Dogs
I sat in the rocker for long hours. And I watched Elsie care for her babies. She washed them with her tongue. She lay on her side and fed them. She nudged them over on their backs to clean them...
Three times a day, I put five of the puppies in the basket. Then I let the little runt feed by herself. Once a day I held her in my arms and fed her a bottle. It was special milk from the vet. The little runt got stronger every day.
One minute she was not there and the next she had dashed in among them, her dangling leash sailing through the air after her. Her silky coat rippled in the breeze and she had incredible ears, black and tall, shaped like butterfly wings. Her feathery tail curled up over her back one minute, streamed out behind her the next and, a second later, tucked itself out of sight between her legs.
To Dickon, that tail shouted, "I want to be friends … I'm running away … I'm afraid."
He understood the little dog completely. He, too, had felt confused and desperate.
