Zuma's Story
Three years ago...

"Get out of here, ya stupid mutt! Anyone who talks like an idiot isn't meant for this position!"

"Yeah, try to learn to speak, dummy!"

A man and woman said as they threw a small Labrador out of their shop.

Zuma just sat there for a minute, tears streaming down his face. "Well," he said at last, "so much for that job. And thewre goes another home. Let's see, that makes six this month; I must be the wowrst pup ever!"

He stood and walked back to the only 'permanent' home he had: the beach. When he wasn't with a person, he lived under an old umbrella with a beach towel for a bed.

"Ok Zuma, tomorrow will be better you just-- Oh! Who am I kidding, I'll always be alone. Just once I'd like to be loved!"

THE NEXT MORNING...

He was awoken by someone shaking him. "AHH! Who's thewre!? GRRR!"

The 'who' was a girl, maybe around fourteen years old.

"Hi, puppy. What are you doing here, under all this trash?" She asked.

"I live hewre. It's not much, but it's better than nothing." He said.

"That's so sad. Maybe you could come live with me. My name's Millie, by the way. What's yours?"

He looked at her and cocked his head. "A name? I've had lots of those. But, I don't think some awre vewry nice; plus, who wants to be know as 'Dummy'?"

"Dummy! Who names a cute puppy like you Dummy? Besides, I can tell you're much smarter than that; they just couldn't see it, I bet."

"Weally, you think so? Thank you Miss Millie. What awre you going to call me then?"

"Why don't I call you... aha! You'll be Brownie, since you're chocolate brown." She said.

"Yay! I've got a name! I've got a name!" He bellowed.

"Well come on, let's go to my house." And she led him home.

Once they arrived, and after a debate with Millie's parents, 'Brownie' finally felt as though he had a true home.

HALF A YEAR LATER...

"Oh boy! Today's the day; my biwrthday! At least, I think it is." Brownie (Zuma) said.

He was sitting outside the door to Millie's room, awaiting her to exit. He knew that she would have a great, big gift just for...

"Ugh, where is that dumb thing. Huh?" She was so occupied with what she was searching for that she tripped over the pup. "Oh! Brownie! I don't have time for you today. Now, leave me alone!" She snapped at him.

"B-but, M-millie, don't you w-wremember what day it is?" He asked her, hoping and praying that she was joking.

She whipped her head around and sternly looked at him. "I said to leave me alone! I could care less what stupid day it is; what would it have to do with you anyway?!" She shouted in a gruff tone, which also hurt Brownie's ears.

Her question pierced his heart like a knife cutting warm butter. "N-nothing. N-never mind, i-it's not impowrtant a-anyway." He said as he slowly walked outside.

"I, I d-don't believe it. I thought that finally someone loved me, guess I was wrong again." Zuma sighed as he laid down on the grass.

A week after that day, things only got worse. Millie began to resent Brownie, and she showed it. When he would lick her, she would clamp his mouth shut, making him bite his tongue. When he would run to see her, she would kick him in the side. Finally, he had enough.

"Millie, we need to talk." He said one day, when she got off the school bus.

"Ugh, fine. Make it quick, Mutt, I've got places to be." She looked angrily down at the small dog, he began shaking. Even so, he knew this must be done.

"I may have told you seven months ago that I was happy to be coming to live with you. You wewre the best thing that had happened to me for a long time, but now you've changed. I don't wemember the giwrl I live with now." He looked at his paws in hopes of hiding his tears that flowed freely around his nose.

Millie looked at him with a stare colder than the frozen north, then she laughed sarcastically.

"Ok, Brownie, if you think you're such a 'big shot' then go. Leave, get out of here; run away and don't come back. Understand, Loser?"

Zuma's tears now flowed quicker down his face. "(Sniffle.) Alwright, I'll leave then. I'll just (sniffle.) gwrab enough food to make it back to my beach."

"Nope." Millie said, shaking her head. "You leave, and you have to get your own meal."

Brownie couldn't believe this. His owner, if he could call her that, just told him not only to leave, but that he had to find his own food to boot. He walked to the back door and sat there.

"What are you waiting for, idiot, the door to open by itself?" Millie asked.

"I may not be youwrs anymowre, but I'm still a pup; and I can't open doowrs."

"Ugh, am I ever glad your leaving. You're nothing but trouble."

She opened the door and he walked out. That's the last Brownie, once again unnamed and unloved, saw of Millie; but he was glad about it. Now a new challenge was presented to him: where to live?
___________________________________
Present day...

"So, this girl didn't like you anymore?" Rubble asked.

"Yeah, that's how it happened, dude." Zuma said.

"Ok, that was sad. I'm sorry she didn't love you the way she should have, Zuma." Skye said as she hugged him, tears forming in her eyes.

"Is there more?" Rocky asked, breaking the sad silence.

"As a matter of fact, thewre is. The next owner I had was a man, but he wasn't a vewry good dude..."