Trigger
Sport is a fuzzy, stray puppy. He wanders along the streets of the city as happy as he can be. He found a great new chew-toy while he had been playing in an alley with a couple of cats earlier and now is proudly on his way to the junkyard to show off his new toy to his friends. The toy is black and rectangular, bulging a little in the center. Sport just loves how it goes, "Chink! Chink! Chink!" whenever he shakes his head. He also thinks it tastes interesting and finds its green stuffing fascinating.
He pads down another alleyway before breaking into a gallop. He rushes to the entrance and hops over the broken rail and onto a rusted, turned-over barrel. His white left foot slips and he follows it, landing in a heap on the ground. However, this does not bother him much and he stands up and shakes himself before prancing over to the other strays who are lounging around on the old beat-up cars and refrigerators.
"Look what I found!" Sport exclaims after dropping the toy on the ground in front of his paws.
Fangs, a pug, stands up and looks at it and laughs at him. "That's a wallet, Sport." He looks at him. "That's not a chew-toy, you fool."
"Oh…" Sport's ears lay back on his head and he stops wagging his tail. He lowers his head and looks at his prize. "...What's a wallet, Fangs?"
The chubby pug snorts and looks over at the other dogs. "Chancy, why don't you explain it to your little chump?" He rolls his eyes and waddles away, back to his tire.
A German Shepherd-Labrador mix jumps down from a tower of boxes and lands easily on the ground beside Sport. "Come on, honey…," she sighs and shakes her head as she softly noses him along, away from the other dogs.
Sport nods and paces before her, with his tail drooping and his ears back. Chancy enters and curls up inside an old, rusted-over, bent-up blue Volkswagen Bug. Sport snuggles up to her with a sniff; he still has the wallet in his mouth. He drops it again and lays his head down upon his paws with a soft whine.
"Don't worry about what he said, my Sport," Chancy says softly and licks his head. "I think it is a very fine chew-toy."
Sport just sighs and puts his chin on Chancy's paws. "But it isn't one…"
"Anything can be a chew-toy, baby, as long as you consider it one." She softly nuzzles his ear.
"But Fangs said it is a wallet…" He sniffs and looks at her.
Chancy looks at him tenderly and noses his little brown nose with her pink one. "Well...That is true, but that doesn't matter, honey." She lifts her head and stretches her long white legs and black back.
Sport now lifts his brown ears with interest. "What is it then?"
"A human thing." She smiles and lays her head next to his. "They use those green leaves to get food."
"Food?!" Sport gasps and stands up, wagging his little tail.
Chancy chuckles and taps his head with her paw. "Yes, honey, food." She kicks some leaves away to reveal an old Chinese food carton she had scavenged from a dumpster that morning. She scoots it over to him with a smile. Sport dives in head first and his mother chuckles as she watches him. "Humans give the leaves to another human and that human will give them things."
"How do you," Sport swallows. "know so much about humans, Mama?" He looks at her attentively and sits.
"Well…," Chancy sighs and scratches her black, left ear with her foot. "I used to have one many years ago...A girl named Ruthie." She smiles at the puppy. "I watched her and her parents many times trade the leaves for things."
Sport tilts his head. "Where is Ruthie now?" he yips.
His mother lowers her head back to upon her legs. "She and her family left home one day and never came back…"
"Oh…" The pup drops his tail again and curls up to his mother. "Will I ever have a human? What were your humans like?" He looks up at her.
Chancy smiles softly at him. "Maybe, honey…," she sighs and looks at him. "Ruthie's father always came home wearing a blue shirt with a yellow shiny thing on it." She smiles at him. "Ruthie said he was a police officer and told me about how the police used dogs to sometimes hunt down bad humans. Ruthie's mother almost always was home with Ruthie and me. They were so nice and would pet me and feed me and brush me..." She sighs happily and wags her long tail a little.
"Could I be a police dog, Mama?" Sport looks at her excitedly.
"Maybe." She smiles and starts softly licking him.
Sport excitedly wags his tail now. "Could I be one now?"
Chancy chuckles and pats him. "We'll see...We can drop that wallet off at the police station tomorrow, Sport...Maybe a human there will want you," she says, but sounds a little sad.
"Maybe the human wants us both!" Sport starts jumping all around.
Chancy just sighs quietly and smiles. "Maybe they will...But now, Sport, honey, it's time for bed." She takes him by the scruff of his neck and sits him beside her again.
Sport nods and yawns some. "Yes, Mama…" He curls up next to her and falls asleep.
The next day, Sport and Chancy pad out from their Volkswagen Bug and out of the junkyard. Sport excitedly bounds around and under and in front of and behind and to the left and right of his mother as she trots with the wallet in her mouth. Her pup gets distracted by a couple of garbage cans and sniffs around them, intrigued. His little belly rumbles hungrily and with a whimper he paws up the can and sniffs the lid.
"Psst. Chump," a voice says from behind the can. Sport reels back with a yip of surprise and watches as Fangs steps out from behind the neighboring can. The pug rolls his eyes and scratches his shoulder with his foot. "Where are you and Chancy going?"
"Mama and I are taking the wallet back to the humans." Sport wags his tail. "I'm going to get a human and be a police dog!"
Fangs stops scratching and looks at him, obviously amused. "You a police dog? Don't make me laugh, Sport!" He chuckles and sits. "You're a mutt. The police always want purebreds. German Shepherds, dobermans, beagles, bloodhounds, labradors." Fangs shakes his head. "You're just a little flee-bit runt mutt, Sport. No one will ever want you. It's just a fact of life." He stands and stretches as Sport looks on quite sadly. "Humans are picky organisms. They want the best of everything. Mutts are the lowest of the low...Especially stray mutts."
Sport whimpers. "But Mama had humans…"
"And they left her because she is a no-good mutt, yeah?" Fangs looks at him. "Don't worry about taking the wallet back to the humans, Sport. You'll just disappoint yourself."
"But what if they—"
Fangs snorts. "Sport. They'll just chase you off...Maybe even throw something at you or call the dog-catchers. You're better off getting your mother and returning to our safe little junkyard." He then waddles off back towards the junkyard, dragging an old black and white checkered high-top shoe by its laces.
The puppy just sits there for a moment, already disappointed and saddened by what Fangs told him. He whimpers a bit as he gallops after his mother. "Mama! Mama!" he whines.
Chancy stops in her tracks and whips worriedly around. "Sport?!" She barks, dropping the wallet on the ground. She then sees him running towards her and she quickly trots to him. "Honey? What's wrong?" She circles him and looks him over for any injuries.
Sport looks at her and whimpers. "Fangs said the humans won't like me and will throw things at me!" He leans his head on her leg.
His mother sits down and softly nuzzles him. "Oh, Sport...I thought I told you to not listen to Fangs?" she softly says. "Fangs had a bad experience with a human in his pup years, Sport, but not all humans are like how he says. You are adorable, honey. A human will definitely want you," she says and licks his cheek.
"Not a police human…," he whimpers. "I'm a mutt…"
Chancy snorts some. "And be proud of that. We are special, unique, uncommon." She nuzzles him. "The police would be lucky to have you as a member of a unit."
Sport looks at her unsure. "Really?"
"Really." She smiles at him and noses him. "Now let's go take that wallet back so the poor human can find his lost leaves." Sport nods and they walk together back to the dropped wallet. He picks it up in his mouth and walks beside his mother to the station. There, Chancy scratches on the door and sits. Sport nervously sits behind her with the wallet firmly held between his sharp white teeth.
The door soon opens and a man in a blue shirt and black pants opens the door and looks out it. Chancy barks and wags her tail. "What have we here?" the man says and looks at her. The dog pants and moves over to show off her pup and the wallet. "Well," he laughs. "Aren't you just a little scamp, where did you get that, boy?" He reaches his hand out to the puppy. Sport drops it for him and looks at him pitifully.
The man rubs Sport's ear. "That's a good boy." He smiles and then stands up and opens the door wider. "Why don't you two come inside for a bit and we'll get your reward for you?" Chancy nods and walks inside before turning back around and barking for Sport to follow her. The little pup bounds in after her and the officer shuts the door behind them all.
Chancy easily leads Sport towards the K-9 Unit area, but then stops in her tracks as she sees an officer. Sport stops and looks with a tilted head at his mother. "Mama?" he yips.
His mother doesn't answer him, but instead bolts at the officer and jumps up on him, wagging her tail very excitedly. "Woah!" the officer exclaims, nearly losing his balance. He looks at the dog as the other man comes over.
"I'm sorry, Sargent Dover, sir, I was just taking these two for a small treat. They returned a wallet...Unusual for a dog," the man rambles.
The officer smiles and pets Chancy's head. "It's alright, Detective Carr...I know her…" He scratches behind her ears with a wide smile as the detective just looks at him confused.
Sport feels ignored and so yips and jumps up onto the man's leg, too, wagging his tail.
"And who is this little guy, Chancy?" He chuckles, bending over to pet the pup and looking at Sport's mother. Chancy barks some and licks on Sport. Dover smiles and looks over at the detective. "I'm going to need two leashes and for these two to be checked over by the vet. They'll be going home with me tonight."
Carr nods and picks up Sport. "What names should I have them put under, sir?"
Dover still pets Chancy's head. "Chancy and…" He looks at the pup. "Trigger." He smiles as he gets out his phone and calls his wife. "Ruthie's going to be over the moon when she hears this." He grins and watches the dogs.
"Got it." The inspector nods and walks off with Sport.
Sport excitedly licks him and wags his tail. "I got a human!" he yips, happily. "My human gave me a name! I am Trigger now, Mama!"
Chancy smiles and follows her son and the officer into the room. "Yes, my son, you see that you cannot judge all humans by one human's actions."
Trigger wags his tail, but then looks a bit sad. "If only Fangs knew that, Mama…"
His mother smiles tenderly at him. "That's very kind of you, honey...Maybe one day Fangs can find another human, too."
"I hope so, Mama…" Trigger lays his head on the officer's shoulder. "I know he must be a good dog deep down…"
ns 15.158.61.6da2
