"You've got it. Just lift up your paw and-"

"I'm trying!" Gypsy whined. She'd been trying for nearly an hour. She was at her witt's end, and didn't have her heart in the hope that this would work any longer.

Then, after lifting one of her toes instead of the whole paw, she saw the U-lock of the kennel door flip upward. The door swung free.

Gypsy dropped back onto all fours, her shoulder-muscles burning. With a profound excitement, she shook off the pain and slipped through the kennel door.

It was weird not to have shiny mesh wires in front of her eyes. However, they quickly adjusted. The dog wagged it's tail. Her first impulse was to make it outside. She hadn't been outside in a few days.

Forgetting her water bowl, her food bowl her kennel even Ace- the white Pitbull mix wagged her way over to the only window.

There was no light emitting from it because it was dark outside. Gypsy could see the reflection of the table lamp shining on the glass panel.

"How do I open this?" The she-dog asked, and the man tried to take a few steps towards the window.

His footsteps took him nowhere. He stayed stuck in place, like walking on a treadmill.

"Shoot, I can't walk. Umm..." The middle-aged man searched his pockets with a pat.

"Oh, don't have a phone either. 'Cause I'm dead. I think. Maybe?" He shook his head, and the white Pittie once again thought it was weird how the nameless human could speak dog.

"Well, I'm not having a vision about the window. But, by looking at it I'd say it's your typical push-and-open kind of basement window. It looks unlocked. All you need to do is push your weight against the bottom half of it, an-"

Gypsy didn't need to be told anymore. She climbed atop a wooden chair to then reach the filing cabinet below the window. Impatiently, she shoved her shoulder and head against the window pane's lower half. It was a slow turn, but the window shifted gradually, moving faster and throwing the white she-dog off-balance.

She tumbled through the slab of an opening , bumping her outstretched hips along the way. As Gypsy inhaled the scent of fresh grass and wet, peaty earth she forgot all about her grazed hips.

Ghost was calling to her through the window. His voice was faint now that he was behind the thin opening. "-still can't walk! I'll try to have a vision about, it, though," The man yelled mischievously. Briefly Gypsy wondered if this all really was a sly trick of the human's witts. But then, she was outside now... and he wasn't.

Outside. The sacred world of a dog... if they were lucky enough to spend more time there than away from it.

Of course Gypsy hadn't. She was three years old. She had lived nearly her whole life in either a shelter or a home.

Though she wasn't an old dog by any means, she was not young enough to still be in the "boundlessly optimistic" stage of canine life. Her ears flicked to and fro as she listened to the crickets. Naturally, Gypsy had a new and wild instinct flow into her mind. But she was calm throughout. Her eyes surveyed the bushes, a few scattered trees and dark buildings laid out before her.

Run. Just run far away from here... It'll be fun! She reminded herself she wasn't a puppy, but stamped her feet and took off with a wagging tail anyways.

Gypsy kept running into the night until she could hardly breathe. She passed factory buildings and skirted dirt roads, trekked through a farm property and into the edges of a rural town. At one point she found a stream and drank eagerly from it.

After that, she didn't stop until her lungs gave out, and her paws halted in the dust at the end of a long railroad she'd been following the past hour.

Her legs were excitedly tired. Proudly tired. Enjoyably tired. She loved it. But, she flopped down with panting breath.

She was hungry. As the white pitbull licked dust from her paws, she wondered where she could find food. She had gotten into a trash can or two in her day, so her thoughts flew to that rather than people.

Gypsy didn't trust people. They were all bad. Perhaps that's why she couldn't fully believe Ghost, and had used him to escape and then left him. She stilled and stopped licking her paws, feeling bad.

That was the act of a bad dog. A selfish dog. Ace would never leave Ghost, or me... or himself like I did.

The white she-dog thought of going back. But then her stomach seized with a loud gurgal, and she rose to her paws instead. She turned underneath a blanket of twinkling white stars.

It was still night when Gypsy finally found a trash can at the edge of a children's park. The park was bordered by a small basketball court. But Gypsy saw the other dog from far off as she approached underneath harsh yellow street-lights. They blotted out the stars above.

A grey-and-white fluffy dog with an expansive belly stood bent over a fallen trash-can. She was pretty but scruffy. Her flanks bulged at the sides, and Gypsy naturally assumed she was pregnant.

Eh. The white she-dog figured she didn't look much better herself, dusty paws and all. "Hello," she called testily from the edge of the light.

Jumping with fright, the furry she-dog nearly ran off. As she stiffened, her tail was quivering between her legs.

"Who are you? Who are you with?" The dog pinned a wide-eyed brown gaze on Gypsy. It was so condemning that the white Pitbull couldn't look away.

"I'm not with anyone. I'm Gypsy, I-"

"Lies. It's all lies. Get away from me!" The she-dog spat. Defensively, Gypsy drove her paws into the ground and lowered her head.

But unexpectedly, the stranger just whipped around and sped away. Her feathery tail whipped behind her as her paws hit the ground running. A few specks of mulch were flung into Gypsy's face by the retreating paws.

She was shocked into silence. Only the crickets made a noise in the night now. A faraway car honked, shattering the peace and setting Gypsy's heart aflutter again.

It's fine. I'm fine. Just eat what's left.

The white Pitbull maneuvered to curl her paws over the lip of the second trash can. Luckily, the lid was already knocked off and she could see a mass of trash inside.

Gypsy was a clean she-dog, so she didn't prefer the gunk that touched her face as she dug through it. However, hungry dogs had settled for less and she couldn't opt to be picky now.

She thought about her past with Ace as she found half a cheeseburger. It was succulent; but the memories began to distract her as she nosed through wrappings for something else.

She recalled one random day, around Christmas. Although dogs had no concept of Christmas, Gypsy and Ace had associated it with a brightly lit and decorated tree in the living room for one month of the year. It was always the cold and snowy months, to be exact, with plenty of red and green decorations added throughout their small apartment.

It had been a peaceful, quiet and clean life. Gypsy was well-fed without fleas or ever a dirty pelt. Her claws were clipped and her ears cleaned, her teeth were brushed and her eyes and throat checked by a vet each year. As was Ace. They even got to sleep on a bed, and shared the rug in front of the fireplace.

But that day the children had gathered and opened brightly wrapped boxes full of various items inside. Gypsy and Ace had once again delighted in their glee. It was one of the very few good memories she had left of her lost humans.

Grimly, she shut down the bittersweet thoughts. It was a thing she had mastered over her limited number of years, and would only continue to get better at.

I'm going to find some other dogs. Even just one or two. There's got to be some dog's around here who I can join and be friends with. I won't be alone, I won't be scorned... I'll just belong. Isn't that what everyone wants? To be loved and belong?

Gypsy's new idea both reassured and distracted her. She felt more normal now, like she could find other dogs out there who searched for the same thing she wanted.

I just have to find some. Maybe a pack. Or a mate! She wagged her tail. She'd had a mate once. But he wasn't very nice. Her wag slowed as she recalled the bossy, rude Pitbull.

As long as it's anything but another family with people.

The white Pitbull flicked her boomerang-shaped ears excitedly. She raced off after filling her belly, legs flying as she began her search for a pack.

_______

Ghost

(Sorry for bad photo quality it's hard to find random images of people that aren't directly traced to a name, copyrighted or listed as a dead person. I didn't want to disrespect any of these people's family members so I used anonymous photos. I know he's still a person and probably not alive now but there's no traceable name to this person so, ya know. LOL)