He was just getting used to this small area hidden and protected by the red stone walls that surrounded him. He had been hesitant about the two children who lived within the stone block though. Katie and Thomas were well spoken and they treated him with respect. He only had to mouth Thomas’ hand once before the boy learned that he didn’t like having his head touched. The bite drew a little blood, though there was no pain. The shock of being told ‘no’ in such a fashion was probably altogether new for the human boy.

  It was their sincerity that had allowed himself to be taken to that place. A place with numerous dogs and the smell of chemicals. It was loud and had many doors and even more rooms behind those doors. He was taken to a small room where he was helped onto a table. Katie and Thomas never left his side and he felt strangely comforted by their presence.

  A woman in a white coat came into the room smiling. She spoke to the humans while she gently touched and probed around his dully burning shoulder. Without warning she jammed him with something. He wanted to attack and run away. How could he have been so stupid? Sleep over took him quickly.

  He woke up in a protected area away from the room he was last in. His wound had been dressed and he felt much better. He could move again but the pain prevented him from moving too much. Katie and Thomas had visited him soon after he woke. He knew that they saw him as a pet, as something that needed to be taken care of. He detested the idea. He was no dog! But he was injured and he needed food. The dry crunchy food he was given was tasteless. But he knew he needed to eat to regain his strength.

  That had been a while ago. He had spent much of the time since, in that small area next to the large stone block the family lived in. He had grown quite fond of Katie and Thomas. They were eager and sincere in all things. He had tried to teach them about the night sky once. He pointed up with his snout and tried to point out how he knew it was going to rain tomorrow. The two children looked up and laughed but had no deeper understanding than that. He nodded at their attempt. Maybe he would try again some other time.

  But tonight, as he sat in his area, he knew that there would be no other time. For already the full moon had come upon him. The bloated full orb of the moon came into his view and he felt his body twist and contort in pain. He couldn’t let Katie and Thomas see him like this. He stifled his whines and bit his tongue to stop from howling into the night.

  He legs lengthened and his back elongated. His body was wracked by pain. He was riding a storm of torment. He hated this feeling. Everything was out of his control. All he wanted was for the pain to stop. A whine escaped his lips, a blinding white-hot flash of pain across all his body more intense than anything he had every felt, and then… calm.

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  He stood up on his hind legs and looked around. His ears flicked as he heard sounds from the stone block. He knew he had to get away. He didn’t want to leave Katie and Thomas without saying something. He was leaving his surrogate pack, something that they didn’t deserve, truly. But he had to leave. He knew they wouldn’t understand. With one claw he delicately carved three deep cuts along the bark of the tree in the back corner of his area. The cuts were close together and running at an angle around the soft curvature of the tree, only about three inches long. He then lifted his leg and marked the spot.

  The young humans wouldn’t understand the mark at first. But hopefully, in time, they would understand that he had to go. He would think of them and if the Great Spirit was kind, maybe they would see each other again in better times. Without looking back, he jumped and lifted himself over the red stone wall and disappeared into the night.

  Katie ran outside laughing wanting to show Max his new toy. It was a solid knotted rope toy. The guy at the pet store said that most big dogs liked to have rope toys like that, it lets the dog play tug of war and it doubles as a chew toy.

  “Max!” she looked around the little yard. She didn’t see him right away. Maybe he was hiding, he did that sometimes, “Max! Max?”

  Katie ran to his favorite corner to see if he was there, “Max? Come on, I have something for you? Max?” She was getting really worried now. Max usually came out at some point and the yard wasn’t that big.

  She ran back inside the house screaming, “Mom! Mom! I can’t find Max! Mom?!”

  Her mother replied irritably as she was preparing the family dinner, “Katie, what do you mean you can’t find Max? He’s in the yard where you left him.”

  “No, he’s not! I looked! I... I don’t know where he is?” Katie was almost in tears.

  Katie’s mother stopped what she was doing and walked the girl outside. Sure enough, the dog wasn’t there. She looked up at the brick wall and shook her head. The wall was eight feet tall, there was no way he could have jumped over that.

  She turned around to find Katie crying next to a tree. Her delicate fingers were running along what looked like claw marks that had been cut into the tree.

  “He’s gone mom. He left us.” Her lip was twisting with every word as tears streamed fully down her young face.

  Her mother went to her daughter and held her close. “No, sweetie. That’s not true. We’ll go look for him and tomorrow we’ll put up posters and put in a missing pet report. I’m sure he’s just as scared as you are. Come on, lets jump in the car and see if we can find him.”

  For a split-second Katie thought there might be hope for her finding Max again. But she looked back at the tree and the claw marks. She knew that Max had made those marks. And no matter how much she wanted to believe her mom, that this was all going to end with him being back in the yard with them, she knew, somehow, she just knew that she would never see Max again. Fresh tears rolled down her face and she hugged her mom tight.