It was chilly, and a light rain was falling. The dog was tied to the fence, she was sitting: wet, trembling, with her ears flattened and her paws tucked under her.
I just brought my mom to the hardware store. When she came out with bags full of paints, brushes, and other repair supplies, I was already hugging the unfortunate dog, promising her lots of love, treats, and a warm bed.
“Are you sure it’s a draw?” Mom asked suspiciously, realizing that this would be the fourth dog on our neck.
Just in case, we gave the negligent owners a chance and went to other stores. But of course, my heart was out of place, and my brain was painting scary pictures, for example, that while we were walking back and forth, the dog was being untied by evil tormentors or stoned by unreasonable, cruel children.
40 minutes have passed. We could no longer test the patience of malicious maniacs and children with stones, and we rushed to save the unfortunate creature.
She was still sitting tied to the fence and thinking: “God, when will these wonderful, kind people come back and take me home with them?!” (Actually, the dog was thinking: “I’m tired of sitting in the rain, nothing interesting is happening, and some suspicious people are coming in with kisses and hugs that I didn’t ask for. Oh, how exhausting it is to be so beautiful!”)
Before picking up this sufferer, my mother and I went around all the nearby shops, shamelessly pestering customers and cashiers:
“Isn’t that your dog tied up there?”
“What kind of dog?”
– But we won’t tell you what it is! Describe it yourself, and then we will understand whether it belongs to you or not!
“Are you even here?” We don’t have any dog!
– And if you don’t, then immediately say that you don’t! Why are you misleading us?!
In short, we did everything we could, but no one fought with us for the right to own the unfortunate dog. Then we went and untied her with a clear conscience.
“What a turn!” thought the surprised dog.
After a bit of flirting, she finally agreed to get into my car.
We were sullenly silent on the way home. Then Mom spoke out:
– You know what, daughter, I think we stole someone else’s dog.…
–Oh, Mother! I retorted. – Tell me, would you be able to leave your Senechka alone, tied up in the rain? Or your Lap?
– Senechka and Lorochka – never! Maman snapped.
Dachshund Senechka and Labrador Lorochka reacted differently to the unexpected arrival of a new resident in the house.
“What kind of heavenly creature is this?” Senya began to roll up. – Aren’t your parents guarding the meat processing plant? Otherwise, where would a sugar stone like you come from? Come on, I’ll show you where it’s best to bury the tidbits that have fallen off the table.
Laura was less hospitable.
“Another beggar in my kitchen?” Well, you know, it’s not going to end well! And get away from my beloved birch stick!
It’s a good thing that there was no Fog in the house (the third dog, a shepherd). At that time, like all Moscow teenagers, he attended elite classes, where they promised to make a good boy out of him. Which we all had great doubts about, since the dog god had clearly deprived Mist of such an ability as obedience to man.
Meanwhile, the idea that I had stolen someone else’s dog was becoming more and more ingrained in my head. And while my mother was trying to feed the “poor abandoned girl,” I was scribbling ads in all the chat rooms and on websites.
Some facts indicated that it was not abandoned. Not that they even talked about it… To be more precise, they screamed! They screamed! Flashing scarlet letters, like in a fire, were flashing on the screen I imagined!
Firstly, broshenka refused to eat dry food. The treats from the pet store didn’t come to her either. But she did not refuse the beef tongue and even stuck her muzzle into the bowls of Sena and Laura when she finished her dinner. Laura and Senya were a little stunned by such arrogance and, just in case, stepped aside to confer on how they should behave with the shameless guest in the future.
Secondly, she ignored my gestures inviting her to the couch. Instead, she marched defiantly to the sofa, jumped on it, fluffed up the pillows with her nose and plunged her pretty face into their middle.
“Your paws are dirty!” I said reproachfully. “Let me at least wipe them off.”
The dog looked at me with a tired look and majestically extended his paw to wipe. And that was the third thing!
And fourthly, the phone rang in the evening.
– Hello, I’m here about the dog.… Why did you untie her, let me ask! – a disgruntled female voice gave out.
“But it’s raining… it’s cold,” I defended myself, as if before a strict judge.
– We went to the store! The dog was left waiting for us. We go out, but she’s not there! What do you want me to think? The child is in tears! – the hostess scolded me.
The bitter tears of a child I didn’t know completely demoralized me, and instead of scolding the negligent hostess in response, I babbled and babbled something in my own defense.
– So, right now I have to look for a taxi in the night! It costs a lot of money to pay for it!
– I’ll bring it to you! I was sucking up.
When I finished talking, I thought: “Okay, stop! Why am I making excuses? I’m not the one who left the dog tied up in the rain and unattended! Actually, there are even statistics according to which a huge percentage of abandoned dogs are tied up in the woods or somewhere else. The explanation for this is simple: if a dog is simply thrown away, it will be able to find its way home quite easily thanks to its nose; if the dog is tied up, then, of course, it will not be able to return. And anyway, let him thank me for untying the dog, and not some bum or sadist!”
With this inner monologue, I went to a meeting with the dog’s owners and prepared to say it all to their face. However, my pedagogical impulse disappeared in an instant when the dog, wagging its tail, rushed to jump and lick its real owners.
– Thank you for returning it! – the hostess thanked me, who turned out to be quite a pleasant lady (apparently, the first negative surge was also very quickly extinguished by the joy of a happy reunion).
“We’ve had her untied like this before,– the landlady’s husband confessed. – We fought it off with the whole family. They wanted to eat her, can you imagine?
– So you’ve already had a dog stolen from you for terrible purposes, and you keep tying it up?! I was amazed.
“We won’t do it again,– the owners promised.
“Please!” I asked.
– Come on, let’s go! – the dog, which, by the way, as it turned out, was named Klara Zakharovna, nodded at me with her muzzle. – Come by if you need anything. Hello to Sena and Laura!
In general, it’s good that everything ended so well. However, now, as I drive through that village, I keep looking around with bated breath to see if dear Klara Zakharovna is anywhere nearby and if I need to get her out of another risky mess.
