Missing You

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Today is a very special New Story Day. Not only are we getting ready to dive into a new story that I've written for you, but it's also the thirtieth story I've written for the forum. I feel like I've certainly come a long way in my storytelling in the past two(ish) years, and I'm excited to see where I go next!
Enjoy!

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Chapter 1: New Home

Samuel slinked out of the car and looked up at the house it was parked in front of. He didn’t like it. His old house was blue, with a big yard and a white fence around the backyard and all his friends living within a few blocks. This one was yellow, with no fence, a much smaller yard, and all his friends miles away.
Dad brushed past, ruffling Samuel’s ears as he made his way to the back of the car and took out another box. Samuel flinched away from his touch and stepped aside, clutching his squeaky bone to his chest with both hands as he watched him carry the box into the house. He wanted to run after him and tell him to stop, to put everything back in the car and please can’t we just go home, but he knew it wouldn’t do any good. He’d already tried that before they’d LEFT home.
Two more trips and two more boxes later, Dad paused, perching the box on his hip as he closed the trunk. That was that; everything was moved. He paused to look at Samuel, then jerked his head toward the yellow house. “Come on, Sammy. I promise, the house isn’t gonna hurt you.” He turned and walked inside.
Samuel sat on the grass and glared up at the house, crossing his arms over his chest. He didn’t even like the GRASS here; it was too narrow, too spiky. It tickled through his fur as he turned his back stubbornly to the new house. There were no trees in the front yards here. He missed his tree, back at his blue house, where he’d grown up. Where everything had been fine.
After a few minutes, he felt a hand on his head, and glanced up. Dad was squatting behind him, smiling grimly at him. “You know, refusing to go inside isn’t going to make me change my mind. This is where we live now. You’ll have to go in some time.”
Samuel shook his head and snorted. “No. I wanna go HOME.”
Dad sighed and put his arms around Samuel, trying to pick him up. “Come on. Let’s go. In the house.” He grunted with effort. Samuel made his body go limp, squirting out of Dad’s arms and onto the ground like jelly.
Dad sighed again and, with a grunt of effort, lowered himself to sit on the grass and pulled Samuel up into his lap. “Come on, please don’t be like this. I know you don’t really understand why Scarlett and I aren’t living together anymore, but acting like this isn’t going to make it better. You’re just making it harder for both of us.”
Samuel turned to face Dad and leaned into him, burying his face in Dad’s sweaty-smelling tee shirt. Hearing him call Mom by her name instead of one of his dozens of pet names for her, or even referring to her as Mom, hurt. “But WHY can’t we just keep living with Mom?” He whined a little. “I miss her.”
Dad put his arms around Samuel’s back and patted him gently. “I know, I know, it doesn’t make sense to you. It’s gonna be okay. We’ll start over here, just the two of us.”
He sat there and rocked Samuel gently for a while, letting Samuel snuggle into him. After a while, he spoke, mumbling into the top of Samuel’s head as he hugged him. “It’s starting to get dark out. Wanna go inside? I know it’s not our old house, but it’s better than being outside in the cold, right?”
Samuel sniffled and dried his face on Dad’s shirt before standing up, letting his head sag as Dad took his hand. He slinked along with Dad onto the sidewalk, and then up the porch steps with their cracked, peeling paint, and then inside the house. Dad flipped on a switch, and the entryway light turned on, one of the bulbs flickering every few seconds.
Samuel looked around from the entryway. There were cobwebs and dust bunnies everywhere as if the previous tenant had been gone for ages. There was no furniture at all: no couch, no tables, no television. There were no stairs to an upstairs; Samuel could see most of the house from here, just a hallway with bedrooms and the bathroom one way, a living room to the other, and the dining room straight ahead with the kitchen just on the other side of the wall from the living room. He thought he could see a doorway through the open walkway on the far end of the living room that went straight to the kitchen.
After a moment, Samuel turned around, ready to walk back out of the house. Dad sighed and blocked his path. “Come on, Sammy, just give it a chance. I know, it’s not the best. It’s dirty and needs a good cleaning, and it’s not very big, but I promise, once we get some furniture in here, it’s going to feel just like home.”
Samuel grumbled and turned around again, letting Dad lead him into the house and down the hall. There, in the master bedroom, were all five boxes Dad had brought with him, clothes and photos and a set of bedsheets. There was an air mattress on the floor, still in the box. “This is going to be my room, and look, just across the hall, that’s your room.” Dad’s voice sounded perky and cheery as he led Samuel to a room just across the hall.
Samuel’s nose wrinkled as he looked around the room that was to be his. “It smells funny. I don’t like it.”
Dad sighed. He sounded like he was trying very hard not to be irritated. “I know, I know. Uncle Bob is coming over tomorrow to lend me his vacuum cleaner and carpet shampooer. We’ll scrub the funny smell out of it tomorrow. Until then, we’ll just have to deal with it. Now… I’ve ordered some pizza, and that should be here soon. Why don’t you go wash up, and I’ll set up the folding table.”
Samuel sighed and nodded, watching Dad walk away before peeking in the other room. It was just another empty room that didn’t have Mom in it. Across the hall, next to Dad’s room, was the bathroom. Samuel stepped up on the cupboard, opening the door with the intent to stand on the inside, but instead finding a stool attached to the cupboard that folded out on a hinge. He stepped up and turned on the water, yelping and jerking his hands away before the black liquid coming out of the faucet could touch him. “Dad!”
Dad rushed into the bathroom and looked at the water for a moment. “It’s just because it’s been a while since the water’s been run. Give it a few minutes, and it’ll be clear again, okay?” He ruffled Samuel’s ears and left the room, leaving Samuel to watch the black water pour out of the faucet. While he waited, he lifted his head to look in the grimy mirror. There he was, a smooth fox terrier, with a brown face and white fur everywhere else, except a few more splotches of brown on his sides, back, and tail.
He watched his reflection blur as angry tears filled his eyes. He didn’t want this dirty, smelly old house with its stupid yard with no tree in it and its black water. He wanted his old house, where there was a big tree in the yard, and he and Dad and Mom had all lived together and had laughed and played all through his puppyhood and been happy together.
He gripped the sink and choked back a sob, blinking away the tears as he sniffled. “I hate it here. I just wanna go home.” He mumbled quietly, glaring at the sink through another eyeful of tears. He could feel them streaming down his cheeks now, despite his attempts to blink them away. “Why can’t we go home? I want Mom. I want my friends.” He put his ears back and his tail between his legs, sniffling.

[Amazee Dayzee]

This story is going to be another sad story isn't it that might be a tear jerker? Just have to figure out if Samuel's mother didn't want him anymore when she split up from his dad or if they decided it would be better for him to live with his dad.

[NHWestoN]

Reminds me of when I moved the family from Pennsylvania down to Pembroke, North Carolina. Ellie, my youngest daughter, had made some close friends in our two years there and DID NOT want to leave them. In addition, our family had to split - Mom and the pets stayed up north to sell the house while Ellie and my older daughter took up residence in a small apartment near the campus. Ellie was SOOOOOOO miserable - she cried everyday and hated the new community, the new school, and the lack of muffins and cookies near everything (it was pretty rustic).

But ... over time, she adjusted, made a couple close friends, and eventually we moved about twenty miles out to Laurinburg and all turned out for the better. Sp let's see where Ginga takes Samuel ... and us.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 2: Yellow House

Samuel listened to the vacuum running a couple of rooms away and curled up, pulling the blanket around himself tighter as he stared at the wall. The air mattress squished below him, feeling unusually squishy and yet firm at the same time. He’d slept in the bed with Dad the night before, partly because his new room smelled funny and partly because his basket was still at home with Mom.
After a long time of listening to the vacuum start and stop over and over again, Samuel reluctantly got up and tossed the blanket onto the mattress. It took him a moment to find his squeaky bone on the floor where it had gone over the edge of the bed in the night, and he quietly exited the bedroom and started wandering down the hall. He could hear Dad talking to Uncle Bob now, between vacuum runs.
“I don’t know, Bob, I’m starting to think maybe I should have left Sammy with Scarlett. He wouldn’t come inside last night, and then I caught him crying in the bathroom. He barely ate any dinner. I don’t think he REALLY understands why she’s not here with us, he’s miserable, he clearly hates the house…” Dad paused to grunt. It sounded like he was emptying the vacuum dust trap.
Uncle Bob’s voice sounded in response. “Well, you gotta think of him more like you would a kid, rather than an adult. He might be fully grown, but he’s not really an adult like you or I. He doesn’t know why Scarlett’s not here, just that she’s not, and that this isn’t his house that he’s always lived in. He probably doesn’t really understand WHAT’S going on. Can you really say you knew what the word ‘divorce’ meant when you were, say, six or seven?”
The vacuum ran for a few more moments, then stopped again while Dad sighed. “No, I guess not. Still, it’s hard to see him like this. If I’d left him with Scarlett-”
“She would have probably rehomed him, and then he wouldn’t have EITHER of you. You did the right thing bringing him with you, even if it doesn’t feel like it right now.”
Samuel put his ears back and quietly shuffled through the corner of the room into the kitchen, trying not to eavesdrop too much. He started opening cupboards, finding nothing inside but dust and signs of mice. The fridge only had last night’s pizza and a case of bottled water in it. He sighed and grabbed a bottle of water, then slipped out the back door onto the patio. It wasn’t really a real patio, more like a short staircase down to a wide slab of orange concrete that held signs that there had once been a grill there in the empty spaces inside the built-up dirt where the legs had once been.
He plopped down on the stairs and sipped his water, glaring out at the yard. It had fences on three sides- the neighbors to either side, plus the one in the next street over had installed fences, but not of the same type, leaving two different kinds of privacy fence on each side and a chain link fence on the back. There was a small bed of dead flowers off to one side against the house, and the rest of the yard was a mix of overgrown and dead grass. Samuel hated it.
He wondered how long the house had sat empty and who the previous owners had been. He wished they hadn’t moved out so Dad hadn’t been able to buy the house from them. After a few minutes stewing, he grunted and threw his squeaky bone as hard as he could, watching it sail over the privacy fence to the left of the house. It squeaked faintly when it landed.
After a moment, Samuel put his ears back, already regretting his temper tantrum. His squeaky bone had been the one thing he’d been able to grab before he’d left his old house, and now it was gone. He didn’t know if he would ever be able to get it back.
After a moment, it sailed back over the fence and squeaked near his paws. He blinked down at it, then looked up at the fence. A pair of pointed ears poked over the fence, and then a cat jumped up and sat on it. He was mostly gray, with stripes running up and down his back that got as dark as almost black, with white down his belly. He looked over Samuel for a few moments, sizing him up, then lay back on the fence. “Keep your disgusting dog junk out of my yard.”
Samuel huffed and snatched up his squeaky bone. He glared at the cat, noticing the size of him- he seemed to be a good head taller than most other cats, at least- and tucked it into his chest. “I…” He hesitated. He didn’t really have a good retort for the cat. “... Thank you. I didn’t… uh… mean to throw it over the fence. I just got mad.”
The cat purred playfully and dangled over the fence into the yard, using his legs to keep himself perched firmly on the fence while his torso dangled upside-down against the wooden wall. “New to the neighborhood, right? This house has been empty for AGES.”
Samuel nodded, putting his ears back. “We… uh… we just moved in yesterday. I don’t wanna talk about it.”
The cat shrugged and pulled himself back up to sit on top of the fence again, his tail dangling over and twitching. “Okay. Welcome to the neighborhood. Bye.” He slid down and dropped back into his own yard, behind the fence.
Samuel watched the spot for a few moments, then gathered up his squeaky bone and his bottle of water and let himself back in. Dad and Uncle Bob were still chatting in the other room. “We can go to garage sales around town for now. People sell furniture for cheap when they just want it out of their houses.” Bob was saying. “I can spot you a few bucks if you need.”
Dad’s voice sounded. “Well, I’m really more concerned about getting food. We can’t live off pizza delivery forever.” He grunted. “Okay, that should do it, give it a test run.”
The vacuum ran for a few seconds, then turned off. Uncle Bob’s voice sounded, a little quieter. “Hey. With all that’s been going on… are YOU okay?”
Dad sighed. “Well… I’m not going to be singing and dancing in the streets anytime soon, but… I’ll get over it. Scarlett and I just kind of… grew apart. It wasn’t really that much of a surprise when she said she wanted a divorce.”
There was quiet for a few moments. “We should probably get cleaning. Based on how gross the carpet is in here, we have a lot to do today.”
Samuel put his ears back and stepped forward into the room to allow himself to be seen. There was a vacuum cleaner set up and a bag of dust that had already been emptied from it on standby. A swatch of carpet down one side of the room was visibly brighter from having been cleaned.
Dad seemed to perk up. “Hey! There’s my brave boy! How’s the backyard? Think you can come up with some activities to do back there?” He walked over to get a hug from Samuel.
Samuel leaned into the hug, letting his arms dangle. “It’s all right. It’s not…” He trailed off, not finishing his sentence.
Dad sighed and gave him a little squeeze. “I know, Sammy. It’s not as nice as the old place. But do you think you’ll learn to like it? Or at least, live with it?”
Samuel nodded quietly and buried his face in Dad’s shirt. He smelled like sweat again. Sweat and dust. “I can try.”
Dad gave a weak smile and kissed his head. “Thank you. That’s all I ask.”

[Amazee Dayzee]

Well it looks like we have another woman in a story that is a piece of work given that it is most likely Scarlett would have dumped Samuel somewhere after the divorce went through. I wouldn't be surprised if throughout the deterioration of the marriage she had been having an affair with somebody else.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

I promise it's not intentional that most of my human female characters are witches with a capital B. It just works out that way for the narrative. Maybe next time I'll make it a point to have it be the dad instead of the mom.

[Amazee Dayzee]

Never said that it was intentional but just wanted to comment on it and how it has happened in several stories now. You don't need to make that dad or the male in a story as nasty to make up for it but it could be good if there was a way to make both sympathetic if not flawed.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 3: Basement

Samuel helped Dad and Uncle Bob for a while as they vacuumed and cleaned. It took absolutely ages to clean the carpet; it was so dirty that the vacuum got full before a significant portion of a room had been done, leaving a slowly-widening stripe of the carpet that was several shades lighter than the rest. Samuel would hold open the trash bag while Dad dumped the canister into it.
They had to take breaks from vacuuming often, because the vacuum kept overheating and needing a break. When that happened, Dad would turn to a bucket of soapy water and scrub at the walls high up near the ceiling, while Uncle Bob would scrub the walls lower, from the top of the windows to the bottoms, and Samuel would do his best scrubbing the rest of the walls from the bottoms of the windows to the floor. As the grime wiped away, the real color of the walls was revealed. Samuel didn’t like the blue color that they were, but Dad said they would paint them eventually, when they could afford it.
After hours of hard work, the living room was finally seemingly clean, all the way from the entryway to the wall separating the living room from the dining room and the end of the hallway. From there, they split up; Dad started doing the same grueling process on the carpets in the hallway, slowly using the vacuum to pull as much dirt out of the carpet as he could while having to constantly empty the canister; Uncle Bob got the carpet shampooer out to start shampooing the rug in the living room; and Samuel was given a broom, a mop, and a fresh bucket of hot, soapy water and told to start cleaning the hard floors in the dining room and kitchen.
He put his focus into the job, mostly to keep his mind off of the fact that this house wasn’t home and he didn’t want it to be as he swept the floor until he couldn’t get any more dirt off, then started scrubbing at it with the mop. He couldn’t tell if he was making any difference; the linoleum was so old and yellowed that it didn’t seem to get any cleaner with the mopping, but he dutifully scrubbed every inch of the floor until he found himself once again standing in the living room on damp carpet.
He grimaced down at the squishy, wet sensation on his paws, then turned to look at the wet linoleum floor behind him. There wasn’t really anywhere he could go except a door on the wall between the kitchen and the living room. He opened it up and blinked. In front of him, there was a stairway down that filled the entire narrow space. He put his ears back and flipped the light switch on the wall.
A light flickered on in the stairway, continuing to flicker on and off every few seconds. The bottom of the stairs remained creepy and dark. Samuel glanced around, then nervously started forward into the basement, frowning. He didn’t have anywhere else he could go to avoid the wet feeling in his paws. When he arrived at the bottom of the stairs, he was surprised to find more carpet. He had expected the basement to be concrete and wood; this basement was finished. It seemed divided into several rooms; there was a room with a washer and a dryer, with a long counter installed opposite them for clothes to be folded on; there was what appeared to be a closet full of shelves with some kind of workbench; there was a wide room that took up half the basement, with bookshelves running along the wall on half and the rest just open.
Samuel opened a folding door to find a boiler room; a furnace and water heater were inside, with lots of ducting, wires, and pipes. He looked around, then put his ears back and crawled in behind the water heater, wedging himself quietly into the tight space and hugging his knees.
It smelled familiar here, in the space between the machinery, like dust and mildew and metal. It reminded him of one of the places at home that he used to go to when he needed to be alone, in the boiler room back in his blue house. He could stay there for hours, and then when he would come out, he would be all dirty and Mom would make him have a bath, and he would whine and complain but secretly enjoy it.
He didn’t even notice when the tears started to flow until he rubbed his eye and found his hand coming away wet. His ears went back, and he lay his head to the side, feeling the gentle vibration of the water heater on his forehead and hearing the sounds of activity from upstairs.
It was hard to tell, there in the dark, how long he stayed there, sniffling quietly to himself and hugging his knees, but it must have been quite a while. He was tired from not sleeping well the previous night, sore from scrubbing the kitchen floor and walls, and hungry from not having breakfast or dinner and probably missing lunch as well. He didn’t even know how long it was between when the vacuum and shampooer stopped running and when he noticed how quiet it had gotten.
He could hear footsteps moving rapidly around the upstairs, and he sat there, listening and wondering what was going on. Then, the door to the basement opened, and Dad’s voice filtered down. “Did you check down here?”
Uncle Bob’s voice sounded, a little further away and harder to hear. “Uh… no. No, I don’t think I did. You want help?”
“Please.” Footsteps rapidly moved down the stairs, and Dad’s voice called out. “Sammy? Sammy, are you down here?”
Samuel could hear doors opening and closing. He opened his mouth to answer, then closed it again. Another pair of footsteps pounded down the stairs, and Uncle Bob’s voice joined in the call, calling him. Samuel hugged his knees tighter, and he stared at his paws on the dirty floor.
After a few moments, Bob’s voice sounded quietly, sounding like it was right outside. “I don’t see him. Do you think he ran off? Trying to go back to Scarlett?”
There was a pause, and then Dad’s voice sounded. “No, no, I don’t think he would even know how to get back. Unless… he’s still got the old address on his tags. He could have asked someone to tell him how to get there.”
“Should we call… someone?” Bob sounded anxious. “A little dog like that, all alone on the streets… he could be hurt!”
Dad’s voice sighed. “No, I don’t think he would go too far. He’s probably just…” Dad’s voice trailed off.
After a moment, Bob spoke. “Andy?”
Dad’s voice sounded quietly. “Go back upstairs. I think I know where he is. I’ll let you know.”
There was a moment of silence, and then a single pair of footsteps sounded, going up the stairs a lot softer than it had come down. A few moments later, the folding door into the boiler room opened, and Samuel heard rustling nearby. He glanced up to see Dad squatting down next to the water heater and peaking behind, then looked back down at his paws again.
“Hey, buddy. Find yourself a nice little hiding spot, huh?” Dad reached out to touch him softly on the leg. “Not stuck, are you?”
Samuel shook his head, wriggling further into the corner to get out of Dad’s reach.
Dad sighed. “You know, you gave me a scare. Once I realized I hadn’t seen you for a while, I got worried. You wanna come out?”
Samuel shook his head again, hugging his knees tighter.
Dad sighed and gave him a weak smile. “Okay. I’ll let you stay there just a little bit longer, okay? You just come on out whenever you’re ready.”

[Amazee Dayzee]

Nice to see that Samuel seems to have found a way to cope with all of the new changes he is experiencing. Just need to make sure he doesn't take up a permanent residence back there and want to never come out.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 4: Backyard

Samuel wandered the house, glaring at how much nicer it looked now that it was cleaner. There was still a lot to do, of course; his room still had its odd smell, there was still no furniture, and the kitchen was empty of both food and dishes, but at least the carpet was clean-looking and mostly dry now. He had the place to himself; Dad had gone out to get some supplies, leaving Samuel to, in Dad’s own words, “be a pouty-butt” by himself.
After exploring the whole house for the thousandth time- admittedly, it didn’t take long because the house wasn’t very big to begin with- Samuel lay on the living room floor, holding his squeaky bone up in the air and squeaking it occasionally. Of course, that didn’t keep him entertained very long at all- he quickly grew bored and sat up.
Dad had said he couldn’t leave the yard, but that still left the outside of the house to explore, so he let himself out the front door and into the yard. There wasn’t really much to see; the yard wasn’t very big, so he paced it back and forth, then went through the gap where a gate would be if this house had any and into the backyard to stomp around. There was really nothing to do out here either, but at least he was outside, where it didn’t smell funny.
After he had thoroughly stomped through the too-long, too-dry grass, he marched up to the steps into the back door of the house and sat his rump down on them, glaring across the yard.
“You’ve got some anger issues, don’t you?” A voice sounded.
Samuel blinked and looked around until he spotted the cat, lounging on top of the fence with one knee up and his hands behind his head. His foot dangled over the edge into Samuel’s yard. He was grinning in Samuel’s direction.
Samuel huffed. “None of your business.” He crossed his arms over his chest.
The cat shrugged and sat up. “Call me nosy. I just watched you stomp on every patch of tall grass in the backyard like it owed you money or something. What’s the deal?”
He glared at the cat, then snorted. “There was never tall grass like that at my OLD house.”
“Yeah, well that happens when no human’s been taking care of a house for a while. You should know that, you’re an adult.” He turned to dangle both legs over the fence, tilting his head at him.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Samuel snorted, scowling at his squeaky bone. He raised his hand to throw it again, then remembered regretting throwing it earlier and lowered his arm slowly.
The cat watched Samuel curiously for a moment, then lay back down, facing the other way, and spoke again. “I’m Mittens. I live here, in this house.” He gestured to his side of the fence idly.
Samuel considered being rude, then grunted and introduced himself anyway. “Samuel. Friends call me Sam. Dad calls me Sammy.”
Mittens grinned. “Nice to meet you, Sam.”
Samuel scowled. “I said FRIENDS call me Sam. YOU call me Samuel.”
“Ooh, spicy puppy. Reowr.” Mittens sat halfway up and pretended to claw at the air between himself and Samuel. “So what’s your story? What’s got you so cranky? Or are you just always like this?”
Samuel huffed and glared at him. “I’m not sure that’s really any of your business.”
Mittens grinned. “I told you, just call me nosy. I like to know what’s got my neighbors throwing their toys over the fence.”
Samuel frowned at Mittens, trying to decide if he wanted to tell Mittens anything. After a while, he snorted and stared down at his squeaky bone. “I don’t like the new house. It smells funny. It’s dirty. There’s nothing to do inside.”
“So the obvious answer is to throw what seems to be your only toy over the fence so you have even LESS to do.” Mittens raised an eyebrow, flexing his fingers to slide his claws free and look over them.
Samuel opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, then grunted and shook his head. “... Shut up.”
“You know, there’s a park here in the neighborhood. It’s not much. It’s got a swingset, a slide, and a couple acres of grass with a tree or two. Maybe you could go find something to do over there.” Mittens rolled over on the fence to lay on his belly, dangling his elbows over and kicking his paws lazily in the air, with his tail sticking straight up and twitching at the end.
“I can’t.” Samuel grumbled. “Dad says I have to stay in the yard until he gets a chance to get me an updated tag.”
“Your dad, huh? Interesting. You got a mom, too?” Mittens grinned, but his smile melted when he watched Samuel slump over. “Oh… I’m sorry. Did she… um… pass?”
Samuel shook his head, glaring at his toes. “No. She’s alive. She’s still back home.”
Mittens seemed hesitant to ask the next question. “Is she… um… will she be… along?”
Samuel bit his lip to stop the tears from coming out. Hadn’t he already cried enough? He didn’t want to cry in front of a random stranger, especially not a cat. After a moment, he shook his head. “No. Dad says she’s gonna keep living in the old house, and I’m gonna keep living with him.”
Mittens gave Samuel a sympathetic look, laying his head on one arm and dangling the other over the fence. “Oh. I’m sorry.”
Samuel suddenly threw his hands up in the air. “Why wouldn’t she come with us?! Why would we move without her?! And now I’m in this WEIRD house that smells funny, all my friends are MILES away, and I only have my squeaky bone because when Dad said we were leaving, I thought he meant we were going to dinner or to the dog park or… something.” He let his arms go limp and watched his squeaky bone roll down the stairs.
Mittens frowned at him, not really sure what he could do or say to help.
After a few moments, Samuel stood up. “Anyway… Thanks for listening, I guess. I just needed to yell.” He picked up his squeaky bone.
Mittens shrugged at him. “What are neighbors for? I hope you feel better about this place soon. Or… at least… I hope you feel better soon.”
Samuel shrugged. “I hope so, too. I’m gonna go back inside and stare at the wall for a while longer. I hope Dad gets back from the store soon. I haven't eaten anything since lunch yesterday.”
“Why not?” Mittens seemed concerned. “Did your dad forget to feed you?”
“Nah, he gave me pizza last night, but I wasn’t really hungry. And then this morning, I… wasn’t hungry. And then we were so busy cleaning, we didn’t have lunch. Or… maybe I was hiding during lunch. I don’t know.” He slinked off back around to the front of the house and went back inside, with Mittens watching him go.

[Amazee Dayzee]

That is a good sign that Samuel is starting to be a bit more social even if it is with a cat that he probably doesn't know all that well yet. I have a feeling this will lead to the start of a beautiful friendship.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 5: Dad’s Return

Samuel slumped in Dad’s inflatable bed, staring at the carpet. The bed had been dragged to the other side of the room so that the carpet could be cleaned where it had been, and the blankets had been rolled up in the middle so they wouldn’t dangle over the edge. The mattress still felt weird to Samuel, but there wasn’t really anywhere else in the house to sit, aside from the folding chairs in the kitchen that still hadn’t been set back up from this morning’s mopping.
The sound of Dad’s car faded into range outside, and Samuel’s ears momentarily perked until the engine sound stopped right outside. His tail gave a little wag; he was happy Dad was back, even if he didn’t like where he was back TO. The door opened after a few moments, and Dad’s voice sounded. “Sammy? You in?”
“Here.” Samuel called quietly.
Dad’s head poked into the room, and he smiled. “Hi. I’m back from the store. It’ll just be a few minutes while I get everything in and put away, and then I’ll have some supper for you. Okay?”
Samuel nodded, looking down at the bed. Dad seemed sad to see Samuel looking sad, but he couldn’t do anything about it, so he left the room and started walking between his car and the kitchen, carrying bags and setting them out on the counter. Samuel walked to the end of the hallway to watch, but stayed out of the way.
Once Dad had all the bags in, he started to put things away, putting cans in the cabinets and refrigerated goods in the fridge, slowly emptying bags. Every once in a while, he would glance at Samuel and give a smile before continuing on. Gradually, but also all too soon, the bags were empty. Dad smiled as he pulled the last bag toward himself to start unpacking it. “Sammy, I got you something.”
Samuel looked up at the bag. The logo on that bag was different than the others; it was clearly from a different store. Dad dug into the bag and tossed Samuel a tennis ball. “Money’s a little tight right now, so I couldn’t get you much, but I was able to get you a couple toys. I know you didn’t get the chance to grab much when… on our way out.”
Samuel caught the ball and stared at it in his hand. It was just a regular tennis ball with nothing much special about it; it smelled brand new and felt slightly fuzzy in his hand. After a few moments, Samuel glanced up at Dad, unpacking the rest of the bag. It was a new food bowl and a bag of kibbles and a pack of rubber chewing bones.
As Dad peeled the stickers off the new bowl and took it to the sink to wash it, Samuel felt a tantrum rising in his chest. He tried to swallow it down; he knew Dad was doing his best, and he wanted to at least try to be happy with it, to give Dad some time to make everything better, but the tantrum rose up his throat anyway, and he found himself raising his arm high above his head.
“I don’t WANT a NEW BALL!” He threw the ball down at the ground as hard as he could. It bounced up almost to the ceiling, dropped again, bounced off his paw, and rolled away into the living room. “I don’t WANT a new bowl, or new chewy bones, or ANY of that stuff! I want MOM! I wanna go HOME! Why isn’t she here?! Why aren’t WE THERE?!” He heard his voice shout, and watched Dad’s face go swimmy in his eyefuls of tears.
“You keep acting like it’s all going to be okay, but it’s NOT okay! Mom’s not here! My FRIENDS aren’t here! NOTHING is here!” He gestured around the room. “There is NOTHING here! It’s an empty house! There’s no THINGS, no SMELLS except WEIRD ones-! I don’t want new STUFF, I wanna be together again like it used to be!”
He stomped off to the bedroom and flopped down face-first on the bed, nearly getting thrown off when the air squeezed from one end to the other at the action and bounced him up in the air. He grumbled and crawled under the blankets, pulling them around himself and trying to disappear. He angrily tried to blink away the tears, rubbing his arm across his eyes.
Surprisingly, Dad didn’t follow him right away. The sounds of Dad still cleaning up in the kitchen continued for a little while, and then there was the sound of a kibble bag tearing open, and the food being poured. A short while later, Dad knocked on the door. “I have a food delivery for Sammy. Is there a Sammy here?”
Samuel grunted from inside his roll of blankets. “Sammy left.”
“Oh, he did, did he? Then I guess I’ll just have to give the food to this pile of blankets on my bed.” The mattress shifted as Dad sat down on it, and the bowl tapped Samuel through a gap in the blankets. After a few moments, Samuel lifted the blanket to allow the bowl of food to pass through, pulling the bowl through before dropping the blanket again to close the gap.
Dad waited until he heard Samuel start to munch hungrily on the kibbles before he spoke. “I know you’re frustrated, Sammy. I dragged you away from your home, without Scarlett, and just stuck you in a strange house you’ve never seen before and told you that this was your home now, and you don’t understand why.”
Samuel didn’t answer, but he did pause in his eating to glare at Dad through the gaps in the blankets for a moment. Dad sighed. “I don’t blame you for getting mad and yelling at me. I know, it’s not ideal. There’s not much here, and there probably won’t be for a little while. Scarlett and I… we’re… well, let’s just say, we both decided it would be best if we didn’t live together anymore.”
Samuel frowned. He munched on a handful of kibbles. He waited for an explanation. It didn’t come. Dad didn’t seem to know what to say. Samuel wasn’t really sure what he WANTED him to say.
After a long while, Dad nudged Samuel. “Hey, you know something? This is the house I grew up in. Well… sort of. We moved here when I was… oh, about thirteen. And you know something else? I wasn’t happy about it, either.”
Samuel poked his head out of the blankets to look over at Dad. Dad shrugged. “Your grandma and grandpa- you probably don’t remember them, you’ve only met them once or twice- decided that they wanted to move here for better job opportunities, so that I could have better things. It didn’t stop me from being mad about it, but they had my best interests at heart.”
There was a moment of silence. Samuel slowly unraveled the blankets from around himself- it was too hot in there, anyway, and he sat back with the bowl balanced between his knees. “So… where are Grandma and Grandpa, if this is their house?”
Dad glanced sidelong and Samuel, then leaned back and looked at the ceiling. “Well… a few years ago, they decided that they’d rather spend their last few years traveling, so they sold the house to me, and bought an RV. I always meant to come over here and get it cleaned up, rent it out for a little extra money, but I never got around to it. A good thing, too, because Scarlett didn’t give me much warning when she decided she wanted us out. I only had enough time to grab a few boxes full of clothes and photographs. And you.” He reached over and ruffled Samuel’s ears.
Samuel tolerated the uninvited touch, then looked up at Dad again. “So… this is like moving back in with your parents, except they’re not here.” He didn’t really understand the concept of “moving back in” with parents. Why move out in the first place? The more, the merrier. Better for snuggling.
Dad smiled a little. “Yeah. Kind of like that.”

[Amazee Dayzee]

Samuel seems to be figuring out that not all change is bad and he might be able to make living there work. I wonder what would happen if his father started dating again after everything and how he would feel about getting a stepmother possibly? Can't rule that out especially if his father is buff, lean and totally toned.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 6: Exploring Outside

Dad knelt in front of Samuel, fidgeting with his collar as he tried to swap out his old tag for a new one. Samuel did his best to hold still, looking around the house as much as he could without moving. After Dad and Uncle Bob had spent the whole weekend scrubbing every inch of the house, it looked much cleaner and ready for habitation, though there was still a lot more work to do before it could even come close to feeling like a home.
“Okay, Sammy. I have to go to work today. There’s kibbles in the cupboard if you get hungry, and the water SHOULD be safe to drink by now if you’re thirsty, or there’s still some bottled waters in the fridge if the tap water still tastes funny.” He hugged him, giving him a gentle squeeze before pulling back to look at him.
“Here’s a key to the front door. Maybe you can head out today, explore the neighborhood.” He pressed the key into Samuel’s hand with a smile. “There’s a park, if I recall, about two blocks over and one block down. It’s nothing amazing, but you should be able to find something to do down there, at least. Maybe you’ll meet some new friends.”
Samuel gave a weak smile. “Er… yeah, maybe.”
Dad patted his shoulder and kissed his forehead. “Thank you for being my big, brave boy about all this. I know it’s not easy, and I know you’re having a rough time, but I promise, one day it’ll feel better.”
Samuel’s ears went back, and he watched as Dad stood up. “I have to go now. Be a good boy for me, okay?” He walked out the door, closing it behind him, and Samuel sighed, walking to the window to watch him pull his car out and drive away.
Once Dad’s car was out of sight, Samuel sighed and went to the kitchen. He poured himself a bowl of kibbles and walked around the house, munching on it idly. He was bored already; he wished they at least had a TV he could watch.
Once he’d finished his breakfast, Samuel sighed and walked to his new room. Right now, it had almost nothing in it; the sum total of his possessions had been stacked haphazardly in the corner: three chewy bones, a tennis ball, and his squeaky bone. He picked out the tennis ball and one of the chewy bones, tucking them into his collar, and walked to the front door, letting himself out and locking the door behind himself.
There, on the front porch, he hesitated, then stepped down onto the sidewalk before sidestepping into the yard and letting the tall grass tickle his pawpads for a few moments. He was worried about leaving the yard; what if he couldn’t find his way back home?
“Going out?” A voice sounded behind him.
Samuel turned around and looked up at Mittens, perched on the corner of the fence, dangling his paws over the air. “Oh… uh.. Yeah, there’s not much to do in the house right now. We don’t have a television, so… I thought maybe I’d explore.”
Mittens tilted his head at him, then jumped down off the fence. “Sure, I could use a walk. I’ll come with you.”
Samuel blinked, then glanced around. “You’re not worried your cat friends will see you associating with a dog?”
Mittens shrugged. “We don’t really do that here. There’s not a lot of pets in the neighborhood, so we kind of have to overlook the dogs versus cats thing if we want to do any real group activities. Everybody knows everybody else. Well, for the most part.”
“Oh.” Samuel hesitantly followed Mittens as he walked toward the street, pausing on the sidewalk to check he was still with him.
“Don’t get me wrong, we do split into dogs versus cats for team activities. It’s just easier that way. But we play together.” Mittens shrugged, then pointed along the road. “Park’s this way. Probably won’t be many there this time of day, but we can have a look.”
Samuel followed Mittens with a frown, watching the tip of his tail twitch idly back and forth. It wasn’t that he disliked cats, so much as he found it difficult to read their body language. For dogs, it was easy; a wagging tail meant happy, perked ears meant attentive and happy, and a high tail meant it was time to play, while a tail between the legs meant someone was upset or scared. Cats seemed to have a completely different language he had never been able to figure out.
“Well, here’s the park. Not much to look at, but it’s good enough for games.” Mittens gestured at a wide-open grassy area with a half dozen scattered trees and a small sandy playground tucked up against one corner. There was a mutt and a doberman standing next to one of the trees, watching a puppy throw a ball to himself, but not much else seemed to be going on.
Samuel glanced around with a frown. “You weren’t kidding when you said there wasn’t much here. You said more people will probably show up when it’s a little later?”
Mittens shrugged. “Depends on the day. Usually. If it’s raining, there’ll be fewer, obviously.”
After a few moments looking around, Samuel sighed. “Wanna go on the swings?”
Mittens glanced toward the playground, then shrugged. “Sure, all right.” He started walking toward the playground with Samuel walking behind him.
As they approached the playground, Mittens turned to walk backward, putting his hands behind his head. “So, I noticed you got a shiny new tag.”
Samuel nodded. “Yeah, it’s… it’s got the new address on it.”
“Looks good. I don’t have much use for things like that. Collars and tags and stuff.” Mittens shrugged.
“I noticed you don’t have one. Are you a stray or something?” Samuel frowned. If Mittens was a stray, he would have to make sure to get an extra flea treatment. The last thing he needed in a new home was to be covered in fleas.
“Oh, no, no, don’t worry, I live in the house. Only at night, really. I’m up on my flea and tick prevention, don’t worry. I just don’t like wearing my collar.” He scratched at his neck idly, then climbed up on one of the swings.
“Oh.” Samuel climbed up on one of the others, right next to him, and started to swing a little. “How do you carry things you might need?”
“Oh, I don’t. I just make do without if I end up needing something, or else I borrow it from someone else. Honestly, I don’t go far most days. I like to stay up on the fence back home and watch people and cars go past.” Mittens started swinging, trying to stay even with Samuel so they could keep talking.
“I’d be worried about animal control the whole time, if I went out with no collar. Don’t want to end up in the pound.” Samuel frowned at him.
Mittens shrugged. “Stray cats get more leeway than stray dogs. People ignore ‘em most of the time. Probably because cats prefer to be awake later at night, rather than during the day.”
“Oh… I guess that makes sense.” Samuel frowned.

[Amazee Dayzee]

I am really enjoying the friendship that is developing between Samuel and Mittens as it does feel very wholesome! I hope that it will continue on for all of the story that you will be sharing with us!

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 7: A Visitor

Samuel sat in the new recliner and stared out the window. It smelled a little bit like someone else’s house and some other dog, but Dad had scrubbed it thoroughly with a special cleaner after Uncle Bob had brought it by, claiming he’d gotten it for five bucks at a garage sale, and it seemed clean enough. It was certainly better than sitting on the floor.
Dad’s cell phone rang, and he walked to the kitchen counter where it was charging to answer it. He frowned at the screen for a moment, then swiped and put it to his ear. “Hello?”
Samuel perked up and looked over at Dad. The fact that he answered the phone meant that he recognized the number, but he still seemed confused about it. Dad nodded. “Yeah. That sounds good. See you then. Bye.” He hung up the phone and stared at it for a few moments, then glanced over at Samuel. He tapped his phone on his palm for a moment, seeming thoughtful, then grinned and walked toward him.
“Hey, Sammy. I’ve got an idea. Why don’t you go down to the park for an hour or so, throw your ball around? Staying cooped up in the house all day isn’t good for you.” He reached over the back of the chair to ruffle Samuel’s ears.
Samuel frowned, but obediently slid back down out of the chair, walking down the hall to his room to collect his ball. He paused at the door to look up at Dad, who was glancing at his watch, then slipped outside.
“Thought you weren’t going out today.” Mittens purred at him from atop his fence.
Samuel frowned, glancing back at the door and shaking his head. “I wasn’t going to, but then all of a sudden, Dad gets a phone call and wants me out of the house. It’s just weird.”
Mittens rolled over to lie on his belly, kicking his paws in the air and tilting his head. “Sounds to me like someone’s coming over that he doesn’t want you to see. Maybe he’s got a new girlfriend already, but he’s not sure about her yet and so doesn’t want you two to meet so you don’t get too attached to each other, in case it doesn’t work out.”
Samuel frowned at Mittens. “That’s… really specific.”
Mittens shrugged. “I read it in a book somewhere. Wanna hide in my yard and see who comes to see your dad?”
Samuel considered it for a moment. On the one hand, Dad had told him to go to the park. On the other hand, he didn’t really FEEL like walking all that way just to play by himself. “... Ehhh… sure.” He walked down the porch steps and toward Mittens. Mittens grinned and stood up, walking along the fence until he was perched on top of the gate, then crouched and reached down to undo the gate latch.
The gate swung open with Mittens still on top of it, and Samuel tiptoed through, looking around nervously. “Are you sure your folks won’t mind? They don’t exactly know me.”
Mittens shrugged. “Mom’s at kickboxing class and Dad works weekends. Neither will notice you’re here.” He kicked his leg, causing the gate to swing closed again. The latch closed, and Mittens resumed his usual perch, purring. “So, who do you think is coming?”
Samuel shrugged. “I don’t know.” He sat down against the fence and stared at his ball. “If it was Uncle Bob, Dad wouldn’t have sent me away. He’s been here just about every day since we got here. But I also don’t think it’s your thing either. I mean, we were still living with Mom a week ago, that would be a bit TOO fast for Dad to find someone else even if he were looking.”
“Unless he was looking before you left.” Mittens shrugged.
Samuel glared up at him. “ExCUSE me? There’s no way he’s looking NOW, let alone when he was still living with Mom.”
“Well excuse me, puppy-dog, if I don’t just assume that just because they were still together means that they were happy. Humans don’t work like that, and clearly your mom wasn’t all that happy if she kicked your dad out with no warning.” Mittens kicked his paws out over the yard, then lay back on the fence again.
Samuel opened his mouth to retort, found he had nothing to say, and scowled, his face going sour. A few moments later, though, an engine whose sound was growing closer caught his ear. He perked up and sat up to listen, trying to verify. A sports car engine with a misfiring cylinder. “I know that engine!” His tail wagged.
Mittens glanced down at him, then looked over at his house. “Yeah, there’s a car pulling up. Red, convertible, with the top down. Looks pretty nice, but like it could use some work.”
Samuel turned and started trying to peer through the gaps in the fence. “That’s mom’s car! It’s Mom!” His tail wagged overtime.
“She’s taking some stuff out of the backseat. Your dad’s coming out to get it from her.” Mittens mumbled to him.
“Why wouldn’t Dad want me to see Mom?” Samuel frowned, then jumped up to try and get the latch on the fence. “Here, let me out, I’m gonna go get hugs.”
Mittens shrugged and scooted across the gate. “Looks like she’s got two more boxes in the back. She’s taking one up to the porch. Your dad has the other one.” He reached down to undo the latch, then pushed off the house with his paw to swing the gate open, riding on it as it swung.
Samuel grinned and rushed through. “Mom! Mom!”
He scrambled across the yard, getting in front of the house just on time to watch Dad take the last box from Mom and close the door. Mom turned to start walking down the porch steps.
Samuel grinned, his tail wagging as he put his arms out to get a hug. “Mom! Here I come! HUGS!” He squealed happily as he ran toward her.
Mom put a hand on his head and used it to maneuver around him without even stopping, climbing into her car and reversing out of the driveway without any further indication that she had even noticed him. The car paused just long enough for her to put it in gear, and then it drove away. She didn’t even seem to look back.
Samuel’s arms slowly fell to his side, and his ears went back. His tail made two more swings, then went limp. “But… Mom?” He whimpered softly.
“Ouch.” Mittens walked up next to Samuel. “That was cold. That was hard to watch, right there.”
Samuel’s lip trembled. “She… didn’t even say hi. She barely even noticed I was there.”
Mittens hesitated, then put his arm over Samuel’s shoulder and patted his head. “There, there. It’ll be okay. Maybe she was just in a rush and didn’t have time.”
Samuel hesitated. “Er… y-yeah… that’s what it was.” He turned slowly toward the house and slinked up the porch steps. “I’ll… um… I’ll see you later.”
“Yeah.” Mittens frowned at Samuel as he opened the door and went inside.
Dad poked his head around the corner from the hallway. “Oh, hey, kiddo. Look, your stuff got here from the old house!” He held up one of Samuel’s squeaky toys.
Samuel nodded quietly and slinked to his room. His basket was there, as was his toybox. Another box sitting by his doorway seemed to have a bunch of other assorted items in it. He flopped over into his basket face-first and lay there.

[Amazee Dayzee]

The fact that someone can turn off their feelings like that to somebody even if it is a pet who in this universe is sentient and much like a child is just monstrous. A perfect example of as in the same vein some people shouldn't have kids that those same people shouldn't have pets either.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 8: Depression

“Hey, Sammy, I’ve got dinner on the way. Uncle Bob’s gonna bring us some cheeseburgers, won’t that be nice?” Dad poked his head into Samuel’s room, then frowned when he saw Samuel laying face-down in his basket. “Hey, what’s the matter?”
Samuel offered no explanation aside from a grunt. It sounded like he’d been crying.
Dad sighed and walked into the room, lowering himself to the floor with a grunt and sitting next to him. “Hey, Sammy-bear. Why are we having tears?” He reached over and poked Samuel in the side playfully.
Samuel swatted his hand away and rolled to face the other direction. “Leave me alone.”
“Sammy. Sammy Sammy Sammy.” Dad cooed, scratching with one finger right behind Samuel’s ear. “Tell me why you’re having tears.”
Samuel grumbled and wriggled forward, trying to get out of Dad’s reach. “I don’t wanna.”
“D’aww.” Dad leaned forward and put his arms around Samuel’s chest, pulling him backward and sitting him up in his lap. “Come on, just tell Daddy. Where’s my happy puppy gone?”
Samuel turned and buried his face in Dad’s chest, leaning in for some snuggles. “He’s back home in the blue house.”
“Oh.” Dad gave Samuel a little squeeze, kissing his head. “Will he be joining us here in our new home?”
“No. He’s gone forever. He went with Mom when she came by earlier.” Samuel’s head shook, causing his face to rub back and forth on Dad’s chest.
Dad paused, then resumed stroking Samuel’s head. “Oh, I see. That’s why I sent you to the park, you know. I didn’t want you to see her and get excited. She was in a rush and didn’t have time for any fun.”
Samuel sniffled, his voice cracking as he spoke. “She didn’t even look at me! She just walked past and acted like I wasn’t there!”
“Shh, shh, I know.” He started rocking back and forth, rubbing Samuel along the back. “I told you she was busy, she had to get to work. It’s okay.”
Samuel lifted his head to let his chin drop onto Dad’s shoulder. “She could have said hi. She didn’t even say hi. She just pushed past me and left.”
Dad sighed, stroking Samuel’s back a little more, using his whole hand and making sure to scratch behind Samuel’s ear the way he liked it. “I know, kiddo. I know.”
“Why’s she mad at me? What’d I do wrong?” He sniffled and hugged into Dad quietly. He was fighting back tears again.
“Oh…” Dad gave a squeeze and patted Samuel’s back, frowning. “It wasn’t anything you did. Scarlett… I mean, your Mom… is mad at me because she asked for a divorce and I let her have it.”
Samuel frowned for a moment, then pulled back to look up at Dad, feeling a little confused. “But… if she asked for it, and you gave it to her… shouldn’t she be happier? And why’s she taking it out on ME? I didn’t do anything!”
Dad kissed Samuel’s nose, then leaned back against the wall. “Well… sometimes, we humans don’t really make sense. She asked for a divorce, but what she really wanted was for me to fight to keep her. And she’s making life harder for you, because… well… because I gave you to her.”
Samuel tilted his head, frowning, and Dad chuckled. “Okay, I’ll tell you the story.”
He reached and scratched under Samuel’s chin, thinking back. “Well, it’s not a very long story, actually. It was a few years ago, and I was on my way to a date with your Mom.”
“Because you loved her.” Samuel grinned up at Dad, the tears sitting forgotten in the corners of his eyes, and he chuckled.
“That’s right, I loved her. In fact, I loved her so much, that I thought I would like to propose to her, and then marry her.” He gently poked Samuel’s nose.
Samuel’s tail gave a little wag, and he snuggled in. Dad chuckled and continued. “Well, my car was in the shop that day, because it really was a terrible little car, and the place where I was supposed to meet your Mom wasn’t too terribly far from my apartment at the time, so I decided to walk there. On the way, though, I met a man who was parked with his van in a parking lot, who asked me if I wanted to buy a smooth fox terrier.”
Samuel’s ears perked. “I’m a smooth fox terrier!” He pointed at himself excitedly, his tail wagging a little more.
Dad chuckled and ruffled his ears. “Yeah, you are. You’re the smoothest little smooth fox terrier.” He paused for a moment, then resumed the story. “Anyway, I was a little early, so I decided to stop and have a look. There, in the back of the guy’s van, was a litter of the tiniest little puppies you ever saw. They were so tiny, I could hold one in each hand and still have room for a third one without using my arms.”
He paused and put out his hand, palm-up, in front of him, letting Samuel put his hand there. Dad grinned. “And there you were, the smallest out of all of them. You were so little, you could lay down on my hand and take a nap. I knew right away that I had to take you home with me, and so I gave the man all the money I had with me and I picked you up and I called your mom and told her that there had been a change of plans.”
He chuckled. “I told her that I had made a new friend and that she should come over to my house to meet him immediately. You were a curious little pup- you crawled right up to her when she came in, and started trying to eat her shoe.” He tickled Samuel’s belly, causing Samuel to squeal with laughter and squirm.
“And, well, I proposed to your mom that night, and told her that you could be our dog if she wanted. She said she’d be only too happy to, and we were happy for a long time. Or… I thought we were. Until last week.” He gave Samuel another squeeze, then smiled at him. “So, it’s just you and me for now. Maybe things will turn out okay and we’ll be together again, or maybe not.”
Samuel leaned in and nuzzled his face into Dad one last time, then started climbing out of his lap. “How come you never told me that story before?”
Dad shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess it never came up.”
After a few moments, Samuel smiled gently. “You know what would really hit the spot right now?”
Dad chuckled. “What?”
“Those cheeseburgers you mentioned. Let’s go see if Uncle Bob is here.” He turned and marched out the door into the hallway.
Dad grinned after him and pulled himself off the floor. “All right, I’m coming.”

[Amazee Dayzee]

I think Samuel needs more hugs moving forward and that is not me saying that because I want to give him them since he is sad. Ignore the cracking you just heard because that was my heart breaking for him.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 9: A Knock at the Front Door

Samuel frowned, sitting upside-down in the chair as he watched Dad and Uncle Bob move the new TV stand back and forth, trying to settle on the perfect spot to put it. The wooden structure was a little scuffed up and smelled like some other house, but Samuel guessed that’s what happened when you bought furniture at garage sales.
After the tenth time they moved it from one spot to another and back again, Samuel grumbled and tossed his ball at them. “What does it matter? We don’t have a TV to put ON it. Just put it SOMEWHERE and worry about where it’ll look good with a TV on it when we have a TV to PUT on it.”
Dad turned to look at him, then laughed. “Okay, okay, I get the picture. You’re upset because it’s lunchtime and I haven’t fed you, right?”
Samuel blushed a little, flipping around to sit the right way up on his chair and putting a hand on his belly. “That… MIGHT be it.”
Dad chuckled. “All right, all right. Let’s go see what we’ve got for feeding puppies.”
Samuel slid down out of the chair and followed Dad into the kitchen, giving a slight whine of protest. “Da-aad, I’m not a puppy anymore! I’m all grown up!”
Dad chuckled. “Oh, excuse me, mister Grown-up. Maybe I should let you find your own lunch then.” He patted Samuel on the back and opened the cupboards. They weren’t as bare as they had been a couple weeks ago when they’d moved in, but there were still pretty slim pickings. Combined with a set of mismatched secondhand pans picked up from a dozen garage sales and some dollar store cutlery, they had enough to come up with something for every meal, but not really enough to build a stockpile that could last more than a week without a shopping trip.
Samuel bounced excitedly. “Ooh! Ooh! How about hot dogs? And FRIES!”
Dad chuckled. “Okay, okay. You cannibal.” He turned toward the fridge and retrieved the requested items. It was a big bag of julienne fries that he could throw in the oven and the cheapest hot dogs on the market, but Samuel kind of liked it that way.
As dad got the fries in the oven and the hot dogs boiling on the stove, Samuel eagerly got out his favorite condiments and a loaf of bread so they could use slices as buns. He had almost finished setting up the table when his ears perked. He could hear someone coming up the porch steps, and a moment later someone knocked at the door.
“Huh. Who could that be?” Dad mused as he made his way through the living room to answer the door.
“Hey! You must be Sam’s dad! Is he in right now?” Mittens’ voice purred from the doorway, and Samuel’s ears perked. He rushed over to see.
“Hello! Yeah, Sammy’s my dog. He’s right here. You’re the neighbor’s cat. I’ve seen you around here and there.” Dad grinned, putting a hand on Samuel’s back.
Mittens gave Samuel a fake hurt expression. “Sammy, you didn’t tell your dad about me? I thought we were buddies.”
Samuel snickered and put his hands up. “Okay, okay, you caught me. Dad, this is Mittens. He lives next door. Mittens, this is my dad.”
Dad put his hand down to shake Mittens’s hand, grinning. “We were just getting lunch going, if you wanted to join us.” He invited Mittens in.
Mittens shook his head. “Thanks, but no, thanks. I just came to drop this off.” He held up an envelope, offering it to Samuel. As Samuel took it, Mittens explained. “One of the neighborhood pets is having an adoption day party, and he saw Sam and I hanging out and decided to invite him, so he could come and get to know some of the other pets. He asked me to deliver the invitation, since I know where you live.” He cleared his throat. “All the information is, ah, in the invitation.”
Samuel looked down at the envelope hesitantly. “I… uh.. Maybe. I’ll have to look at it. I’ll have to see if I can get any adoption day gifts…”
Mittens chuckled and shook his hand. “No need for any of that, it’s not that kind of party. It’s more like a barbeque. We’ll hang out in his backyard, he’s got a pool- not a real one, one of the above ground ones, but it’s one of the big ones- and there’ll be music.”
Samuel frowned. “I thought cats hated water.”
Mittens laughed aloud. “I’m a Maine Coon. We LOVE water! Wet dog smell isn’t ideal, but I think we can deal with that later.” He glanced around. “I gotta go. Lots of people outside to watch today, I don’t wanna miss all the action.”
Samuel put out his hand. “Okay. I’ll see you later, and I’ll let you know about that party.”
Mittens shook Samuel’s hand. “All right. It was nice to meet you, sir.” He saluted Dad, then stepped back to let Dad shut the door.
Dad grinned and did so, then turned to Samuel. “Ooh, a party. You gonna go? When is it? Go on, open it up.”
Samuel frowned and used his claw to gently tear open the envelope and pull out the card inside. “It says… the party is next weekend. It’s a couple blocks away… bring your own towel. Nothing else required from partygoers.” He glanced up and shrugged. “I don’t know… parties aren’t really fun when you don’t know anybody.”
Dad chuckled and ruffled Samuel’s ears as he headed back to the kitchen. “I think you should go. It’ll be fun. You’ll get free food, you’ll get to meet new people, you can go in swimming… It’ll be great for you.”
Samuel paused, then looked up at Dad with a frown. “I’m going whether I want to or not, aren’t I?”
Dad chuckled and ruffled Samuel’s ears. “See, you’re smart. Let’s go check on those fries.”
Samuel grumbled and followed him. “But I don’t KNOW anybody! I don’t wanna go to a party where I don’t know anybody!” He tossed the invitation up onto the table with a grumble.
“That’s the idea. It sounds like most of the pets in the neighborhood will be there! You’ll get to meet everybody, make some friends. Maybe meet a pretty lady, huh?” He winked at him teasingly. “I bet that’ll take your mind off the move.”
Samuel looked away, feeling his ears warm up at the suggestion. “That’s not- I don’t- but-”
Dad chuckled, taking the fries out of the oven. “I’m just teasing you, kiddo. But I do still want you to go. It’ll be fun. You need to get out of the house more than just walking down to the park and back.”
Samuel huffed and put his ears back, his eyes looking aside. “Okay, fine.”
Dad chuckled and plated up Samuel a hot dog and some fries. “Good boy.”

[Amazee Dayzee]

I am pretty sure that Samuel will end up enjoying himself at the barbecue and the place will finally begin to feel like his home. Of course the minute that he finally gets to a good place we all know something will come up that will break him and send him back to square one again.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 10: Mixed Party

“Hey, I’ve got an idea. Let’s just blow off this party and go to the park for a few hours instead. Dad’ll never know the difference.” Samuel glanced over at Mittens as they walked.
Mittens glanced sidelong at him, then snickered. “Your dad thought you might try that. That’s why he gave me a catnip mouse to be sure you made it to the party.” He reached over and patted Samuel’s shoulder. “It was a nice try, though. I’ll definitely laugh about it later when I’m tripping my tail off on catnip.”
Samuel made a sour face and kept walking. Mittens laughed. “Is there a reason you don’t want to go to this party? Or are you just being difficult?”
There was a moment of silence as Samuel reflected on his thoughts before answering. “I guess… I’m just worried that if I make friends, I’m going to get dragged away on a whim again and never see them again. I mean… I know that it’s a risk we take as pets, but I’m not sure I could take losing all my friends a second time. You know?”
“That’s fair. But you’re still gonna go to this party and have fun. You can hang out with me. I’ll introduce you to some of the dogs I know, and maybe a few of the cats, too. And, of course, some of the… others.”
“Others?” Samuel perked his ears and looked at Mittens. “What do you mean, others?”
Mittens chuckled. “Well, humans keep other things as pets besides just dogs and cats. I knew a platypus once. His people kept dying his fur teal and making him wear a fedora for some reason. I dunno, humans are weird. I guess they thought it was funny or something.”
Samuel rolled his eyes. “So weird. What other kinds of pets are in the neighborhood?”
Mittens shrugged. “There’s a rabbit. A raccoon. And rumor has it that there’s a tiger, but they keep him confined to his backyard so he doesn’t eat anybody. I don’t think it’s true, though. Probably just an orange cat with stripes.” He pointed to a house that had its gate to the backyard wide open. “There’s the party.”
Samuel put his ears back and nervously let Mittens lead him toward the gate. “What if nobody likes me?”
“Relax. Someone will like you, I’m sure.” Mittens purred and pushed him through the gate.
As promised, there was music playing. A twelve-foot above ground pool took up the far corner of the yard, and the back patio had a human grilling on it next to a table full of various foods: hot dogs, burgers, potato salad, chips, and a bunch of other backyard party staples covered the two folding tables that occupied the space next to the grill. Another table along the other side of the patio had various deserts on it that all seemed to be various fruits mixed with whipped topping. About thirty to forty dogs and cats milled around, eating, dancing, chatting, and swimming.
Mittens nudged Samuel and pointed toward a dalmation standing in a group of friends, chattering, who was wearing a plastic crown on his head. “That’s Bongo. It’s his party. We should go say hello.”
Samuel nodded and followed Mittens over. When Bongo spotted them on the way, he excused himself from his friends and grinned, walking toward them with his arms out, giving Mittens a hug and wagging his tail. “You made it!” His gaze went to Samuel, and he grinned, moving to give him a hug, too. “And you must be the new dog in the neighborhood! Welcome, welcome!”
Samuel allowed himself to be hugged, awkwardly muttering out, “Happy adoption day.”
“Hey, thanks. So there’s food, the pool, I see you brought some towels, if you need the bathroom it’s inside, down the hall, first door on the right.” He grinned. “Just hang out, try to have fun! It’s a party!” He patted Samuel on the shoulder. “Welcome to the neighborhood!”
Samuel gave a little smile. “Er… thanks, I guess.”
A moment later, Bongo rushed off to greet some more guests, and Samuel looked around. Among the groups, he could see only a few stragglers on the outside edges of the party; the mutt and doberman he’d seen at the park, with the puppy sticking close to the mutt like he was shy; there was a raccoon wearing a purple sparkly collar, looking like she was trying to pilfer stuff from the snack table without being caught (while several people looked on indifferently); and there was a tough-looking bull mastiff leaning against the fence trying very hard to look cool with his leather jacket on.
Mittens grinned and nudged Samuel. “So, like what you see? Great party, right? Anyway, I’m gonna go get a drink. You just… try to make friends.” He was gone before Samuel could react.
Samuel put his ears back and wandered through the party. He tried to join a group of dancers, awkwardly shuffling his paws sort of in rhythm, but felt out of place there so he moved on. The pool looked too crowded to be much fun, so he kept shuffling on. He got a plate of food from the patio, shyly waving at the human working the grill and receiving an unenthused nod in return. He put his ears back and found a spot along the fence to sit and eat, looking around at all the dogs that seemed to know one another and that he didn’t know. He sighed and looked down at his plate.
“Not really feeling the party, huh?” A female voice sounded.
Samuel looked up to see the raccoon plopping down next to him with two soda cans in her hands. He shrugged. “I don’t really know anybody here. My dad made me come. He says it’d be a good time for me to make some friends.”
She offered him one of the cans with a shrug. “Yeah, dads are like that sometimes. Mine says that it doesn’t matter if the neighborhood dogs like me, I should still keep trying to hang out with them. My name’s Mischief, but you can call me Missy.”
Samuel hesitantly took the can. “I’m… uh… Samuel.” He glanced at her collar, then at the can, before setting the can aside. “I’m sorry, but how does… uh…”
“How does a raccoon end up a pet?” She finished for him cheerily. “Well, my mom was a wild raccoon that my dad used to feed sometimes when she came around, so when she found out she was expecting me, she started to stick around more and more. Even built herself a little den beneath the porch. Eventually, Dad let her move into the house, and then not long after I was born, she passed in her sleep. I wasn’t old enough to take care of myself, so Dad started raising me, and I’ve been with him ever since.” She popped the tab on her soda with a shrug.
“Oh. I’m sorry to hear about your mom. That must be sad.” Samuel put his ears back and frowned.
She shrugged. “Maybe a little. I wasn’t old enough to remember much about her. Sometimes I visit her old den beneath the porch and pretend she’s there, giving me advice, but really it’s just little old me, saying things out loud that I needed to hear out loud.” She took a sip of her drink, then sighed and leaned back against the fence. “It is what it is, you know? Things happen, and you can’t really do anything about it, so you just go with it.”
“Er… yeah, I guess.” Samuel frowned, picking at his potato salad. “My Mom and Dad got divorced recently. I moved out with dad to… I guess it used to be Grandma and Grandpa’s house before they went on the road… and it just doesn’t feel like home yet. It’s getting there, I guess. Slowly.”
Missy grinned, showing all her teeth. “Let me guess, you miss your mom and wish she’d come get you?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. She stopped by the other day and didn’t even bother to say hi to me as she left, so… Maybe not?”

[Amazee Dayzee]

I think that for the first social event in his new neighborhood after moving that Samuel actually did really well in trying to open up and have fun. I just know that before he knows it he will becoming one of the pets there and not feel so out of place!

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 11: Walking Home

“That was awesome. The way you just bellyflopped into the pool? Classic.” Missy grinned over at Samuel, her fur still dripping wet.
Samuel smiled, then hesitantly hefted his doggy bag, gesturing to her. “Er… sorry about all this. I didn’t realize you hadn’t brought a towel with you. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have pushed you in.”
Missy snickered. “It’s all right. I won’t melt. Actually kinda feels good in the breeze.”
“I told you that you’d have fun.” Mittens purred from Samuel’s other side. “And you made a friend, too.” He paused, then grinned. “I dare you to not tell your dad that she’s a raccoon, get him to agree to her coming over, and then see what he does.”
“Ooh, that sounds FUNNY! Do it! Do it, do it, do it!” Missy laughed. “I bet the face he makes is HILARIOUS!”
Samuel hesitated, then smiled. “I might just do that. It would serve him right for dragging me all the way out here.”
Missy snickered and nudged him, gesturing to the house they were in front of. “This is my place. I’ll see ya around?”
“Sure.” Samuel nodded, watching her go, then turning and walking along with Mittens.
Mittens grinned at him. “I gotta say, I expected you to make a friend, but most neighborhood pets take a while before they’re cool with Missy. They think it’s weird that a raccoon is a pet.”
Samuel shrugged. “I mean, it is kind of weird, but she seemed nice enough. She bothered to talk to me when I was sitting by myself.”
Mittens snickered and playfully punched his arm. “And why were you sitting by yourself at a party?”
Samuel laughed and pulled away. “Hey, stop it! I didn’t know anybody. I wasn’t going to stay there the whole party, I just wanted some food first. Everybody else was busy dancing or swimming or chatting with friends. I wasn’t sure how to interject myself. I mean, what was I supposed to do, interrupt someone speaking just to introduce myself? That’s rude!”
“So what? Rude is a cat’s favorite way to do things.” Mittens grinned playfully.
“Well, I’m not a cat, you little furball.” Samuel pushed on Mittens’ shoulder with a finger.
Mittens grinned and passed him his doggy bag. “Here, take this home with you. I took it to be polite, but I don’t really care for hot dogs and potato salad. Who knows, maybe your dad will eat it.”
Samuel grinned and took the bag. “You say that as if my dad’s gonna get a chance to eat it.” He licked his muzzle happily. “Those were some good hot dogs.”
Mittens snickered. “I’m more of a burgers cat, myself, but you do you, boo.” He nudged him with his shoulder. “So… still hate it here?”
Samuel shrugged. “Well, not as much as I did. I’ve started to get settled in, so I suppose it’s not so bad.” He looked forward at their houses gradually growing closer. “I still miss Mom, and a part of me still hopes they’ll make up and get back together, but now I have friends here, so it won’t be the worst thing in the world if they don’t, like how it felt when they first broke up.”
Mittens purred gently. “I’m glad to hear it. And, hey, listen, I’ll see if I can get my dad to lend yours his lawn mower so we can get that overgrown backyard of yours taken care of. It’ll feel a lot more like home when the backyard doesn’t resemble a jungle.”
“I bet.” Samuel smiled a little, then paused on the sidewalk between their two houses. “Well… See ya tomorrow?”
“Maybe.” Mittens grinned. “I’ll be playing with my new toy. We’ll have to see.”
Samuel rolled his eyes. “Okay. Bye, then. I’ll see you when I see you.” He turned and started walking up his driveway. A moment later, Mittens turned and went up his own driveway.
As Samuel let himself in the house, Dad called from under the kitchen sink. “That you, Sammy? How was the party?”
“It was okay. They sent everybody home with a bag of leftovers. Mittens gave me his.” Samuel put his doggy bags in the fridge for later and turned to Dad. “What’re ya doing?”
Dad peeked out from under the sink. “Well, one of these pipes was a little cracked and it was starting to leak, so I’m fixing it.” He grinned at him. “You make any friends at the party?”
Samuel shrugged. “A couple. Bongo- that’s the dog whose party it was- seemed pretty nice. I got to speak to him a couple times. He was pretty busy entertaining his guests, but he made sure to take time to greet us when we got there. I also met… well… Her name is Mischief, but she goes by Missy. She hung out with me most of the time I was there.”
Dad grinned out from under the sink at him. “Ooh, a lady, huh? She cute? You into her?”
Samuel blushed. “Dad! I just met her! And it’s not like that! She’s… uh… not really my type. We can be friends, but I don’t think it’s gonna go much further than that.”
“I dunno, sometimes things go further than you think.” He chuckled at him.
“Not this time.” Samuel shrugged. “Trust me.”
“If you say so.” He laughed and reached for a different tool out of his toolbox.
“Oh, and Mittens told me you bribed him to make sure I got there.” He frowned. “Traitor.”
Dad snickered. “Guilty as charged. But you had fun, didn’t you?”
“Yeah…” Samuel pouted. “I did.”
“Well, there you go. It was worth it.” Dad laughed and slid out from under the sink. “You went in the pool while you were there?”
Samuel nodded quietly and put his ears back. “Er… yeah?”
Dad grinned. “Okay, then you know what that means. Go on, bathtime. Get those pool chemicals out of your fur.”
“Ugh… fine.” Samuel grumbled and turned tail. “I should have known it was a trick.”
“I know, I’m SUPER mean. When you’re done, let me know. We’re gonna have some snuggles time, and you’re gonna tell me ALL about that party.”
Samuel groaned. “Oh, goodie, I can’t wait.”
“I knew you’d be pumped.” Dad chuckled, starting to clean up his mess. “You might have to wait for me to also have a shower.”
“Salvation!” Samuel snickered and darted into the bathroom before Dad could swat at him.
“Oh, you, I’m gonna get you, mister.” Dad chuckled, walking after him before diverting into his bedroom.
Samuel snickered and unclipped his collar, starting the shower and climbing in. He thought about the party, and decided that Dad had been right to make him go- not that he would EVER tell Dad that.

[Amazee Dayzee]

Even if he doesn't tell his father that he did have a good time at the party and was able to socialize some with other pets, his father will probably end up figuring it out and calling him out on it. I don't think there is anything that can get past that man (which is why he knew his piece of work ex-wife was going to ask for a divorce).

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 12: Raccoon Games

Missy grinned as she opened the door, then reached out and grabbed Samuel by the wrist, pulling him inside. “You came over! You actually came over!” She chirruped excitedly, grabbing his hands and bouncing.
“I… uh… yeah?” Samuel frowned, watching the raccoon bounce in front of him. “I said I would, didn’t I?”
Missy’s house, like many of the houses in the neighborhood, seemed to be laid out more or less the same as Samuel’s, except hers was painted in pleasing asymmetric splotches of various colors over a blue base. It smelled like construction paper and glue, paper-mache and wet clay.
“Yeah, you did, but when people say that, it’s usually just to get me to go away and they don’t actually do it. But you did!” She grinned, then grabbed his hand. “Come on, I’m gonna show you my room!” She tugged him down the hall.
Samuel had no choice but to follow her striped tail as she led him to the first bedroom, across from the bathroom, and entered. He blinked around in surprise. Every surface in the room was covered with random shiny objects. Some of them looked expensive; there were glass cubes with landmarks etched inside, lit from beneath with a shifting array of colored lights; there were colored crystals in a variety of pinks, purples, blues, yellows, and reds; there were glass gemstones; and there were crystal figurines. Other items looked worthless; there was a crushed spoon that looked like she’d picked it up out of the road; there were bottles of glitter lined up next to a stack of construction paper and glue; there were shining glass bottles; and there were polished river rocks, all lined up in a row.
“Well, it’s certainly… shiny?” Samuel observed as he looked around.
Missy grinned. “Thanks. I love shiny things. I don’t know why, they just make me happy. Dad lets me keep anything I bring in as long as it’s clean and not stinky.”
Samuel hesitated, then walked around the room a little bit, sensing that she wanted him to look at her collection. She grinned after him, swishing her tail happily as he nodded and pretended to appreciate both the nice things and the garbage, making a full round of the room in a couple minutes. “It’s very nice. I like your… ah… bottles, and… crystals?”
She giggled, then opened a drawer. “I keep my toys in here. See? I have puzzles and ropes and all kinds of things.” She dug through a variety of things from the recognizable balls and ropes to interesting-looking handmade toys and puzzles before she pulled out a wooden board with all kinds of fasteners glued to it, showing it to him. “Dad made me this when I was a kit. See? It’s got a button, and a zipper, and clasps, clips, and all kinds of things.” She passed it over to Samuel and resumed digging through her drawer excitedly. Samuel blinked at the board, then set it aside, watching Missy excitedly pull out one thing after another to show him.
“Missy… is this the first time you’ve ever had anybody over?” Samuel set aside another homemade puzzle- this one a maze with a marble inside- and looked at her curiously.
She turned and grinned at him. “What? Pfft, NO! There’s been Mittens! And… um… Bongo came over to give me the invitation to his party the other day… uh…” She frowned, scratching her chin. “No, I think that’s it. Just Mittens and Bongo. And you.” She grinned at him.
“Uh… huh…” Samuel set aside another puzzle, then stood up. “Let’s go see more of your house.”
Missy grinned and jumped up, spilling toys all over the floor from her lap. “Ooh, let’s go see Daddy’s studio!” She grabbed his wrist and dragged him back out into the hallway, through the kitchen, and into the little room beyond. “Hi, Daddy! This is Samuel! I met him at Bongo’s party, and he came over to play!”
The little room, which was an office in Samuel’s house, was stripped bare in this house. Instead of carpet, the floor was made of cheap linoleum. The walls were covered in paint splatters, chunks of clay, and other strange-smelling materials. A throwing wheel had been squished over into the corner, apparently not needed at the moment. A rack of paintings was drying in the opposite corner with a tarp thrown over one side, apparently to prevent spattering from ongoing projects, and a strange-looking man was standing in the middle of the room.
The man was wearing a paint-spattered smock that covered him from his neck to his ankles, little plastic shoes that seemed to be disposable and looked like trash bags or little hair nets, and had his long hair tucked into a shower cap, with a few strands sticking out here or there. One of his hands held a plastic cup that appeared to be full of paint, and the other was holding a spoon, which he was using to fling spoonfuls of paint at a canvas in front of him. He looked over at Missy, then grinned at Samuel, dropping the spoon into the cup and putting his paint-smeared hand out for Samuel to shake. “It’s nice to meet you, Samuel. Not many of the neighborhood dogs come over to play with my Missy, so I’m always happy to meet one of her friends!”
Samuel stared uncertainly at the man’s hand. “Erm… thanks for having me. I… um…”
The man glanced down at his hand, then chuckled and pulled it away, wiping it on his smock. “Have fun, you two. Missy, you know where the snacks are. Don’t watch too much TV. If you decide to go to the park, make sure you leave me a note.”
Missy nodded. “Yes, daddy. What’cha painting?”
He glanced over at her, then chuckled. “Nothing in particular. Just throwing stuff at the canvas and seeing what’ll stick. Go and play with your friend.”
She nodded and closed the door, turning to Samuel. “Daddy’s an artist. He does all kinds of cool things. Every so often, we’ll gather up a bunch of paintings and sculptures into his car, and we’ll go to this big building, where we’ll put everything up real nice, and people will come to look and buy Daddy’s paintings and sculptures and… whatever else he made.”
Samuel frowned. “He’s sure… interesting.”
She giggled at him and nudged him. “Yeah, he’s the best. Let’s get some snacks, and then we can go to the park.”
“Sounds good to me. Maybe we can go play with Bongo or Mittens.” Samuel followed Missy to the fridge and watched her open it up and start digging through the lower drawer.
“Oh, Mittens won’t be at the park today. It’s Tuesday. He likes to watch the trash truck go around. Bongo might, though. He likes to play ball with the other dogs.” She came out of the fridge with a baggie full of mixed vegetables, holding it above her head triumphantly. “There’s still some left!”
Samuel watched her open the bag and pull a slice of red pepper out of it. “Vegetables?” He didn’t have any particular aversion to vegetables, but he had expected something… else. He wasn’t sure what. The word “snack” usually conjured up images of crackers, biscuits, or cheese for him.
She nodded eagerly. “Daddy says vegetables are good for digestion, and they’re pretty tasty, too. He salt-pickles them before he bags them up so they’re extra tasty.” She passed him a pepper slice. “Here, taste.”
Samuel frowned and took the pepper from her, putting it in his mouth. It was delicious.

[Amazee Dayzee]

Samuel truly is a very sweet and loving dog so I am still furious with his former mother for treating him like a pest. I really wish that when a couple splits up they would treat their sentient pets like children since they kind of are in this universe.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 13: Park with Friends

Missy squealed happily as they came into view of the park, pointing. “Look, Bongo’s here!” She let go of Samuel’s hand and ran ahead, throwing her arms wide and squealing out Bongo’s name. “Bongoooooo! Huuuuuuugs!”
The Dalmatian barely had time to turn around before Missy collided with him, throwing her hands around him and squeezing. He chuckled and hugged back, giving her a little squeeze before letting go. “It’s nice to see you, Missy. Sorry I didn’t get to say goodbye at my party the other day. That was very rude of me.”
Missy giggled and shook her head. “No, no, silly. You were BUSY, it’s fine. Besides, Mittens and Sammy walked me home.” She turned and gestured toward Samuel. “See? Sammy’s here with me today! He came over to my house and we had snacks and played with my puzzles, it was lots of fun!”
Bongo raised an eyebrow and glanced over at Samuel. “Oh, really? I bet, that SOUNDS like a lot of fun.” He raised a hand to wave at Samuel as he approached. “Hello, again. I’m glad to see you.”
Samuel gave a shy wave. “Er… hi. Thanks again for… er… having me at your party. It was fun.”
Bongo grinned. “I’m glad you enjoyed yourself. I see you’ve made friends with our resident raccoon. She can be a bit much.”
“I noticed.” Samuel smiled a little. “But I think I managed all right.”
Missy squealed and pulled a ball out of her collar. “Ooh! Ooh! Let’s play ball! We have three, that’s enough for catch!”
Bongo chuckled. “Okay, spread out a bit then. We’ll start with a few rounds of clockwise, just to warm up.”
The three spread out in the grass and started tossing the ball to each other, Missy giggling like it was the most fun she’d ever had the whole time. After a while, Bongo waved for them to get back together and grinned eagerly from Missy to Samuel. “Let’s do something a little more exciting. Catch is fun, but how about… capture the ball?”
Samuel frowned. “Capture the ball? I’ve never heard of that.”
Bongo nodded. “Yeah, it’s a local name. I’ve heard the same game being called by different names over the years- tackleball, ballpile, reverse tag… Basically, one person has a ball and they run around and try to keep it as long as possible. Whoever takes the ball from them then tries to do the same thing. Just no biting or scratching.”
“Oh!” Samuel’s eyes lit up. “We had that game back home, in my old neighborhood! Except we called it Keepsies! I love that game!” His tail wagged eagerly. “Yeah, let’s play that!”
Bongo snickered. “Okay, okay, but let’s go over any regional rules first, just to make sure we’re on the same page.”
There was a short discussion of what was different about the game here than back at Samuel’s old neighborhood, and they got to playing. It was hours of running around, tackling each other, wrestling, and getting the ball. A few other groups avoided them the whole time like they had some kind of disease, but Bongo and Missy barely seemed to notice.
Eventually, Bongo glanced at the sun and announced that it was time to start heading home. Missy pouted, but Bongo insisted, passing her the ball so she could tuck it back into her collar, and they all started walking off down the street.
Missy chirrupped eagerly as she walked between them, flicking her banded tail happily. “We should do this again some time. Or maybe ALL the time! I had so much fun today… Do you think we could get Mittens to join us?”
Samuel gave a little chuckle as he watched Missy excitedly babble, leading the way down the sidewalk. When they got to her house, she turned and gave Samuel and Bongo each a hug. “It was SO fun playing with you two today! I gotta go home. Bye.” She ran up her driveway and into her house.
Samuel watched her until the door closed behind her, then turned to start walking toward his house, stopping when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He frowned, putting his ears back, and turned to look at Bongo. Bongo smiled at him, then put his hand out to shake. “I appreciate you going out of your way to play with her. You probably noticed, most of the neighborhood dogs treat Missy like she’s going to give them an infection or something. They steer VERY clear of her.”
He hesitated, then nodded. “I had noticed that. Has it always been like that?”
“Yeah, pretty much.” Bongo sighed. “We’ve tried talking to them, getting them to give her a chance, but nobody wants to take a chance on her. If she’s even noticed, she hasn’t said anything. She keeps a smile on.”
Samuel nodded. “She had mentioned that she didn’t get visitors very often.”
Bongo nodded and smiled at Samuel. “Thanks for being her friend. I’m sure it means the world to her.”
Samuel nodded quietly. “Well… everybody needs a friend, and she seems friendly enough. I needed a friend too, so it worked out.” He paused for a moment. “I thought Mittens said you guys didn’t do the separation by species thing here, since there aren’t very many pets in the neighborhood.”
Bongo sighed and shook his head. “We don’t, when it comes to dogs and cats. Those are what’s considered ‘normal’ pets. But Missy’s not a dog or a cat. She’s a raccoon. A species that… doesn’t usually get kept as a pet. So they think she’s weird, or she’s got rabies, or that she’ll bite, and they avoid her.”
Samuel frowned. “Well, that’s not right. She’s really nice. I don’t think she would bite even if you got her really angry.”
“I can testify that she doesn’t. She’ll shout at you, growl and bare her teeth, but she doesn’t bite.” Bongo sighed, then turned to start to walk away. “I gotta get home before Dad starts to get worried.”
Samuel frowned after him. “Wait, you don’t live this way. I’ve been to your house. Did… you come all this way just to walk Missy home?”
Bongo gave a little smile over his shoulder. “So maybe I worry animal control will pick her up if I don’t make sure she gets home safely. It’s not a crime.”
Samuel watched Bongo walk away, then sighed and turned to walk toward his own home, smiling and shaking his head. This place was weird, but he was starting to like it here. He figured that he could, given time, settle in and learn to enjoy this new neighborhood, with or without his new friends.
Although, he thought, he would prefer to do it WITH his new friends.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 14: Catnip and Carriers

Samuel could see Mittens on his back on top of the fence between their houses before he even got there. Mittens was rubbing something on his face- as Samuel got closer, he could see it was a little teardrop-shaped toy with little ears and a tail sewn on it. It looked nothing like a mouse, but he recognized it as a mouse toy.
When Samuel drew near, Mittens rolled over to grin at him, his eyes lidded. “Welly-well-well, if it isn’t Sammy, Sammy-sam-sam. What’re YOU up to?”
Samuel paused and frowned as he looked up at Mittens. “I was… at the park… with Missy and Bongo?” He tilted his head. “Are you feeling okay? You sound kinda funny.”
“Feel okay? Sammy-sam-sam, I feel AMAZING. Your dad, he’s a heckuva guy, got me this catnip mouse, I’ve been sniffing at it and chewing on it all day, and it’s the BEST.” He held up the hand that didn’t have the toy in it, looked around for a moment like he’d lost it, then spotted it in his other hand and held it up triumphantly.
Samuel frowned at the mouse, then back up at Mittens. “Is it really that good of a toy? It looks… cheap.”
Mittens purred and looked at Samuel. “It’s SO good. It’s amazing it’s-” he rolled off the fence and fell to the ground with a startled yelp, then grinned up at Samuel with a grin. “Hi, Sammy. I fell down.”
Samuel frowned. “Did that… hurt?”
“Nawwwh. Well, a little, but it’s FINE, it’s good, everything’s just DANDY.” He purred, stretching out in the grass and stuffing his toy in his mouth.
Samuel frowned at Mittens, hesitantly stepping back. “Um… okay… well… I’m gonna… go ahead and go inside… if you’re okay.”
“Oh, yeah, I’m great, I’m soooo great, say hi to your dad for me.” Mittens purred up at him.
Samuel gave one last confused look at the cat sprawled out on the grass, then walked around to the front door and let himself in. “Dad! I’m home! Mittens is acting really weird…”
Dad chuckled, looking up from where he was patching tiny holes in the walls with a little bucket of plaster. “Is he now? Couldn’t be that catnip mouse he’s been playing with all day. How was Missy’s house?”
Samuel climbed up in the chair and sighed. “It was okay. We only stayed there for a little while, and then we went down to the park to play with Bongo.”
Dad grinned, glancing over at him. “Oh? And how was that?”
“It was great!” His tail wagged. “They have some of the games here that I used to play in the old neighborhood! The rules are a little different, but it’s the same game! We played it for AGES! But then Bongo had to go home, so we left.”
“Sounds like you had some fun, then.” He chuckled, reaching to scrape plaster over the spot where a screw used to be.
“Yeah.” He leaned back and watched Dad for a few moments, then grimaced when the entryway light flickered. “It’s still doing the thing.”
Dad nodded. “I think it’s the bulb. We’ll get to it.” He frowned when a car door closed outside, then turned to glance out the front window. “Oh, no.”
Samuel’s ears perked, and he looked outside. “It’s Mom! She came to visit!”
“Buddy, I don’t think she’s here for a visit…” Dad mumbled as he watched Mom march up to the front door and knock angrily.
Samuel grinned and ran over to answer it, ignoring Dad’s protests. “Mom! You came to visit!” His tail wagged, and he hugged her legs. “I’ve missed you!”
After a moment, Mom cleared her throat. “Right. I’ve come to pick you up, Sam. Go and gather your things.”
Samuel frowned and stepped back, looking up at Mom. “I… what?”
Dad stepped forward. “Now, hold on, Scarlett…”
Mom scowled at Dad. “I have just as much right to him as you do, and I’d like to take him home.” She closed the door and put her hands on her hips, a pet carrier dangling from her fingers.
Dad set aside his tub of plaster and scowled. “Except you know just as well as I that you don’t actually WANT him. You’re just going to send him off to some other place where he doesn’t know anybody just to get back at me!”
“What I do with him is none of your business! I’ve come to take him, and I’m not leaving without him!”
As the two continued to argue, Samuel put his ears back and started to back down the hallway toward his room. He closed the door and frowned as the arguing escalated to shouting.
The shouting match lasted for quite some time, ending when Dad shouted, “If you want him, you’ll have to take it up with your divorce lawyer and the judge, because as far as I’m concerned, he’s staying with me! That is FINAL!” The front door opened. “Now get out of my house!”
The door slammed, and the house went quiet. After a few moments, Dad’s voice came down the hall, muttering, and he slammed the door to his room behind him. Samuel could hear Dad muttering and pacing around in his room, and he frowned, sitting in his basket and waiting for everything to calm down.
After a while, Dad’s door opened, and he quietly crossed the hall to Samuel’s room, knocking before he opened the door. “Sammy?”
Samuel looked up at Dad from his basket, putting his ears back. “I’m here.”
Dad crossed the room and sat down next to Samuel, sighing. “I’m sorry you had to hear that. I’m sorry you had to SEE that.”
Samuel looked down at his paws quietly for a few moments. “Do you really think Mom was coming to get me just so she could send me away?”
Dad nodded, reaching over and pulling Samuel out of his basket and into his lap, hugging him. “I know she was. Scarlett… isn’t really a dog person. She liked you well enough when you were small and cute, but as you grew up, she kind of… lost interest. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure the only reason she wanted you today, was so she could get rid of you and upset me.”
Samuel put his ears back and turned to hug dad, nuzzling into his chest. “But that’s so MEAN! Why would she do that?”
“Well… sometimes, people get bitter and mean-spirited when they grow apart from other people, and decide that the only way they can feel better is if the other person is miserable. It doesn’t mean they’re a bad PERSON, necessarily… they just feel like they need to do mean things in order to feel better about themselves.”
Samuel frowned. “That’s horrible.” He paused, a thought coming to mind, and he put his ears back and looked up at Dad. “You don’t think she’d take my collar off and drop me on the side of the road, do you?”
Dad shook his head. “No, no, I don’t think she would be THAT cruel. I think she would at least make sure you had a family to live with. I just don’t think she’d keep you herself.”
Samuel took a deep breath and nodded. “Well… that’s good, then. I guess.”
Dad nodded, hugging Samuel. “Listen… if it comes down to it, would you go with her anyway, on the off chance that she actually DOES want to keep you? Or would you rather stay here, with your old dad?”
Samuel frowned. He didn’t know how he could possibly make that choice.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 15: A Confusing Decision

“And then Dad said that Mom probably only came to get me so she could hurt him, and that she didn’t even want me and would probably just give me away to someone I don’t even know. Then he asked me if I would choose to go with Mom if I could, or if I would rather stay with him. I didn’t know what to say, so I just didn’t say anything.” Samuel hugged his knees and leaned back against the inside of the playground tunnel. “So… I’ve been hiding in here all day, hoping I wouldn’t have to give him an answer.” He looked over at Mittens.
Mittens frowned and crawled into the tunnel with him, sitting across the tunnel so they could face each other. Mittens’ fur was a mess, and he looked a little bedraggled, like he’d been roughhousing all night instead of sleeping. He sat there in silence for a few moments before he spoke. “Do you want help coming up with a solution? Do you want comfort? Or do you just want to rant?”
Samuel’s ears perked, and he looked up at Mittens with a frown. “What?”
Mittens shrugged. “It’s something my dad says to my mom when she’s ranting about work. Sometimes she wants him to help her fix the problem, sometimes she just wants him to sympathize, and sometimes she just wants to let it out, so he asks before trying to help.”
Samuel sighed. “I don’t know WHAT I want.” He hesitated, then shook his head. “No, that’s not true. I want Mom and Dad to get back together, and we can be a family again. But that’s… not going to happen.”
“Probably not.” Mittens confirmed, sliding down the wall of the tunnel so his paws had to slide up on the other side. “So let’s instead focus on what IS likely. You’ll either stay with your dad here, or go with your mom THERE, and she’ll probably sell you off.”
Samuel put his ears back. “Well, obviously, I miss Mom. She’s been there as long as I can remember. But then so has Dad. I love Dad. But I also love Mom.”
“Mm-hmm. I bet.” Mittens put his hands behind his head, watching Samuel curiously. “Of course you love them. They’re your parents. It’s a hard decision to make, even in the best of times. I’m not sure I’d be able to make it.”
They were quiet for a few moments, listening to the wind hum slightly as it blew past the openings to the tube they were in. After a few moments, Samuel frowned. “But if I HAD to pick… at least a few weeks ago, I would have picked Mom. It’s not that I liked her BETTER, it’s just… well… I thought she was nicer to me. But now… I’m not sure. She didn’t even look at me when she brought my stuff over, and then last night… it kind of felt like she was only there out of spite. She barely looked at me and demanded I go get my stuff. I want to believe that she actually wanted me to come live with her, but… what if Dad’s right, and she’s only trying to get me to come with her because she thinks it’ll hurt Dad?”
“And what if he’s wrong?” Mittens put forth. “What if she actually wants you? What if your dad brought you with him to hurt her, and now she’s trying to get you back?”
Samuel gave a frustrated grown, mussing up his headfluff. “See, that’s what I mean! What if HE’S lying, and SHE actually wants me back? I don’t know how to make this choice!”
They sat there in silence for a few more minutes before Mittens slid himself back upright again. “Well, your dad told her he was taking you, didn’t he? What did she say to that?”
Samuel put his ears back with a frown. “I don’t know, they were fighting. I don’t THINK she really said anything about it. She just kind of… let him grab some of his stuff, and then we left.”
“Well, there you go. If she wanted you, she would have said something THEN.” Mittens used his paw to nudge Samuel’s hip.
Samuel nodded, thinking. After a moment, he spoke up. “But… what if she decided she wanted me AFTER we left?”
“It’s possible. But if she waited that long to decide she wanted you after all, do you really want HER?” He pulled his claws out and started examining them.
Samuel gave a frustrated grunt and rubbed his head with both hands. “Are you TRYING to confuse me MORE?!”
“No. I just want you to be sure you’ve looked at it from every angle. Sometimes, you’re so close to the problem, you can’t see the whole picture.” Mittens turned to crawl out of the tunnel. “Come on, let’s go for a walk. This is killing my back.”
Samuel grumbled and followed him out, scowling ahead at his rump until he crawled out and stood aside to let him out. Mittens stood and stretched out with a happy grunt, then turned to Samuel. “That’s SO much better.”
“I GUESS.” Samuel muttered, glaring at him. “At least I can spread out.”
Mittens chuckled and started walking around the edge of the playground. “Look, Sam, I know you’re worried about which parent you would choose. But the truth of the matter is, it doesn’t really matter. You’re with your dad, and he clearly loves you. Your mom has visited twice in the… not quite a month that you’ve been here, and she’s basically ignored you both times. I can’t tell you what to do, but if it were me, I’d choose your dad.”
Samuel frowned at the thought. “You would?”
“Yeah. He’s been present and attentive this whole time, even while he’s trying to fix up that house. From what it sounds like, he spent what little money he had that first week making sure you had food, went out of his way to make sure you were okay when you hid in the basement, and protected you when your mom wanted to take you home. Sounds like a keeper to me.” Mittens shrugged. “But then, it’s not MY choice to make.”
Samuel nodded quietly, contemplating things as they walked a few rounds around the playground. Mittens didn’t push for him to say something, and he let him think, just walking with him and being there.
On the third trip around the playground, Samuel suddenly stopped and looked up at Mittens. “If… I DID go with Mom… would you miss me? I know you haven’t known me very long…”
Mittens smiled at him. “Of course, I’d miss you. But I’d hope you were happy while I did it. Who else will sit and keep me company while I sit on the fence?” He glanced at the sun. “Let’s go home. It’s almost dinnertime.”
Samuel agreed, and they took off walking down the sidewalk. “Thanks for… helping me think things through. I probably needed it. Even if I was a little cranky about it.”
“Any time.”
They walked home together, and Samuel paused when he saw the yard. It wasn’t overgrown and long anymore; Dad was raking up huge piles of grass clippings. He waved when he saw them coming, then turned to his work again.
“Wow. It hardly looks like the same house.” Samuel walked toward it.
Mittens grinned. “Now you won’t have to stomp the grass down in the backyard anymore.” He snickered when Samuel punched him in the shoulder.