The giant ant clacks its front pinchers together trying to reach me, but my fabulous leap dodges the effort, I’m too good for these nasties. Not only am I light on my feet, but with the most powerful jaws, I grab a leg daring to poke at me. Pulling it back, I make the nasty thing fall down even on its many haired feet. It clicks and clacks again trying to reach me, but bouncing away again I can feel its frustration. As a hero of the world, I can do anything. Another of its friends comes up trying to help but they are all overmatched .

Pouncing on the first one with my claws spread out to hurt it, smashing it keeps it on the ground and it can’t get up anymore. Its friend comes up also trying to defend its people. Roaring in defiance, I make it cower in fear as it gets closer. Two of its ant friends join soon after, but I will not be stopped. Jumping onto the back of the one that is scared of me, I grab and yank off one of its legs. It squeals, but it is ok, it has many more. I grab a leg on its other side and pull. Its friends try to help scratching at the big one I am on, but they can’t reach me the way they want. Their claws scrape against the thick skin, but miss me because I jump up high and land hard on this other one, all of its feet spread out and it stops moving.

Its other friends squeak in anger, but still can’t reach me. They circle their friends, but I am such an amazing fighter, I wait till they are far from each other, and jump at the smaller one. Its front claws bite down, but don’t hurt because my fur is so thick and has many scars already. I bite it back on its face, and it stops moving. 

The last ant with them comes after me, but I leap away, my legs being so strong, it needs to run to catch up for a few seconds while I get ready for it. Growling at it, it dips back and cowers just like all of its friends. I hear some more of them coming up from the side where they live. A few more are coming because that is what they do, they keep coming.

They are trying to hurt my people, and my people will be defended, to the death if necessary, but these things don’t have a chance because….

I wake to the smell, the unmistaken smell of my home. 

You know, as a pack, we might not smell great. Someone should open a window.

It is funny for us, you just have to be here to get it. 

The first time the door outside opens after a long dark sleepy time and waking up, the blast of fresh air makes the place smell better. Since the smell is so strong, it is hard to tell who is who in the crowd of other dogs with me in the strange home that I’ve been in since I can remember. Sometimes it is even hard to think. At least we’ll know if we come from the same big house, there is no mistaking this smell.

My name is No. 

Sadly I have been in a small room with my own bed and a hole in the ground where a lot of the bad smells go, for a long time. I get food many times, and so much water, all of the water I can drink, but it doesn’t taste very good. There are many little rooms with other pack members in them, humans have us in different rooms, I think it would be really fun to have us all together.

Playing with so many new people makes my day go by quicker, they walk by, and when I can go outside when someone wants to play, smelling the nice air makes me feel better, so playing nice with the humans is in our best interest. It is really nice sometimes when I can stay outside with one of my other brothers or sisters, but the smell on us is so bad, it is hard to play together. Some days it is hard to be happy about meeting another human though, some are mean, and bong my head, or brush my skin really hard. They don’t seem to understand me when I tell them I don’t like it.

When I get to walk outside with the tall human, I don't know what to call him, he takes me around the big building where I live, so many humans to see when I can be walking all over. They want to pet me and say crazy gibberish things. It is cute when they think they can talk.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Each time though, I have been taken back inside where I can see some of my friends. I stop to try to say hi, but get pulled to get back home pretty often. I am moved to different little places inside the home, but they are all the same, just small rooms with a place for water and food when the humans bring it to me.

If it didn’t smell bad, I’d think it was a really fun house, other than dark times. When it is dark and harder to see inside, some of the pack howls, and makes it hard to try to sleep. Usually I can sleep when I can get a few sleep times, so sometimes it is boring, but it is where we live.

Many times, I fall asleep and dream of being outside where instead of being stuck where I live, I get free and run into big tree areas. I am not caught for a long time, and I run around, running into and biting the evil small things trying to run from me. Humans chase me sometimes, but I usually get away. After a little while when I wake up though, I am not very happy to be back home. In these sleepy times, I am sometimes standing up like humans, or running like I usually can on my feet, but I cannot run so much at home, it is so small, other than when I can be outside. 

After many sleepy times, I am getting bigger and bigger, and not as many people want to play with me. So many times of seeing new people walking by, I get to walk outside fewer times and play with other humans. One time I see a smaller human boy, and he wants to play with me outside like many others. The tall human takes me outside and the boy is happy and wants to play. There are some little balls to play with in the small water pool and he throws them for me to get. Bringing them back to him, he throws them again, like some strange person, I bring them so that he can have them, we have plenty of them. Silly human, I’m trying to give you some of my toys.

Thinking it goes really good, it is still hard to tell with the humans. The boy’s owner or maybe his alpha does not want to play at all. We play outside for a tiny amount of time and then the tall man brings me back in. The smell of our home hits me like a wall when I walk in this time. I look over at Spot’s and Lilly’s rooms again, Spot nods to say hi. His farting is a lot of the reason why it smells in our area of small rooms. Sitting back down on my bed, I see the boy walk away and say some gibberish again. I was hoping to walk away with another pack, but this pack is also my family. 

We are stuck in small rooms, but I know them all, and in the middle of the night, we talk about the humans that we have seen more than once. At night, Raven says that she played with one of the smaller humans, but when she describes the human, it isn’t the same one that I played with. Mario says he played with a male and female and it went pretty good, but doesn’t know if they’ll come back to play more. Lilo says that she was playing with an adult human female that she was hoping would take her home, but also isn’t sure.

The next day after I wake up, the human boy is there with his alpha again after breakfast. He wants to play again, so I wag my tail and let my tongue hang out showing that I am having fun. With the human boy, I am, his alpha though is scary. I try to have fun with him, and he barely moves. He has a smile on his face, but it stays there and sort of looks fake. Humans don’t smile like this one. It has me worried more, the alpha probably decides if we get to go to his home. We play some more and I go back into my little room. He takes out another, Raven, and she tries to be very nice with him also, but who knows, humans are complicated.

After another bath, I am taken to the human in white, one of the most dangerous beings ever. We always feel either tired, hurt, sick, or all three when we leave one of them. They still let us go home, but they must do terrible things to us. Sometimes it is a male, sometimes a female, but they always wear white. This time, the nice people give me tasty food, but I feel a little sick after each time. I do feel a little queasy when I leave this time, but I see the human boy again, he did come back to play with me.

Seeing the boy again after waking up made all of the hurt go away, and I’m thrilled to see him again. These humans so many times start to look the same since I have been in this home for so many sleep times, but this human seems different. The smile on its face looks as bright at the morning sun. 

The door slides open from my home and the tall man brings me into the little hall on the way to go outside, going out to play as usual. We go outside, I make the most out of the time again, it is hard to get away from the strong smells inside, but the alpha human still doesn’t seem like he wants to play, the smaller human does. Chasing me around the little yard, I go get the ball for him to keep, but he keeps throwing it away, making me go get it again.

All too soon, we are done playing, and I make it back into my little room for another nap.

Waking up from the nap, the door to my room is sliding open, the screeching loud noise makes my ears hurt, but the human is standing outside with a smile across his face. He waves me outside of my room, and we are obviously going to play again. I am pooped after running out from before, so I’m still resting on the bed, but waving me out, the human seems to insist. Slowly walking out of the room, they put one of the rope things on me to keep me close. They walk me out of the front door, and into a bright blue sky instead of the other outside place. There is a big stone walkway with lots of those metal things that humans ride in. 

I didn’t get to say goodbye to most of my friends, but they’ll understand…. I hope.