1st week – Today I am one week old. What a joy to be part of this World!
1 month – My mother takes very good care of me. She’s really an exemplary mother.
2 months – Today I was separated from my mother. She was very restless and with her eyes bade me good-bye. I hope my new “human” family will take as good care of me as she has.
4 months – I have grown very rapidly, everything attracts my attention. There are several children in the house who are like “little brothers” to me. We play a lot, they pull on my tail and I give them little bites in good fun.
5 months – Today I was yelled at. My mistress was all upset because I peed inside the house. But I was never told where exactly I should do it. I also sleep in the hall. I was very unhappy about that!
8 months – I am a very happy dog! I have the warmth of a home, I feel so safe, so protected... I think that my “human” family loves me. The courtyard is all mine and, oftentimes, I exceed myself, digging the ground like my ancestors, the wolves, to hide the food. They never try to teach me anything. It must be all right then, all these things I am doing!
12 months – Today I am one year old. I am an adult dog. But my masters say that I have grown more than they had expected. How proud they must be of me!
13 months – Today I was tied up. I was almost unable to move, to catch a sunbeam when I feel cold, or to shade myself when the sun is on high. They say they are going to observe me and that I am ungrateful. I don’t understand a thing of what is happening to me.
15 months – All is changed now... They keep me locked up in the veranda. I feel very lonely. My “human” family doesn’t want me any more. Sometimes they forget that I am thirsty and hungry. When it rains, I don’t have a roof above my head...
16 months – Today they removed me from the veranda. I was sure that my “human” family had forgiven me. I was so happy that I was leaping with excitement. My tail was working like a fan. What’s more, I thought they were going to take me for a walk!!! We took the direction of the highway and, all of a sudden, they stopped the car, opened the door and I got out, happy, thinking that we would spend the day in the country. I don’t understand why they closed the door and left. “Listen, wait!” — I barked. They have forgotten me... I run after the car with all my strength. My anguish grew as I started to understand, as I was out of breath and they were not stopping, that they had abandoned me!
17 months – I looked in vain for the way back home. I am alone and feel lost. On my wanderings, I meet some people with a good heart who look at me with sorrow and give me some food. I thank them with my eyes, from the bottom of my soul. I wish they would adopt me. I would be loyal like none before me! But they just say: “poor little dog, it must be lost.”
18 months – Some days ago, I went by a school and saw many children and youngsters like my “little brothers”. I got closer and a group of those youngsters, laughing, threw a shower of stones at me, just to see “who would aim best”. One of those stones hit me in one eye and, since, I can’t see at all with it.
19 months – It’s incredible. When I was better looking, people took pity on me. I am very week now, and look awful. I’ve lost one eye, and people show me the broom when I try to rest in the shade somewhere.
20 months – I find it increasingly difficult to move. Today, while trying to cross the street, I was hit by a car. I was in the pedestrian crossing zone, but I will never forget the satisfied look of the driver, who even praised himself for having hit me. I wish he had indeed killed me! But he only dislocated my hind legs! The pain is insufferable! The legs are not obeying me, and only with great difficulty was I able to drag myself to the grass on the roadside. For ten days I have been exposed to the burning sun, the hard rain, the cold, without food. I can no longer move. The pain is insufferable. I am in a very humid place, and it looks like that even my hair is falling… Some passers-by do not even notice me; others say: “don’t come any closer”. I am almost unconscious, but a bit of strength from deep inside forces me to open my eyes. The sweetness of her voice made me react. “Poor little dog, look how they have left you”, it was saying. With her was a man in a white apron who touched me and said: “I am sorry, lady, but this dog won’t make it. It’s better to help him out of his suffering”. The kind lady, tears flowing down her cheeks, acquiesced. As well as I could, I moved my tail and thanked her, with my eyes, for helping me to finally rest in peace.
While I was feeling the slight prickle of the needle, before that long lasting sleep, my last thought was: “why did I have to be born, if no one wanted me” …
