The Dog Whose Leg Could Not Be Bent (Love Beyond Flaws)

“Cornelio!”  Mr. Ricky Santos called. Mr. Ricky Santos was a dog breeder. He had been breeding dogs for years. He had amassed large sums of money just from breeding dogs. One would think that one had to really have a heart for animals to become a breeder, but apparently, such was not the case for this guy. “Yes, Mr. Santos!” Cornelio came running all sweaty from all the cleaning he’s been doing practically the whole day. Cornelio was Cornelio Junior actually. He’s young at only 16 years old, tall but not muscular unlike his father, Cornelio, Senior. He was taking over his father’s duty as caretaker of the animals. Cornelio Senior got sick months ago and had not since come back to Mr. Santos’ farm. “Are all the kennels clean?” Mr. Santos said in his usual raspy voice, left hand on his waist and his right-hand fingers running along his moustache. “Almost done, Sir!” “Make sure, they’re all ready for to

“Where does this energy come from?” Polly asked himself. “Hours ago, I was lying helpless waiting for death and now?… Wow!” There were times when he felt so confident about himself. He walked with a swagger to the beat of the music in his head. His mother liked it when he walked like that. She thought that walk made him even cuter. The song in his head was Roam by the B-52s, another band from the 80s. If there was one thing good about Mr. Santos, it’s the music that he played in the farm. He remembered seeing everyone’s head bobbing to this tune, much like those toy dogs in people’s cars. Sometimes he imagined himself wearing sunglasses as he danced to this. Boy Mercury shooting through every degreeOh girl dancing down those dirty and dusty trailsTake it hip to hip, rocket through the wildernessAround the world the trip begins with a kiss

It’s been almost a week that he’s out in the streets but it felt longer. It was starting to feel like fulfilling his first mission - to eat, was more difficult than he had originally expected. Of course, that’s discounting the bits and pieces of food he would find on the street - the ones covered with all sorts of dirt or the ones left at the bottom of a can that’s just so difficult to reach no matter how much he extends his tongue. Polly never noticed how far he had gone until from out of nowhere, a pellet fell in front of him. He was looking at it at the corner of his eyes and was fighting himself not to get close to it but it was just too tempting. “It smelled like chicken…no, no… it smelled like pig meat… no, wait, it’s turkey! Wow, turkey? Where did that come from?” He moved a step closer avoiding not to look at it directly. For a while he thought he was hallucinating and then he jumped onto that piece covering it with his paws. He teased himself by loo

“Wow! That was fun!”  Polly said followed by deep long breaths as he stood looking at his reflection through the glass enclosure of the salon. He was eye to eye with himself, quietly asking his reflection whether the effort was worth it. Although deep inside he knew the answer did not lie on the image before him. “Hey, Reggie, what are you looking at?” Sonny noticing Reggie’s amusement. Sonny and Reggie were both hairdressers at Charlie’s Beauty Salon and Spa. They were taking their lunch at the cafe just beside their salon. They were seated by the window where they had a view of the busy street and of the passers-by. Reggie’s attention was not on the street nor on the passers-by, it was focused on this tiny dog that looked sick and dirty. The dog wasn’t just sitting around waiting for mercy, it was twirling in front of their salon many times as if dancing to the music. The owners of the salon placed two large speakers just outside the

It was quite odd that Reggie went home the previous day looking and acting differently. He was unusually quiet and only managed a forced smile and a raised pair of eyebrows when he bumped into the family next door. On regular days, he would go home tired from more than eight hours of work but he still found time to crack jokes…yesterday, he did not. “Blag! Blag! Blag!” now there were more people knocking, kicking, and banging the door calling, “Reggie! Reggie!” the sound of their voices panicked. Their reaction was understandable. It was 10:00 in the morning. Reggie was supposed to be at work by now and he was not. He was still in bed sound asleep. Polly slept late the night before. Something wasn’t quite right with his human. After feeding him, Reggie went straight to bed without taking his usual late night stick of cigarette or a cup of coffee. Polly would sleep on the doormat by the foot of the bed. From there, he could hear