Marci sat staring out at the crowd through the window. She was cute, adorable even, but she didn’t know that. She could see people, middle aged men and woman and young people just starting a family, their little children pointing at her and smiling. Sounds came from their voices but they were unlike anything she heard before. What might the sounds mean? Marci was confused, and very frightened.

Her mother had been taken away from her, was it yesterday? She wasn’t sure. She was hungry too, but could find nothing on the paper covered floor that she might be able to eat. She wasn’t alone. She had two playmates that looked just like her, one white the other black like her, sharing her crowded space.  The white one was sleeping. The black one seemed to be drinking water from a tube that was attached to a bottle.

A woman walked up behind her and reached down and picked her up. She trembled now. The woman was large and her hands were cold. Marci watched as the woman extended her arms, pushing her toward the window and closer to the people. The woman holding her made sounds and the people on the other side of the window nodded their heads and pointed. She carried Marci out into the open where the people stood. A man took Marci from the woman and held her up and looked at her as if he expected Marci to speak. His hands were cold too.

The man lowered Marci and let two smaller people pet her. They made higher pitched sounds. Then one of the small people squeezed her leg. Marci yelped. It hurt something awful. The man handed Marci back to the woman and shook his head no. Marci was glad he let go of her. She smelled something she had never smelled before, but she understood, this was not a man who could be her friend.

For the next several days, Marci went through the same routine. People came and went. Some just looked at her. A few picked her up and snuggled her which she liked. One woman took her for a walk. Marci wanted to run, but every time she tried something tied around her neck held her back. She tried to run anyway until the woman yanked her neck with whatever was tied to it. That hurt.

When it got dark, she was left alone. In fact, she was all alone now because people came and took away the white one and the other black one. Sounds were clearer now, but still meaningless. Before her friends left, she heard the word, Scottie a lot. She was lonely. People seemed to notice something about Marci that made them put her back. Two sounds she heard repeated almost every time someone handed her back to the woman was hip dysplasia. Whatever that was it hurt when it was touched.

After a week in the space with windows looking outdoors, Marci was moved to a tiny space that wasn’t nearly as light. She didn’t know enough to call it what it was, a cage. During that week, Marci grew depressed. People weren’t asking to see her anymore. She also noticed that every day, friends in cages next to hers disappeared. It wasn’t like it had been with her black and white friends who looked just like her, where someone held them and carried them out of the store. Her new neighbors were just gone, usually at the end of the day a man came around and took them.

Then one afternoon, when Marci was sure she would disappear that very night, the woman who used to show her to people came and got her. A man and a woman pointed at Marci and smiled. The woman held her up and pointed to the spot that hurt. Her hands were warm and it felt so good. There was a lot of talk before the man and woman took her out of the store. The woman held her closely. They got into a rectangular box. When it moved, Marci started shaking, frightened again. The woman made soft noises and petted her. That felt good and she relaxed.

They arrived at a big place that looked nothing like the store. The couple walked around to the back and put her down in a large space. It was the first time she ever saw or felt grass. She took a few tentative steps, afraid something would yank her neck. But that didn’t happen. She started running and it felt wonderful. She ran and ran, sometimes just in circles. There was plenty of food to eat and water to drink and a large, soft pillow to sleep on.

Over and over again she kept hearing the same word, Marci. In no time at all, she understood its meaning of a word. She was Marci.

She was home.