Finally I fell asleep, exhausted by my sadness.
The next day was bright and the old man brought me some warm milk and crushed biscuits. It was really quite good. After that he looked at me with his kind old eyes, and then we walked out into the yard. I followed him, for what else could I do? It was a nice yard, very big, with lots of large shade trees on the edges. It was hot that day I remember, and we stopped by the back gate in the shade of one of those trees and looked out into the paddock. Many cows there were for me to look at, and the old man looked too. All of a sudden I realized I wasn’t sad anymore. I realized that maybe this is a dog’s life after all, and I looked up at the old man with my head cocked to one side. He looked back at me and smiled briefly as he puffed on his smoke. “You’ll do”, and up the cow paddock we went.