We're OK Now - 1. Chapter 1

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At first I thought things would be difficult between you and me. You were skittish, jumpy, and flinched when people reached for you. But your days were numbered and each day I saw you, you looked more lost and bewildered. You were fat, you’re old, you were scared and you’re shy. No one was coming for you.

The day I came to get you, you seemed to know and you greeted me differently than before. You didn’t fall before me in complete subjugation, but met me with sight-failing eyes and a wag of your tail as if to say ‘let’s go’.

You rode with me in silence and watched my face, but when I looked at you, your ears dropped, your head bowed, but as soon as I looked away your head lifted and I swore you smiled.

It took some time to get you comfortable with a leash. The sinuous tether between you and me terrified you, and when I pulled, you froze. It’s when I stopped and saw that look on your face that I understood.

You have been beaten. You have been misused. Your trust has been broken and your body bears the scars of your loyalty. You have known hunger, neglect and pain and were abandoned by those you believed you should love. You were cycled from home to home and in the end were left for dead in a place where there is no love, no hope, only broken lives and shattered futures. How many times did you flatten yourself to the floor? Hoping to show them that you were no threat at all, that you meant to do nothing wrong. And how many times were you beaten anyway? How many times did you wish for even just a corner to call your own where the pain and the abuse couldn’t find you? Where you could lay in peace. How long was it before you realized that greeting everyone with love left you with only pain?

I saw myself in your face for that moment. I knew those feelings, I understood that pain and you seemed to sense it. You lifted yourself from the ground with a whine and looked at me for the first time without fear. You approached me and leaned against me as if to say ‘we’re OK now’.

Day by day you trust me more. You no longer cry in surprise whenever I move too quickly. You’re not afraid to go for a run. You greet other people with a cautious smile and you never leave my side. You no longer cry out with pain just lying down and have lost enough weight to jump in my lap. You run through the house begging to play and defend me like a tiger. Your hips are better and your eyes seem brighter and you’re not afraid to throw your head back in a canine laugh. You spin in circles when I come home and lay on my pillow while I’m gone.

It still amazes me how quickly you’ve let it all go. You don’t pity yourself or shed tears for your past and are just happy for ‘now’. We’ve been through it all, you and I, and there’s just no looking back. Never think that there will come a time where you’ll be left alone again. Never assume that if I raise my hand it’s going to come down on you. And ten years from now when your time is up for real, know that I’ll be there and that somebody cares for you. Because we’re OK now.