GET ME OUT OF HERE! by Forest Ostrander (book club recommendations .txt) 📕

I was like any other house hold pet, I had a loving family, a warm place to sleep and food in my belly. My owners took excellent care of me and even took me to the groomers once a week for a long bath and a trim of my nice, soft fur. They brush my teeth there and even send me home with a treat and a pretty bow on one ear, I even had a seat all to myself by the window of the car just for me! I love my life but everything I knew and loved ended on that one fateful day when my house folk left and never came back. I spent a week on my own, always waiting by the door for their return but they never came, eventually, a uniformed person who my folks told me was an officer came in and found me, I was a mess and malnourished. They took me and fed me and I was soon adopted back out! My new home was fairly nice, although they never treated me with as much love as my other family, I still couldn't really complain. Then that too all changed when a bunch of men came by and bought me, my new family gave me up without a single fight! They watched as I was roughly handled and shoved into a metal cage in the back of their van and the last glimpse I had of them before the door closed was that of utter realize that I was gone, then blackness.

When I woke up, I looked around to see myself in a small cage with other dogs around me. There were little dogs, big dogs, medium dogs and even those toy kind of dogs! They were all shapes and colors but they looked worse than me. One of the dogs in my cage walked up to me and she said "You are a German shepherd so you will be able to last a bit longer than the rest of us," I looked at her confused and said "The rest of us? Where exactly are we?"
"You are at a place where no one returns or sees the light of day or the loving eyes of a human again" a Saint Bernard said. I looked at them terrified, where on earth was I?! A small dog looked at me and she said "What is your name?" I look down at the Shitzu and said "My name is Forest, what's yours?" and she said "Missy, I was a house owned dog to once, until my folks couldn't take care of me anymore and these men came up and bought me off of them," I looked at her shocked, that was almost like my situation, only my new family didn't even care. I stood there in silence when I finally heard a door open and a man came in and walked up to one of the cages, I watched as he roughly laced a leash over a Husky's neck and dragged him away violently and another dog said "There goes Bruce." I looked at the dog that spoke, "Where is he going?" I asked, he looked at me and said "To the gutter place" I watched as the Husky was dragged off behind a door and after a while never came back out and the same dog said "Once you go through that door there, you might as well just say goodbye to your life, some of us go faster than others," now I was beginning to freak, where did they go exactly? I knew by the words that the dogs that walk through that door are killed, but where do they go then? Surely no one out there buy's dog meat. A Chihuahua said from the cage opposite of me, "What's your story?" I looked at him and said "Well, my old house folk disappeared on me, they were an elderly couple and they never came back, I spent a week on my own waiting for them but no one came to even check on me, then a uniformed officer came and took me away. They fed me and adopted me out, my new house folk hardly ever showed me any love or attention and when the men came they gladly sent me away with them," every dog was now nodding as if it was nothing new and a Toy Poodle said "I see, that is how most of us go here, others were either sold to this place for an expensive price or they are abandoned or taken off of the streets, you were one of the lucky ones though to have a kind family before your old one, not many of us get that chance," I frowned and said "Has anyone ever tried to escape?" I had hoped that if one of us did try and managed to get away than that must mean that the rest of us could get out of here too, but another Husky shook his head and said "Once you do get out of the cage, they immediately place you in line to the gutter's place, those who try to escape are killed instantly," I frowned again, well there goes my escape idea. The man came back out of the room with a bloody leash and he washed the fresh blood off and hung it back up for another use, I flinched when he bent down in front of me and said "You will make a fine meal for someone there doggie, but the boss says you will be last so enjoy your stay," he stood up and laughed, a booming sound that made my ears ring and bounced off of the walls, he headed back out and I said to the other dogs "Well this isn't right, there has to be some way for us to get out of here!" but the dogs looked at me like I was crazy, and quite frankly, hearing the stories that they told me made me sound like I WAS

Crazy. I laid down and whimpered a little, wishing I was back at my house and that my folks never left, if they knew where I was now they would have surely came to get me, but then what about the others? I couldn't leave them here to face the same fate as Bruce did. I was now torn and scared on what to do, I knew the longer I stayed in this place of death, the sooner I would meet the same fate as the ones around me and who went before us all.

Publication Date: 02-03-2012

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