The big test.

It seems I am to be allowed to join warrior school. There is talk of a course. This is a challenge.

MHM is going to make me into a warrior, to hunt by his side, to catch desperate and bad people. This is a good image I have and it makes it easier to understand. I am also confused because I will hunt for good people, for those who are lost and are weak. In my world these lost and weak would not survive. I must hunt for them so they can survive.

MHM is going to teach me what I have to do, teach me what I need to know to be a warrior. I will be able to hunt for him. I will be able to hunt with him using my skills.

I have heard him talk to the one known as ‘the boss’. He has told this ‘boss’ that I can be a warrior, how I can hunt, how I protect myself and how I respect MHM.

MHM has respect for the one known as ‘boss’. I have seen this ‘boss’ and he does not have the hands of a warrior or a hunter. He is well groomed and smells like a stranger. He has no status yet is respected by other humans at the big den. You humans have strange rituals. As canines you have to earn your respect and status. You win it and you keep it, end of chat.

It will not be easy. I cannot yet understand how I am allowed to hunt but am not allowed to kill the things I hunt.  I cannot yet understand that I can attack those who threaten me, who threaten MHM or other humans but I must not attack others who offer threats that are false. I can bring down those who run away that MHM cannot catch. This is what I like best of all.

I am a hunter, a warrior, this is what I was born to do.  

But as you humans would say, “wish me luck”.

Important new rules.

MHM has been teaching me new things.

I have new rules that must be strictly obeyed. If I fail to obey he chastises me. This is not nice. He does not try to hurt me like the Alphas but I just know when MHM is not happy with me. If I obey I get to ‘play’ as MHM calls it. I call it killing. If I learn quickly I get to do this and I like it. I do not like it when MHM is not happy with me, I like to please him, he is always pleased with what I do. He is patient and always explains things to me so I understand.

Today we have been hunting again. I like this. I can follow a scent on the ground. I am able to distinguish this from other scents, I follow it but MHM holds onto a piece of rope fastened to some straps around my body. When I follow the scent I always find some sacking, folded up like the size of a rabbit, I can kill this, I always do. This is great, this is what I was born to do.

We also did another sort of hunting, for other humans. MHM talks to them and they go off to hide. MHM shouts and then sends me to find them. I always do. This is easy. I cannot kill them, although I have hunted them. I must shout to tell MHM I have found them. He doesn’t kill them either, he also shouts at them, we both shout at them. Then the human throws me a ball which I like to chew on before we play the chase game with it. This is great fun.

Also MHM gets other humans to threaten me. I can tell this because of the looks on their faces. I warn them but they still threaten me. I try to bite them to show them I am the warrior who they should not disrespect but MHM does not allow me to get close enough. This is frustrating. I think this might be some sort of test.

Sometimes MHM lets me bite the humans after they threaten me. Sometimes MHM lets me chase and drag down the humans who run away because he cannot catch them. This is the thing I like the best. I cannot kill them but just hold them until MHM gets there and then I must let them go. I watch in case they try to run away again. This I really, really like.

We do this sort of this everyday. I know I will like it here. I am a warrior. I will prove myself one day.

I have heard MHM talking into his hand. I have pleased him. He wants to make a warrior out of me, I have what it takes. He has to get something signed. I will never see the Alphas again. That is good. I have some more, harder tests ahead of me.

I will be a warrior.

My New Human Master.

This stranger who took me from the Alphas has taken me to a new place. A place full of beasts, in the other dens on each side of me there are other canines who continually challenge me, I must be strong. It seems that this pack is full of hard cases. I must prove myself. This is warrior school. There is no place here for weak and cowardly canines.

Already we have been out into the wild countryside, I have been asked to show how I can hunt. It-is difficult but I am learning quickly. My new human master is pleased with what I can do. He tells me. I just know we are going to get on.

The beast I met when I was taken from my old pack is not as I first feared. He is an old, experienced warrior. I will learn things from him. I must know my place, until I have proved myself. He has told that it will be fine but never, ever take his food. Never, ever think about taking his food. He will be very unhappy about these things. He has signs of battle, he is a formidable beast. I have respect for his status within this new pack.

Right now I am showing how I can hunt on the ground following the scent of humans as well as searching for humans by following their scent on the wind. I cannot kill, but I can hunt. This is good, apparently. At last I can do what I am told to do from within, what drives me from inside, in my mind. This is why I am here, to be a hunter, a warrior, to serve my new human master.

I’ve heard the jangle noise that means we are going out to hunt again. I think I am going to like this, a lot. I am learning fast, I have to.

A stranger came.

A stranger came today. This followed the alphas talking into their hands, again. They do this a lot. They must be mad.

This stranger arrived, he smelt of canines. He must have been from another territory. He has his own pack, he is another alpha.  He smelt, interesting. He might have come to take over the alpha’s territory. I will understand this smell later.

The Alphas have had people like this in their territory before. This one is different. He looks the same but smells different. He is interesting and I need to show him respect. He watches me and talks to me without speaking. He understands a lot more than the alphas understand. He wants to take me away. I just know things will be better.

But first……………….but first I have to enter the metal box that contains the beast. The beast is so very much not happy. I have not yet earned the right to enter the metal box but this new human assures me that everything will be OK, despite the beast. Luckily for me the beast has its own den inside the metal box and there is another for me.  I feel sure I could have taken the beast even though he looks tough. I will save that for another day and he will respect me.

After our travel I am taken to a line of dens. Each den has a beast inside. There are a lot of strong and dominant canines. This must be a test. The human who brought me seems to know a lot so I should watch him and find out more about him.

I can see him with the beast from the metal box in the area surrounded by the high fence. The beast submits to him, he must be the alpha. The beast is a lot older than I first imagined. Looks like he is a strong and capable canine.  He would be a worthy adversary. I have already learned something.  Perhaps this is where warriors are trained ?

I must rest as tomorrow will be important. 

Finding my feet.

I am beginning to understand that the characters within my new pack are strange and inconsistent. I am not yet understanding how the humans work as everything is constantly changing. How you humans survive is beyond me. Why do you shout all the time ? This is not in the best instincts of survival. You should work together.

The small humans now like me, I think, some of the time at least. They let me hunt as we play our play games where I find things they throw away. I find these every time. I bring them back and they are pleased, they greet me in a good manner and I feel I now belong. But it-is not like this all the time as they constantly change.

I investigate my world with my nose. I taste things with my mouth and somethings I like the feel of, I like to practice my kills and can bite, rip and tear. I will be a good hunter when I get bigger.

The Alphas now seem to have little time for me. I must be of very low status. I warn them when intruders come to the den. They like this, it pleases them but still it confuses me. Why do they like it when I warn of intruders but they chastise me when they allow the intruders into the den. More confusion. I warn them, they are happy with this but then they seem not to like the warnings and chastise me.

I greet the other humans that the Alphas let into the den but they also chastise me for greeting them. They do not greet like canines do. They have strange rituals. They do not mouth, they show confusing signs of dominance, sometimes they are Alpha, sometimes they are Beta, sometimes they are low ranking, perhaps this is some sort of game, or a test. There is some confusion with all of this. Perhaps they want to me to act like a human ? How strange, I thought they were acting like canines. How wrong I am.

I am now bigger than the small humans. They no longer like to practise chasing and dragging down the prey. They like to chase but when we practice our kills they shout at the Alphas and then I get put into the dark hole. At least it-is quiet there, and warm. I am beginning to feel that the pack need some firm leadership to continue, the pack needs rules, we do not seem to have any, just lots of shouting.

The Alphas have brought another stranger into the den, I think it-is something called a feline. They say it is a tigger, it-is not friendly. It has ideas above its station. I just know it will cause trouble. It does not like to be greeted, the small humans play the throwing and pulling game with the tigger, perhaps as it-is small. Nobody seems to know I am here. They behave in a strange way, we are not a pack anymore. But we were never a pack. I just know I will not like the tigger

I want to dig up mice and rats, I want to hunt and chase things. The humans want to shout at each other, they want to shout at me but I don’t understand what I have done wrong.  The small humans now have shiny things in their ears, this must make them hear better. I have also heard the Alphas talking into their hands, this is really strange. I understand that someone is coming to take me away. For what ? I do not know.  

My new home.

This growing up malarkey is not all cracked up to be. You humans are so confusing. One minute everything is fine. I do something, often at your request, the next time you want something completely different. It is not easy to know what you want or what you expect of me.

At the new den Dean, the alpha male, thinks he is the dominant one. The marks on his arms clearly have some form of ritual significance. Sometimes the rest of the pack show him respect. Sometimes the alpha female, know as Charmain, also behaves like she is the alpha male.

To make things worse Dean shows clear signs of submission and I wonder who is in charge. To make matters even worse the small humans, who I understand are from various small litters, behave in terrible ways. They have no respect at all for the alphas and really push things to the limit. Sometimes they too appear to have a form of misplaced dominance. Clearly nothing in this human world is consistent or makes any sense. They have ideas way above their station and need to be put into their place within the pack hierarchy. They have earned no status or respect at all yet they are accorded almost dominant adult status. The alphas will learn to regret this later I fear.

We have some interesting things to chase, at last. There are some small round soft items that the small humans try to hide by throwing them in the garden. They are not much good at this because I always, always find them.

We play the kill game with one of the alphas foot covers. I like this because I am able to develop my jaw muscles and improve my bite. The alphas have lots of these foot covers that they put onto their feet before they leave the den. Again another strange human ritual I suppose. I may have a high enough status to have my own foot covers one day.

I have found that there is food in the den in a secret store. The small humans keep them in their small dens. I cannot get them as they are within the box of bars. I have chased them round the box of bars but the small humans are not pleased with this. They want to keep them for themselves. I believe them to be very tasty even though no more than a mouthful. They call them jerbahs. I call them breakfast. I can smell them from anywhere in the den. Charmain does not like them so I might be in with a chance.

I have been in trouble again. After we were playing kill the foot cover I found another foot cover by the den entry hole. I brought it to the Dean, the alpha male but the alpha female started to shout again.  The small thin limb was bitten off, I thought I had done well. I managed to avoid the sharp spike on the bottom. This is nasty, you could lose an eye if you are not careful.  They have skin but no internal bits. These are the best. Clearly she who must be obeyed sometimes was not impressed. 

I just cannot understand the moods of the female. Only the other day I was helping with the small plants placed into holes dug into the ground. I am able to dig very well. You have to when you are after rats or rabbits. The female half buried the plants in the ground and just left them there. If she was trying to hide them she did a terrible job. I pulled them up and brought them all to the back entrance to the den. The bottoms were really sweet so I ate all of them as the humans did not want them. After all they had tried to bury them and didn’t do that properly. Charmain went off into one of her squawking rages again, started shouting at me and throwing things, even one of the foot covers. I took this back but it did not please her at all. I am confused, I do not understand what they want of me. They will not treat me like this soon because I will be big. I will become the alpha and begin to get some order around the place. That will have to wait until at least tomorrow. 

They have changed my name. I am no longer Moses. Thank the god of canines for that. I am now digger. Now that is more the name of a young warrior. Moses sucks. Now digger, I could really do something with this.

I came from somewhere else.

I was taken, taken from my brothers and sisters on a sunny and warm day when the sun was high in the sky. We had been rolling about, wrestling in the pen out on the grass. I like the smell of grass. Four of them had pinned me down, one had me by the throat, another had one of my ears in her mouth, we had fun. we learnt how we had to catch our food. I always managed to get away no matter how many of then tried to keep me down on my back. I was determined, I was fearless. Those were good days. I was a warrior.

The human known as Charmain took me from my brothers and sisters. She liked me because I was black. The other human known as Dean liked me because I had what he called ‘spirit’. We left, the female carried me away. She stank, she wore shiny things, we would not get on. I am a warrior.

We rode in a metal box the humans call a car. I could not see, not anything, just feel the vibrations and shaking of the movement. The female kept trying to kiss my face. I tried to keep her away but I had to bite her face to teach her a lesson. I am right, we would not get on. If only I was bigger, she would then understand. She threw me down onto the floor. Perhaps I am not a warrior.

After what seems like an eternity the metal box stops and we get out. The male known as Dean carries me, he also has shiny things, in his nose, in his ears, humans are strange. He has markings on his arms. He must be a leader.

We go into the den of the humans. They have three small humans. One screams a lot, the others scream at the one who screams a lot. Charmain shouts at the ones who scream at the one who screams a lot. Itis not a nice place. These are sad memories. My brothers and sisters are gone, forever. Dean just looks at me. He seems to like me biting on his fingers, at last some fun. My first thoughts are wrong. The human called Dean is not the leader, in the den Charmain is the leader. This is confusing.

I do not like it here. They want to call me Moses. What does this mean ? I do not like it.

What sort of name is that, for a dog ?  For any dog ?  For a young warrior. I just know this will not last.

I have nowhere to stalk or hunt, no where to ambush, to practice my ‘stuff’. I cannot practice chasing, ambush, even digging for rats, mice or rabbits. The humans do not like this. Charmain does not like me. I have heard her say this to Dean. The small humans say things I do not understand, sometimes they shout when they are not screaming. They seem to be in charge of the large humans. This is not as it should be, I am confused. I wish I was back with my brothers and sisters. 

Darkness holds no fears.

We have been out in the dark, walking around the dark streets of the place where the humans do this thing called work. I do not fully understand this principle.

MHM, as I will refer to my human master, watches me for signs. MHM cannot hear the things I can hear, cannot smell the things I can smell nor see the things I can see. Especially at night. This is my time.

Nearby I catch the breeze from the west, it carries the sweat of another human. I can hear panting as the human is clearly running. It is not unusual to hear running in the darkness. Perhaps the human is being stalked by another human, who knows ?

MHM looks at me and makes that familiar grunt. It seems that I have done something pleasing. I must investigate the sweat from the running human. We leave the hard surface surrounded by the large square boxes that hold the humans and seek cover of the nearby fauna, an ideal location for an ambush, the smell of the sweat from the running human is getting distant. Itis male, there is a strange smell along with the sweat, as if trying to disguise it, MHM tells me of tobacco but I do not understand this disguise. It does not work. We emerge from our ambush location and I hear the sounds from MHM’s wire that goes into his ear. The muffled sounds appear urgent as we begin to run to the south before turning west and I get another whiff of the sweat from the running human, he is close.

We seek more cover, another ambush perhaps. I can hear rustling but the over riding smell of fear within the aroma of sweat. This is prey, I hope the hunt continues. The voices from the cable in the ear of MHM seem confused, excited, there is a high state of arousal. The other humans are near, they are hunting too. I hope I get there first.

We come out from our place, from cover. Three of the humans MHM speaks to are close but they do not know how to hunt. They are yards away but they seem unaware that the prey is so close, how can this be.

MHM gets my by the side, shouts loud into the night. Why does this always happen ? I can do this without all this shouting. MHM is telling the prey I will come. This is not fair.

I am released and follow the smell for a short distance and bingo, I have found what I seek.  I begin to shout at the sweaty human. I have been told I must shout, to let MHM know that I have found what we seek.

I shout at the sweaty male human that if he tries to kick me, punch me or run away from MHM and I, he is likely to suffer pain. I show him my teeth, they are impressive, even by my standards.

The human shows fear. This is not usual as humans are the masters. Never mind. I repeat my message and show him my teeth again and continue to shout. MHM joins me and we both shout at the sweaty human. There is a funny smell. This must be where he marks his territory. We are joined by some of MHM’s friends. They are pleased to have found the sweaty human. They take him away. MHM is pleased with me and tells me so.

Together we are a great team, MHM tells me that as well. Time to chase that ball again, but not before this.

I go to where the sweaty human left that funny smell.

I piss on it as well. It becomes part of my territory now.