Chapter 7: Dance

“First mission - to eat, check!”

There so much fuss about dog food at the farm but Polly had always preferred human food because it was more tasty and he thought that the different textures gave food an added flavor. The texture of dog food was monotonous to him - the dry one, because they were pellets but the wet kind was a different topic altogether.

For three consecutive days, he ate, thanks to Pete who kept on sharing his food with him unbeknownst to the attendants of the shop. He had not seen the woman that picked him up from the box and separated him from his family but some of the pet shop boys, he saw at different times.

He did not know what to feel about them, anger was a feeling that he had not explored before. It was a feeling that his mother never encouraged. He had seen anger though. It was one afternoon at the garage, Basil and Bitok fought over a piece of bone. At first, they were just growling and showing their fangs. He saw their eyes changed color, it was frightening. They couldn’t hear their mother’s voice, they were just focused on their anger that they forgot about the bone and it was Wacky who got to enjoy it.

"Nope, it didn’t come to the point where they physically hurt each other but mother was mad she did not talk to them for a few days...Mother told us we can get mad or frustrated, that it was but natural, but we shouldn’t let it take over us.” She was probably right - that the true measure of one’s character, whether it be human or dog, was how one handled anger.  That was the last fight between my brothers.

There had been many fights in the farm, if it was not Bob, the Rottweiler, it was Camille, the Pitbull pointed as the culprit. “Mom said their breeds had developed such bad reputation that whenever there’s news of a riot in the farm, the fingers… and the paws immediately pointed to their direction… I didn’t see it myself but my brothers saw how a pitbull, not Camille, but the one that was put down, killed a toy poodle when it got bitten right at the guillotine.”  It was a puzzle thought that despite the temper, their breeds were still up there in Mr. Santos’ list of best sellers.

In the three days that he stood by Patty’s Pet Shop and Pet Supplies, many people had passed by him. They gave him the same reaction -  they ignored or felt disgusted. Either way, they still did not care about him. He wished no one - either human or dog - would get to experience being looked at like that. He searched for words in his mind to describe what it felt like. Oh, he was very good with words. If he were human, he’d be a speech writer, oh a journalist or…or… or…. an author or a poet!… “What words am I looking for? - I felt small, humiliated, ugly…I am already inclined to believe that feeling actually.”

Anyway, Pete got adopted today so there was no more reason to stay by the shop. He reminded himself, however, to go back there every once in a while. The reason? “Maybe I’m still holding on to that tiny thread of hope that I would get to see my mother or any of my brothers… let them know that I am okay and see that they’re okay, too.”

On his way to nowhere, he thought about the pets that got adopted and those that did not. All of the dogs in the crates looked good, furry, cuddly, clean, healthy but not all of them got to find a human. “Why?”

A speech bubble with a lightbulb in it appeared in his head. “Oh that’s it!… It’s not just about looks… Those dogs that got adopted did things… Oh, this is going to be great. I mean, I can learn those tricks, I can practice!” He said to himself nodding his head.

He walked with a bounce in his step, yes, even that leg that he couldn’t bend bounced, too! Polly jotted down in his head the things that he should learn. One, the dance that the Jack Russel did. He turned in his crate then wiggled his butt, turned then wiggled his butt, mouth open, tongue out, ears pulled back. Two, retrieving a toy. Three, sitting when prompted. Four, the puppy eyes, of course! “I gotta get to work!” He told himself.

He searched for a place to practice, one that had a glass door or window or a mirror - anything that could produce a reflection.

It was already late in the afternoon when he found one. It was in front of a Beauty Salon that had glass as enclosure and a wide glass door in the middle.

“Okay, let’s start with the easiest… Polly, you got this… puppy eyes!” And he looked at the reflection of himself.

He dropped his ears and tilted his head a little and tried to project - adorable through his eyes.

He shook his head. “This is harder than I thought… I’m projecting dramatic and needy and that’s not what humans want.” He tried again - “Too fake!” and again “Too rehearsed.” then “That’s it!…I knew I could do it!” And he repeated the puppy eyes that spelled adorable.

Next… “Sit!” and he sat. He laughed. “Oh ho ho, too easy!… Oooops getting cocky there!”… “Sit, Polly!” and he sat again. “Okay, two down, two more to go.”

“Okay, we’ll leave the dancing for last ‘cause it’s just too complicated. Let’s do the retrieving.” He looked for things on the floor. “Okay, I’ll pretend that someone threw that plastic bottle for me to get.” He moved his head pretending to follow the trajectory of the throw then he pick up the bottle with his mouth placing it in front of him and his imaginary human. He practiced two times more, with a can and a crumpled piece of paper.

Now, the hard part - the dance. With this, he had to turn on the music in his head again. He tried to recall the ones he heard at the farm but couldn’t keep focus because of the loud ballads that the salon was playing.

“Maybe I can pretend like I’m doing ballet or an interpretative dance.” And then he heard that familiar tune - the reverberating sound of the bass followed by “tan- tan-tan” notes coming from a piano or maybe a guitar.  It was a tune that he always heard at the farm and a favorite of his mom.

So he turned in time with the music of REO Speedwagon’s ‘In my Dreams.’  He fell a few times as he was figuring our how he would move his left leg. He couldn’t lean on it too much because he could still feel a bit of pain when he did that.

We climb and climb…. turn

And at the top we fly … wiggle butt

Let the world go on below us … open mouth

We are lost in time … put out tongue

And I don’t know really what it means … pull back ears

All I know is that you love me … turn

In my dreams… do the rest all at the same time

He got lost in the moment that even if the song had changed, he was still dancing.

Inside the salon, someone was watching him amused.