Call Me No Name

Call me No Name. I’m a brown medium sized shepherd mix dog with no hope for the future. I live in a field and spend my days searching for food.

The trash cans next to the houses near my field supply me with some nourishment, but people get mad and yell at me when I tip trash cans over and tear the bags inside. I’m hungry, you see. I need food. You can surely understand that, can’t you?

My mother was a stray. The people who said they “owned” her fed her when they thought of it and they were glad when she left to go on her own. The people got her because their children wanted a nice dog, but the children got bored with her after a couple of months. Since she wasn’t spayed, she soon got pregnant with me and my brothers and sisters.

Mom did the best she could to take care of us after we were born, but she was so thin and worn out. One morning she quit moving at all, and we were on our own. I guess I was lucky because a lady named Jill found me and took me home. I never knew what became of my two brothers and my two sisters. There were five of us in all.

Jill took me home and fed me and seemed to love me. When I got older, she said she wanted me to have a litter of puppies so that her children could see the miracle of birth. So she put me with the neighbor’s dog. She said I’d have puppies because I was “in heat”. I don’t know what that meant, but, sure enough, after being with the neighbor’s dog (his name was Duke) I had puppies. I had four babies, three boys and one girl. Jill said she tried to find homes for them, but she couldn’t. She didn’t seem to know what to do with my babies after her children had seen the miracle of birth.

One day she said she was going to take them to “the shelter”. She said they would find homes for my babies. I hope my wonderful puppies weren't scared or anything. They were just old enough to leave me when Jill took them.
After that, Jill’s husband and children didn’t want me anymore either. Jill’s husband said I’d keep having puppies unless they had me spayed, and they weren't’t going to spend any more money on me.

They’d already been feeding me for eight months. One night they put me in their Blazer and took me to my field and left me here. They said they were too embarrassed to show up at the shelter with another dog. They said I had only been a stray puppy in the first place.

I know my life will be short, and it is so hard.

I know there must be other dogs like me. I do so want a warm home, good food, and mostly a human to love me. Are there any good humans who want and love dogs like me? Are we abandoned forever? What have we done wrong? Why must I be cold and hungry and lonely?
I don’t know.

Call me No Name.