A Flight of Raptors

by Ralph Vaughan

  Sunny leaped over the railing that bordered the slightly raised parking lot and bounded down the ramp. Skidding to a stop, she sank her teeth into the dog’s collar, next to Levi’s, and heaved back with every ounce of strength.

  The trolley-train thundered just inches away.

  Sunny collapsed.

  “Sunny!” Levi gasped.

  “Sunny!” Yoda and Stacker shouted as they caught up.

  Yoda pushed against Sunny’s still form.

  Sunny did not respond.

  Stacker whimpered.

  Sunny stirred after a moment, then stood shakily. “I’m okay, just a bit winded.” She spread her mouth in a happy, dopey grin. “I don’t think I ever ran so fast before. Was I really running as fast as I think?”

  “Like the wind,” Yoda confirmed.

  “It was amazing!” Stacker said excitedly.

  Sunny looked back to Levi. “How is she?”

  “She seems in a bad way,” Levi reported as he sniffed the length and breadth of the prone and barely breathing dog. “She has not been fed a while, and she’s very dehydrated. Exhausted. I can smell some bruising and cracked bones.”

  “He can small that?” Stacker asked.

  “Shhh,” Yoda cautioned.

  “Poor dear!” Sunny murmured, licking the dog’s muzzle.

  “What kind of a dog is she?” Stacker asked.

  “Part Pit Bull at least,” Levi replied.

  Stacker took a step back, suddenly wary even though the dog was in no condition to start trouble.

  “Don’t believe all you hear about Pit Bulls,” Yoda advised his young friend. “All breeds have their good and bad points, but there is no such thing as an inherently bad dog. Pit Bulls are an aggressive breed, but aggression is not always bad. If that anger is channeled in a bad way, you end up with a bad dog, but it’s still the individual dog who makes the choice.”

  Sunny looked to Levi, thought about his sometimes-gimpy rear leg, about the scars on his throat that were mostly hidden by his collar and about which he very rarely spoke, about the life from which he had been rescued.

  “Yoda’s right, Stacker,” Sunny said, now breathing more easily. “When it comes to good or evil, it’s a personal choice. You may be born into a good home or a bad one, even forced to do bad things, but, ultimately, you choose to be who you want to become.”

  “Well, someone has certainly done some evil to this poor girl,” Levi commented grimly. “None of these injuries were the result of an accident.”

  “Someone…” Stacker stammered. “You mean, someone beat her?”

  Levi nodded.

  “What are we going to do?” Yoda asked. “We can’t leave her here, but she’s so big.”

  Sunny looked about. The Bayfront Trolley Station was nearly deserted. The trolley-train had disappeared southward; the midday rush was long over and the evening exodus had not yet begun.

  The Pit Bull stirred, opened her eyes.

  “Who are you?” Levi asked.

  “My name…” the dog gasped, her voice very faint and weak. “My name is Princess.”

  “What happened?” Sunny asked, moving into the other dog’s field of vision since the Pit Bull seemed unable to move.

  “Who did this to you?” Yoda demanded.

  Princess whimpered. Anyone else might have heard nothing but a dog in distress, but those whimpers spoke volumes to the other dogs, even to the inexperienced Stacker – pain, betrayal, lost love, hopelessness, sadness, a desire for nothing less than a total release from the ills of this world. Levi, in particular, had heard that bitter cry many times.

  “We’re here to help you, dear,” Sunny said softly.

  “Leave me alone,” Princess said weakly, her voice barely audible. “Push me back on the tracks.”

  “What kind of crazy talk is that?” Yoda demanded.

  “Yoda,” Sunny said. “Please.”

  “I’m sorry,” Yoda replied. He moved forward. “Listen, Princess, I know things must seem pretty bleak to you, even though I don’t understand why, but putting yourself to sleep is not the answer. It never is.”

  “Put myself to sleep,” she murmured. “To sleep, perchance to dream, and in such dreams to find quiet peace…at last.”

  Stacker whispered in Yoda’s triangular ear: “What is she talking about?”

  Yoda gave the canine equivalent of a shrug, for while the little Pomeranian was an inveterate fan of old films (he especially enjoyed the films of Asta, Rin Tin Tin and Lassie) he was not much of a reader.

  “My name is Levi,” he said. “I want to be your friend; we all do. We want to help you – that’s why we all came down here when we heard there was a dog in trouble.”

  Princess made no reply but to utter a miserable sigh.

  Levi assumed the Sphinx Position where she could see him without needing to move her head. He smiled thinly and gazed at her with eyes that had seen too much pain and cruelty, with a gaze that was friendly and compassionate.

  “I know what you are feeling, Princess,” Levi said. “I can see in your eyes that you do not believe me, but I have been where you are now, feeling so hurt, abused and betrayed that there seems no way out, so dark that you feel you will never see the light again.”

  “What can you know about it, Levi Princess asked.

  Levi looked to Sunny.

  “Yoda, Stacker – let’s give Levi and Princess a chance to talk a bit,” Sunny said, guiding the reluctant lads away.

  “When I was just a puppy, I was given to a fighting school,” Levi explained when he was sure the others were far enough off.

  “A fighting school?” Princess asked dubiously. “You? You’re just a snip, even with those legs and that barrel chest.”

  “I was much smaller then,” Levi admitted. “All during the my time at the fighting school I was never more than seven pounds. I was used for training the bigger dogs, so they did not let me eat too much, just enough to stay alive…barely. When food was put out, I more often got a boot than a bite. They kept me tethered to a steel pipe with a chain tight around my throat.” He tilted his head slightly so Princess could see the old scars where fur refused to grow. “The others attacked me, some being trained to be savage, others just for the sport of it…and some of those dogs who tried to put me to sleep were Pit Bulls.”

  Princess sighed. “Why are you telling me this, Levi?”

  “I stayed alive by fighting back and by being smarter,” Levi continued. “I learned fighting tricks so deadly and dirty that I would never tell anyone about them. I learned them, but they did not define me; I fought with dogs so deep in darkness they had never heard of Anubis or First Dog, and would not have cared if they had, but I did not become one of them.”

  “Good for you,” Princess said. “You do not know what I have been through. No one does!”

  “Betrayal of trust, loss of love, being hurt by companions who were supposed to be kind – I know all too well what you have been through,” Levi said. “I’m just a little fellow – I know that – just a Dachshund-mix that even a medium-sized breed can look down on, but my size does not define me; my breed does not define me; I am not defined by what companions or other dogs think of me. I define myself by my own actions, by what I choose to be.”

  “I chose what I wanted to do, but you and your friends stopped me,” Princess said. “You should have stayed out of it. I don’t want to be in pain any more.”

  “Do you really think that passing over means the end of pain?” Levi asked.

  “I don’t know, not really” the Pit Bull admitted. “But I know how I feel now.”

  “But how will you feel when the pain goes away?”

  “What…what do you mean?”

  “It’s one thing to make a decision based on how you feel at the moment, but quite another to make a decision that cannot be undone when you have your whole life ahead of you,” Levi explained. “You look to be only three, so you have at least ten years before you, years that need not be
as pain filled as what you have experienced.”

  Princess was silent.

  “Are you going to sacrifice a decade based on three bad years?” Levi demanded.

  “I never stopped to think…” Princess’ voice trailed away.

  “That there was anything you could do?”

  Princess nodded, though that motion in her weakened condition took a great deal of effort.

  “Running away from your companions was a good start,” Levi said. “Coming down the tracks and trying to end the pain like you did – not so good.”

  “How did you know I ran away?”

  “Your identity medallion,” Levi explained. “Your companions’ address is due south of us, on a street next to the trolley tracks. You made your way out through a very narrow break in the fence, passed through some dense and foul bracken, fell into a marsh and finally made your way to this station.”

  “How can you know all that?” Process asked, amazed.

  “You’ve been starved to half your normal size – your ribs are quite visible – but even so, when you went through the fence you picked up several splinters, hence the narrow opening,” Levi explained. “The thorns in the bushes left their marks on you, and their acrid scent just as the marsh left its peculiar smell on you. The gravel caught between the pads of your right front paw is the kind used for the foundation bed of the tracks, and the tracks themselves bathed you in the hot metallic scent that rises from them because of constant heat and pressure. You’ve had nothing to drink for at least forty-eight hours, no food for longer, and your last beating was administered less than twelve hours ago. And when you reached this station, you gave up.”

  “I was pulled off the tracks, but crawled back,” Princess said. “I feel so weak now I could not crawl back even if I wanted to.”

  “Do you want to, Princess?” Levi asked. “Give up everything? Abandon all hope for all time?”

  “I don’t know,” she admitted.

  “Well, that’s a start,” Levi said with a big grin, motioning for the others to return. “You’re lucky this is not rush hour.”

  “Everything okay?” Yoda asked.

  “I think so,” Levi replied. “But we need to get Princess away from this place.”

  “Can you stand, Princess?” Sunny asked.

  “I’ll…I’ll try.”

  The weak and emaciated Pit Bull struggled to rise, all her limbs trembling and her breaths coming in labored gasps. Just as she started to fall, Yoda, Sunny and Levi rushed to her, trying to steady her.

  “Stacker, lend a paw!” Levi barked.

  The little Parson Russell hesitated, still wary of the breed even though it was clear to him she was in no condition to do anyone any harm. Seeing the efforts of the others, however, he felt ashamed of his reluctance and sped to the injured dog’s aid, arriving just in time to add that little bit that kept the Pit Bull from toppling to the concrete. Knowing that Princess was depending on him, knowing that he had helped the 3DDA in a rescue, he felt pleased with himself in a way he had never felt before.

  “I don’t think…” Princess gasped. “I don’t think I can stand on my own…I can’t feel my legs.”

  “Then there’s no way you can walk all the way back to our home,” Levi surmised.

  “If I had some water…”

  “In the apartment complex across the street,” Levi said, sniffing the air. “Dripping water has pooled under a faucet.”

  “Yeah, but in Princess’ condition that water might as well be on the dark side of the moon,” Yoda said grimly. “We’re barely supporting her now.”

  “I’ll carry her,” Sunny said. “If we can get her across my back, I’ll carry her to the water.”

  “You’re out of your mind,” Yoda accused.

  “Be kind, Yoda,” Levi advised. He looked to the Golden Retriever. “But Yoda may be right, Sunny. Even starved down as she is, Princess is still a big dog, and that water faucet is a good quarter-mile off.”

  “I can do it,” Sunny assured them. “Hold her up.”

  She moved away slowly, letting the smaller dogs gradually assume the burden. As soon as she was free, Sunny low-crawled under the Pit Bull and gave a short bark. Although the three dogs tried their best to let Princess down easily, she was too much for them, and Princess herself was unable to stand – the heavy Pit Bull dropped suddenly.

  Sunny had steeled herself for Princess’ dead weight, but she still got the breath knocked out of her. She sucked in a lungful of air, lowered her head, narrowed her eyes in concentration, and slowly straightened her legs, gradually lifting Princess from the ground. With the Pit Bull draped across her back, Sunny turned and started down the access road, one slow, agonizing step at a time. Ignoring the flaring pain in her hips, Sunny concentrated on nothing more than the walkway before her.

  Levi and Yoda walked on either side of her, doing what they could to keep Princess from slipping one way or the other.

  Stacker’s eyes widened in astonishment.

  Where before he had seen an aging Golden Retriever, he now saw a hero. He bounded after them.

  “What can I do to help?”

  “Yoda and I have our paws full helping Sunny,” Levi answered. “We need you to keep watch for traffic. Think you can do that?”

  “You bet!”

  “We’re depending on you, Stacker,” Levi reminded him. “Our lives are in your paws.”

  Stacker gulped with the enormity of the assignment, but he nodded and moved to the point, forcing himself to be calm. No one had ever trusted him with anything before, and he swore to himself he would not fail these four dogs.

  Entering the station earlier, Levi and Sunny had covered the distance with unbelievable quickness. How, however, their pace was much slower, not quite that of a snail, but close. Neither Levi nor Yoda spoke to Sunny; she did not need any distraction from the task she had appointed herself. And although they told themselves they were helping Sunny, they knew full well that their support was more moral than physical – in Princess’ moment of need, it was all on Sunny, literally.

  “Car turning in!” Stacker shouted.

  Sunny veered slightly to the right, almost to the curb where the bushes overhung the way. The twigs caught at Yoda’s wild hair, but he refused to whimper. After the car had passed, they moved back into the roadway.

  They were very near the entrance now and could see their goal on the other side of Woodlawn.

  “Stacker, go make sure the road is clear,” Levi instructed. “Give us a shout if a car is coming.”

  Stacker bounded the twenty yards to the road, looking up and down Woodlawn Avenue from the edge of a parked car.

  “Clear!” he yelled. “Red light down at E Street, and nothing coming from F.”

  “All right, Sunny,” Levi urged. “This is it, the last bit. You’re almost there. You’re doing great.”

  Sunny grunted in assent. It was hard to tell if the expression on her face was a grimace of pain or a grin of hope, or both.

  As the dogs moved from the access road onto Woodlawn and beyond the cover of the parked car, Stacker kept watch, but the way remained clear. When they were just a third of the way across, however, a car screeched around the corner coming from F Street at tremendous velocity.

  Stacker gasped in horror. There was no way they could get across before the speeding car passed, and there was no time to turn back the way they had come. In less than an instant, Stacker knew what he had to do.

  And he did it.

  Running like a Greyhound, the little Parson Russell charged the vehicle, barking loudly, leaping a full six feet skyward, directly into the driver’s vision. Brake-drums squealed loudly as the brake-pedal was jammed to the floor, and the warm afternoon air was filled with the acrid smell of burning rubber. Stacker ended up on the hood of the car, eyes bulging like biscuits, barking like a mad dog; nor did he stop barking till he saw the others were across. Then he leapt off the car, letting it continue its journey, but now at a much safer s
peed. By the time Stacker rejoined his friends, Sunny was resting, Princess was lapping up water greedily, and Levi was gazing at him sternly.

  “That was a very irresponsible thing to do,” Levi growled.

  “But I had to…”

  “You might easily have been killed, young pup,” Levi continued.

  “When I saw…”

  “And it was a very brave thing to do,” Levi said.

  “All I was trying to do was…what?”

  “You saved us all, Stacker,” Levi told him with a wide grin. “Good boy!”

  Chapter Seven

  After half an hour, Princess was fully hydrated and Sunny had recovered. While the Pit Bull was still very weak from exposure, abuse and hunger, she could now return home with them under her own power. Before they started back, however, Levi gripped Princess’ collar with his teeth and chewed it through, keeping it.

  “Why did you do that?” Princess asked. “Without my collar I feel naked.”

  “It has your old address on it, “ Levi explained, “and when we find a new home for you, we definitely do not want your new companion to get curious.”

  “A new home?”

  “Most companions are decent and kind, though a little dim at times,” Levi explained. “Through our contacts, we’ll find you a home where you can be safe, where you will be valued.”

  “Could I stay with you guys?” Princess asked.

  “You do not want to become dependent upon us, which would happen if you lived with us for any longer than it takes to find you a good home,” Levi replied, trying to be as gentle as possible. “Also, our home is the right place for us, but it would not be a good fit for you.”

  “We have cats,” Yoda quipped.

  “Cats? Dogs and cats…together?”

  “It may sound odd to you, dear, but it works for us,” Sunny said. “The cats are just as much as part of the Three Dog Detective Agency as we are; in fact, we could not be as efficient as we are at helping other animals were it not for our cats working behind the scenes…but it’s not something we would ever tell them.”

  “Definitely not!” Yoda agreed.