Paws & Claws by Vaughan Ralph

Author:Vaughan, Ralph [Vaughan, Ralph]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Dog in the Night Books
Published: 2013-12-23T05:00:00+00:00

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It all started about three weeks ago (Snapper said) when it was so warm. Now, as you notice, I am an outdoors kind of dog. Some may feel sorry for me, relegated to the back yard, but they should not feel that way -- no house for me, no couch potato life. That's no sort of a life for a breed born to be ratters and to chase the quarry to ground.

Besides, look at the house I have. It's spacious, dry and warm, but, more than that, it's well furnished and it's all mine. I'm independent; other dogs may have to answer to whistles and snaps, but I am my own dog. This is my back yard, my domain, and everybody knows it.

Usually I sleep in my doghouse, in my own bed with a few blankets to keep away the chill. When it's warm, though, I like to sleep under the stars, just as my ancient ancestors in England and Wales did. At least I liked sleeping under the stars until about three weeks ago; now the stars remind me too much of eyes looking down on me...the night has a million eyes, and there is no escape from them.

It was very late, well after the moon had moved past zenith, and dawn was only about three hours off. When you spend as much time outdoors as I do you get pretty good as telling the time just by the positions of the stars.

I'm not exactly sure what first woke me up, but I realized I needed to go mark, so I did. Something seemed not quite right, though, so I decided to make a circuit of the back yard. Looking back, I think I may have heard a slight sound of some sort, but at the time I was not sure exactly what was putting me on alert. You now how it is...your hackles rise and you just know something is out there...well, maybe not a foo-foo dog like a Pomeranian, but, you know, real dogs. That was the way I felt that night. So I stood there, sort of softly growling, knowing that even if I could not see what was spooking me, chances were it could see me and would get warned off.

That's how it is with creatures of the shadows, usually.

Suddenly I sensed that what was alerting me was not out there in the darkness, hiding in the grass or moving behind the fence, but above me. My first though was some kind of large bird, which is a pretty scary thought for a small dog that wouldn't be much more than a clawful. So I quickly hunkered down and look upward.

At first I don't see anything, but I know something is wrong. Then it hits me like a frozen steak across the chops -- no stars. Like I said, it was a warm night, and so clear you could see all the fires of the stars blazing down. But then I notice an area where there are no stars, just a great circular blank area directly above my back yard.

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