The Rescue Dog I Was and the Dad Who Became a Vegetable: Episode 1 #CreativeAward2024

Mom...
I don't think I can make it much longer.
Mom, I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise.
Dad...
I wanted to see you one more time.
My beloved Dad...

Episode 1: The Encounter

I met my dad when I was just a year and a half old. Until then, I had been living a life of luxury on the second floor of a wealthy home that operated a design office and a flower shop. I was doted on by an elderly pug couple, and my mom and dad dressed me in high-end clothes and fed me high-end food and treats.

Then one day, my dad, the design engineer, and my mom, the florist, left in the middle of the night with a lot of luggage. They left us behind.
At first, I thought they had just gone on one of their usual trips.
Maybe it was just a "rich person's hobby"?
I thought that.
I wasn't worried at all, assuming that one of the employees from Mom's flower shop would come by eventually to give us some delicious food.
However, days passed, and no one came to feed us. Perhaps because of their long life of luxury, the pug couple didn't have a shred of "wild instinct" in them, even less than little old me.
So, we were soon left stranded. First, the drinking water ran out. We had been tearing open bags of dog food to eat, but those were starting to sound empty and dry, too. Then, the lights in the house went out. Humans rely on something called "electricity" to live. Even though it was March, the nights were dark and cold. The pug couple and I would lick the remaining water droplets in the bathroom and huddle together to sleep.

Before long, it got incredibly noisy outside the house.

"Pay back the money!"
"I know you're hiding in there, you jerk!"

It was the first time in my life I had heard such violent voices. And that was when I realized that my mom and dad must have "run away in the night." So, were the people making all that noise outside "debt collectors"?
Money...
Weren't my florist mom and design engineer dad rich?
Even if they told us to pay it back, all we had left was a little bit of dog food, our collars, and our clothes.
More than that, why were we the only ones left behind here?
I don't know how many days passed. The dog food in the bag was gone, too. The pug couple and I had no choice but to huddle together on the carpet and stay still. Moving only made us hungrier, and more importantly, there was no drinking water. We had barely survived this long by licking the water droplets left on the bathroom floor, but there was no water left anywhere within our reach.
My head started to feel fuzzy. Were we just going to die here like this...

Then, one night, I heard the clatter of a key in the dark, and someone entered the house.
"A debt collector?"
I was scared, but we didn't have the strength left to bark or intimidate them. We could only huddle even closer together.
The person with the flashlight shone it on us and said in a voice I recognized.

"Hurry!! We have to get out of here before the loan sharks come!"

The voice belonged to Mika, a part-timer at the flower shop. She was the big sister who always took us for walks. Without even a moment to catch our breath, Mika hurriedly put leashes on us and ran down the stairs, shoving us into her car. She was quite a rough person, I realized.
It was all over in a flash.
She saved us, didn't she?
But where was she taking us?
A mix of relief, suspicion, and anxiety made my body tremble uncontrollably.
After driving for a while, Mika's car stopped in the parking lot of a house in a residential area.
Mika opened the front door and shouted.

"Mom, Mom, I brought these guys, so let them stay here for a while!"

A kind-looking woman with a round face, whom Mika called Mom, came out from the back and hugged us one by one.
"You must have been scared, you must have been cold, you did well to come here."
She looked like she was crying. Why was Mika's mom crying while holding us?

"What terrible owners! Running away in the night and leaving these poor things behind!"

Mika was so angry she looked like she was steaming.
She's a good person, but her emotions are very volatile.
The round-faced woman said,
"Drink slowly, slowly now,"
as she placed a bowl of water in front of us. It wasn't a high-end dish, but that water was truly delicious.
Gulp, gulp...
Young as I was, I drank it all in an instant.

My florist mom and design engineer dad had failed at their jobs and had indeed "run away in the night." They weren't coming back for us anymore...
We had been abandoned.
My suspicion turned into certainty at that moment.
The pug couple were over 80 in human years. So, Mika decided to spend her savings to have them hospitalized at an animal clinic.

I was all alone.
I stopped trusting humans. I was so shocked that I couldn't eat anything after that. Besides, the food they served at Mika's house was just regular dog food. As a refined, celebrity-like dog, I wasn't a fan.
One day, Mika's mom said,
"I have a great idea!"
and started making a phone call, looking excited and happy.
Oh, I forgot to mention, Mika's house had a very scary older dog named Hana. She was always tiny, but she would always growl at me, "Grrr, grrr."
Chihuahuas are apparently Mexican fighting dogs. Even though she was tiny, she would bare her fangs and wrinkle her nose, which was really scary. That's why Mika's mom apologized, saying she couldn't keep Hana and me together.
I didn't want to live with such a scary big sister either. I would have to be on edge all the time.

Oh, right, the phone call.
It seemed Mika's mom had come up with the idea of having her other daughter take care of me.

"Listen, think of it as human training, and take proper care of this little one!"
Her mom said this in an almost commanding tone, clearly very satisfied with her own plan, and hung up the phone unilaterally.

Mika and her mom are both good people, but they are very emotional. And when they think of something, they act on it immediately. That very day, Mika took me to her older sister's house.
I really am a beautiful boy with a tragic fate, aren't I?
Mika's sister seemed like a laid-back person, a different type from Mika, so I felt a little relieved.

"Sorry, sis. I couldn't bring the pedigree papers when we ran away. But this guy is a genuine, pedigreed Papillon."
"That doesn't matter at all."
The sister just laughed.
Then, I was left behind by Mika again. Isn't this what they call being "passed around"?
I chased after Mika, scratching at the door of her sister's house with my claws and crying, "Whimper, whimper." No, I meant to cry, but it seemed no sound came out. I was so exhausted from crying and so thin that I couldn't even make a sound. Mika's sister hugged me from behind and said, "There, there," but I couldn't trust humans.

In the evening, a big man would come into the house with a voice as loud as his body, calling out,
“I’m home!”
As soon as he saw me, he’d say,
“What’s this little guy? (laughs) Your ears are flapping, you’re so cute. Want to be part of the family starting today?”
He suddenly scooped me up with his thick arms.

“San-chan, make sure you feed the little guy plenty. He’s too skinny.”

While being held by that big man, for some reason, I thought to myself that maybe I could trust my new human dad and mom just a little bit.

My name is Gon. My dad is called Da-chan. San-chan? San-chan is my mom, but I think her rank in the house is lower than mine? (laughs) Because she’s such a scaredy-cat and so clumsy.

From then on, I didn’t have to go anywhere else ever again. Would you like to hear the long story of my dad and me that’s about to begin?

To be continued

Click here for Episode 2