Butch the Renegade Alsatian has been kidnapped, stolen, and now he’s a prisoner at the Fight Farm.
Artwork – The Dog Fight by Thomas Rowlandson.
Butch’s Big Adventure: Part 3:
That night I was so unhappy.
The man locked me in the cage next to mad Chopper, and all night he whimpered and yelped in his sleep. Then he’d wake up shouting “I’LL KILL YOU, I’LL KILL YOU.”
Amazon slept on the ground in front of his cage and when he cried, she soothed. “Shhhh now, shhhhh. It’s alright Chopper, I’m here. Good dog, good boy.” It broke my heart.
Next day the master came to feed us. I kept my head down, kept quiet, did what he told me to. He let me out of the cage and into the yard with Amazon, Cain and Abel. Chopper stays in his cage. We couldn’t leave the yard though.
I spent the day talking with my new friends. Turns out Cain and Abel have never been outside the yard. Not ever. Except for the ‘run’ which is fenced in, and to the shed, to fight. Cain and Abel were brothers, born here. No one knows what happened to their mother. She got old and the master took her away.
Amazon had another life before here. She told me about when she was a puppy, on a farm with other Alsatians. She had lots of brothers and sisters and all they did was play. It sounded lovely. But then the master bought her and she’s been in this prison ever since.
Day by day I settled into the routine of the place. It was boring and you had to be very careful around the master who always had his electric stick with him. We were fed once a day at sunset and it was good fresh meat. Kangaroo. We also got a bone each in the morning, after running. Good bones with marrow, if you could get them open.
Every morning the master let us into the run. As soon as he opened the gate we were off, round and round the paddock we’d go. You’d get the hot stick if you didn’t, but we wanted to anyway. We ran as a pack, Chopper too. He was like a puppy then. Totally insane still, but not dangerous. Until the master locked him up again. Then he was back to crazy, shouting “I’LL KILL YOU, I’LL KILL YOU” if we got too close to his cage.
Amazon told me about the fights, that everyone had to fight and I would too. You could get killed, but usually they stopped a fight before then because fighting dogs were valuable. Other men would bring their dogs, and they would bet on who would win. Sometimes someone would bring a really vicious dog to go up against Chopper. These were death matches, and Chopper killed them all. The master made a lot of money with Chopper.
Amazon taught me how to fight, how to feint, how to stay low and come up at the neck, how to flip a dog with your head. She showed me how to grip the throat so it was too dangerous for your opponent to move. She said you could end a bout quickly that way and save both of you from further injury. Cain told me Amazon always wins. He was clearly very proud of her.
Time dragged on. I was so unhappy, especially at night. Cain and Abel lay together and slept just fine. They were well adjusted, sane happy dogs, in spite of this awful place. Amazon slept in front of Choppers cage and in the middle of the night, I’d hear her telling him stories. I’d lay awake and remember my old life. I missed my old friends so much. I’d imagine how it would be if we were free, and we’d all go home and Neil and Mark and Eva would look after us. And we’d be one pack – Dibby and Maggie Dog, Amazon, Abel and Cain. And Chopper too. We’d be like a wolf pack and Amazon would be my mate and we’d have beautiful puppies and everyone would play with them.
I’d been there for a moon cycle, and next full moon was to be a fight night. The day before the fights people started coming to see us. The men checked us out, talking about other fights and other dogs and who could beat who.They went up to Chopper and banged on his cage. It drove the poor bugger insane and they laughed at him. I hated them. I imagined Chopper breaking out and killing them all.
Some people set up tents, and that night there was lots of drinking and noise. In the early hours of the morning, it grew quiet. I was trying to sleep when in the moonlight I saw Amazon over at the fence. There were some people there. They were talking quietly, and one them reached through and touched Amazon. That was strange, no one ever did that, we didn’t want them to. So I went over.
There were two men and a woman. The woman was stroking Amazon’s neck. She smiled at me. “Hello there Butch. How are you this fine night?”
What? I looked to Amazon. “How does she know my name?”
“Because Amazon just told me,” the woman said.
Confused, I looked to Amazon. She laughed, “She can hear you Butch.”
“That’s right handsome.” The lady said.
She introduced herself as Marla and her two friends were Rick and Ben. She spoke directly to my mind, the way all animals talk. With Neil, I knew he couldn’t hear me so I taught him my body language. All dogs can understand human if they want to, but this Marla was the first human I ever met who could hear and speak dog the way we do.
“We have much to talk about my loves” said Marla. “First though, we have work to do”.
She reached into her bag and pulled out a pair of wire cutters.
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To be continued.