A SECOND NOSE
a dogs story
First
he stopped breathing then he got cold. I have seen it happen before. Fluffy dog
was his name and he was my right hand for five years. I’m Mangy and I’m the
pack leader so I gotta do something. The other dogs look at me keeping a little
distance. They don’t know what to do and they can’t take decisions on their
owns but they know that there is something wrong. It started one month ago,
when Blacky showed up within our territory. I have seen it before too, it takes
me back when I was a little puppy.
I was
the alpha male of my litter. We were eight puppies and our mother died right after
we were born and we never knew our father. I soon took my brothers away from
that place, it smelled like death. They
were all watching me, waiting for me to decide what to do. I didn’t know what
to do, how could I? So I ordered them to follow me. I follow my nose to a place
where I could smell food. We found it in trash cans outside places where human
packs sleep and eat, I think they call it houses. The food was dirty and mixed
up with rubbish but it was food after all. We were starving so we threw several
trash cans to the ground and ate like there was no tomorrow. When the humans
saw us doing it they chased us and tried to beat us. Why did they do such a
thing? They were throwing their food away after all! That day I learned to
trust my nose above anything else and to keep away from humans, they were not
to be trusted.
Within
a few days, four of my brothers and my only sister were dead. They couldn’t
make it and I didn’t feel sadness for them. They were not made to live in the
streets and no member of our pack was to live with humans. So we were three,
me, Spotty and Jesse. Within one year our three dogs pack turned into a six
dogs pack and we knew exactly how to survive in the streets. We slept under a
bridge, and then when the sun was in its highest point we went to a dark alley,
at that time of the day humans always threw away cooked meat. After that we did
whatever we wanted within our territory and when the sun went down, we ate at
humans trash cans, trying not to wake them up.
It
was not perfect but we were not as bas as other street dogs, but everything
changed when another dogs pack showed up in our territory. The pack leader was
a mongrel dog just like all of us, however he defintively had a husky forebear.
He was gray as ash and huge as a truck. We barked at them and they run away,
but they started to show up very often, until a day that they launched a
surprise attack on us. We were eating at a trash can when their pack came on us.
His pack was bigger than ours and they killed Bones and Jesse. At the time that
their pack leader was coming to attack me a lot of humans were watching from
inside their habitats and some of them were comming toward us. I threw myself
down and showed my belly to the huge gray dog. That meant that I was giving up
and we would leave our territory to never come back. Now it was their
territory. We run away leaving behind Bones and Jesse corpses and eveything we
had.
The
next months were awful. We couldn’t find any place without a pack. One day
Spotty found a narrow street where humans threw away some food when the sun
starts to set and there was no dog around. We went there starving to death but
we were just started to eat when some human threw hot water to us. I couldn’t
imagine a pain worse than that, but I received just a little amount of water,
Spotty was the one who received the most. His death came with the night. I did
feel sadness for him.
No
matter we were starving, freezing and hopeless, we stayed together. It was me,
Jhonny and Fluffy Dog. They looked at me waiting for my decision. And I decided
to follow my nose. There was a smell far away, it was like grass and cooked fish.
We followed that track for a week and then we found a place near the sea. There
was plenty of food for you if you knew when and how take it, and you shouldn’t
be seen by humans. At the third day Jhonny realized that there was another pack
in the territory. I already knew it, I had smelled them when I was marking my
territory on a post. Jhonny told us to go away that very moment, and Fluffy Dog
said that he would do what I decide.
I
went scouting the territory, looking for the pack and found them gnawing bones
at the shore. When Jhonny asked me how many were them I told him the truth.
When Fluffy Dog asked me what we were going to do I told him that we were going
to fight for this territory. When Jhonny called me crazy, Fluffy Dog told him
to trust me. Sadly, Jhonny wasn’t willing to fight against such a pack and left
us. I didn’t want him to go away but when he did I didn’t let me feel anything.
It was me and Fluffy Dog and we had an eight dogs pack to defeat, there was no
time for whining.
We
were reaching the shore when Fluffy Dog told me that he was going to protect me
and I told him to that his mission was to keep alive at any cost. I didn’t let
him time to respond me and then I run towards the pack. Fluffy Dog run after
me.
They
didn’t see us comming, but I didn’t attack them, I just wanted one of them, a huge
brown spotted dog, he was their pack leader. He was more experienced than me
and he was defintively stronger. But I was much younger and hungrier. We
engaged in a fierce fight. The other dogs tried to interfere but Fluffly Dog got
between the fight and the dogs. It was incredible, he was starving and tired
but he made the seven dogs to step back.
The
huge brown dog bit me several times and I was really injured but I was faster
than him and when he realized that I was going to win, he threw himself to the
ground and showed me his belly. I told Fluffy Dog to let the other dogs see us.
“You are my pack now” I told them and then I bit their pack leader throat. So
he stopped to breath and then he got cold.
Five
years have passed since I became this pack leader. We had really good times and
Fluffy Dog had always been at my side. He was the most loyal companion that I
ever had.
Now
he has stopped breathing and his corpse is ice cold. The other pack members
look at me waiting for answers. I have never felt so much sadness inside but
Fluffy Dog and I were prepared for this. One month ago we saw Blacky. He is
young and he got a five dogs pack of his own. It’s not like we had never fought
against another pack but this time is different. We knew it when we saw Blacky’s
eyes, they completely looked like the eyes that I had that time when I defeated
the old pack leader. We knew that this day would came soon or later and now
that it’s finally here I’m not scared, but I would have liked to have Fluffy
Dog at my side when my time finally comes. He was a true friend and my second
nose.
The
End.
In the ice deserts of Antarctica, each winter thousand of penguins begin a journey through this bleak lifeless region in order to get to a place were the ice is thicker, guided by their instinct they march on single line to this place. During the march they are attacked by blizzards and gale force winds. Once they get to the place were ice is thicker, each penguin have to pair off. If any penguin doesn't get a pair, he or she have to go back to the sea on his/her own, it means a certain death. Every penguin mate with their monogamous couple and once the female penguin have laid a single egg they return to the sea, needless to say that the penguins have been weeks without nourishment. Meanwhile, the male penguins stay to guard the egg, cradling them on top of their feet the whole time, during this time they eat nothing and have to take care of their eggs from the predators, the cold and other penguins who have lost their eggs and want one for themselves. After two hard months, the eggs hatch and newborn penguins are starving! They have to live from their fathers' food reserve, leaving the male penguins even weaker, if their mother penguins don't return on time, both father penguin and chick will die. Once the mothers return, their change roles with the male penguins. They keep doing this dangerous journeys countless times until the chicks are ready to march to the sea and next winter, it will start all over again!
