After we got to his home and it started to get dark, the man put a t-bone steak on the grille. It smelled good and I was hungry, but because of the experiences of my previous life, I didn’t want to do anything, such as whimper, that might anger the man. And I certainly didn’t dare bark.

When the steak was done, the man took it off the grille and cut it up and then much to my disbelief -- he gave me part of it! It was delicious! I don’t think I had ever had anything so tasty in my life!

After devouring as much meat as I could, I happily chewed on the bone, working to get every last bit of meat off that bone. Occasionally the man would give me a few more pieces of steak, which I chewed down in no time. He did this until the entire steak was gone. When there was no more steak, I went back to chewing on the bone.

Throughout all this the man was watching a baseball game on his television. Occasionally, he would give out a sort of human bark, with a clenched fist. Other times, he would shout out some of what I knew to be dirty words, but I could tell they were not directed at me, so I wasn’t scared.

Frequently he would turn his focus away from the television and gaze upon me, appearing to nod his head approvingly as he watched me eat. With my dog senses and keen eyesight I could see the man had a shroud of sadness hanging over him. Humans can’t see such things, but I could see this shroud clinging to the man.

But as he looked down on me as I chewed merrily on the steak bone I could see the sadness lifting, much like coastal fog lifts away from harbor waters as the sun comes up. He started to smile, and despite the occasional human bark and dirty words as he watched the baseball game, he seemed quite pleased.



