A Life Sentence

August 1st, 2026

August 1st, 2026

    Well, after I spent the last couple of times writing in this thing whining about not having anything to do and missing being around people, that one still confuses me, fate intervened and gave me and Lucas some new companions.

    It was just a few days ago. It was a stormy day, in fact it had been raining practically non stop for a few days. Lucas and I were sitting on the front porch just watching mother nature wash away the ruins of mankind. It was pretty dark out, there was thunder in the distance. Even though it was barely after two or so in the afternoon it looked almost night. We even wondered if a tornado was possible. In all of our plans a twister was not something we had ever thought of. Wasn't like there was much we could do about it then anyway. At least all the water was filling our water tanks.

    Lucas was the first one to spot the movement down on the road in front of the house. When I took a look a well timed flash of lightning showed us a rather sullen looking dog. Lucas immediately got up and called to it.

    It stopped dead in its tracks and looked at the house. Of course it spotted us and I expected it to run away. I think Lucas did too judging by the look he gave me when it actually started toward the house, albeit rather slowly.

    It got to about where the car was parked and it stopped. It just stood there in the rain and looked at us. It got close enough so that we both could tell three things. It looked like a husky, it was a mother and it was desperate.

    Lucas took a step off the porch toward it and she ran back towards the road, but only a little bit and then stopped. Once it stopped it looked back at us. I had seen dogs do this in movies, but was this thing really wanting to follow it?

    We decided to see if it would let us follow it, but before we left I went and grabbed a plastic tote in case we found her puppies and she didn't try to chew our faces off when we got near them.

    The dog waited for me to come back and me and Lucas followed this poor dog into a terrible rain storm and hoped we didn't get bit, or bite off more than we could chew ourselves.

    She would only get so far ahead of us before she stopped and allowed us to catch up, but she would never let us get closer than a few yards to her. I was thinking that this would be a problem if she did have puppies. If we tried to pick them up would she attack?

    We actually didn't travel very far, maybe half a mile, before she headed off the road. We went after her. At this point we were both afraid that we would lose her. Neither of us see crap and hearing wasn't much better.

    We did spot a very narrow game trail so that offered some guidance, but for a while we lost total site of the husky. Once we realized we had lost her, we backtracked a ways and tried calling to her, but there was nothing.

    We were about to head back to the house as drowned, disappointed rats when we heard a faint barking in the heavy rain. Of course being young and stupid we went right towards it. We found her in some very tall grass. She was sitting there looking at us. Behind her in a patch of grass that had been pressed down we could make out several pups.

    Now was the moment of truth. Neither of us could just leave them there like that. Even if it wasn't raining it was very likely that at the very least the puppies would die. For me these dogs deserve more compassion than most people I used to know. Lucas decided to try to slowly approach the mother with his hand out.

    The whole time he was talking soothingly to her. I was hoping she understood we were there to help. Much to my amazement she let Lucas get close enough so she could stretch out her neck and sniff his hand. She was clearly scared and desperate, that is not a good combination in any momma, whether it is human or animal.

    Lucas was able to get next to her and he put his around her shoulders and just tried to shield her from the rain. I could see the poor thing was shaking like crazy. I just didn't know it was because she was cold or scared or both.

    After a couple of minutes I decided to come closer. As soon as I moved she immediately tensed, but Lucas talked her down. When I got close enough I let her smell my hand. She did react too much one way or the other. I set down the container and popped the lid off. I tipped it up so she could see inside and smell.

    Once that was done I took in a deep breath and gently picked up the first puppy. They were so young that they could barely even squeak.  I watched and waited for a set of pissed off teeth to sink into my arm. When nothing happened I eased it into the container and went to the next one. Lucas said each time she got a little calmer. Even though she couldn't understand words the dog could understand intent.

    After I got all five of them into the container I put the lid back on. I stood up and picked the container.

    Lucas stood and I started walking, Lucas started walking and the dog started walking. She stayed right next to me and sniffed the container the whole time. For the entire trip we kept telling her they were in there and safe.

    Once we finally got back to the house Lucas tried to get them all dried off as much as he could and fed the mother, for which she was grateful. I suppose that dog food came in handy after all.

I started a fire and piled up some blankets in front of it and moved the puppies onto it. She never hesitated. She plopped herself down and started nursing them. The best part was to see a little wag of her tail. We decided to just leave her be and went back to the porch. The wet dog stunk up the house something fierce.

    That was a few days ago and still pretty much leave the puppies alone, but the mother has come to trust us both. She lays on the porch with us when she is not nursing her litter. She even let us give her a bath. The little turds will be moving around soon, that should be all kinds of fun.

    We aren't lonely anymore. In the space of about 45 minutes we found ourselves with 6 dogs. It was also the first time in a long time that I think Lucas and me for sure, actually felt like real people.

    After some arguing and checking with the mother (she deserved a say) we named the pups. Three girls Sadie, Patch, and Boots. Two boys, Oz and Chonk. The mother we named Abby. Looks like we are going to need to look for some more dog food very, very soon.