A Dog's Courage--A Dog's Way Home Novel

by W. Bruce Cameron

  Big Kitten was now directly outside. Her shadow passed over the thick material of the dog door as she sniffed at it.

  The man shook his head in wonder. “I can’t believe you three are still hungry.”

  The man was standing, watching us eat with a satisfied smile, when Big Kitten shoved her huge face through the dog door. She instantly took it all in—her kittens and me actively chewing, a human standing over us. Her eyes met his and her lips drew back in a snarl.

  The man screamed and turned and ran to a big glass door and slid it open with a bang and stumbled out into the night. I padded over to the doorway and watched him wildly flee down a hill and into the woods, taking any chance of a car ride with him. He never looked back at me.

  Big Kitten did not come through the dog door. I don’t think she would have fit. But she did make her way around to the back of the house. Her kittens joined her outside, through that big open door, but Big Kitten still did not come in. Instead, I stood up on my back legs and managed to drag the enormous hunk of meat off the counter and onto the floor. With great effort, I managed to haul it outside and lay it at the feet of Big Kitten. I made two more trips into the home, each time returning with one of those big, heavy sides of beef. We fed right there, and it felt so good to have my stomach stretched by such a hearty meal. When we couldn’t eat any more, we still had one small piece of meat and a big hunk that was virtually untouched.

  Big Kitten picked up the enormous piece in her jaws, and Girl Kitten lifted the smaller one. Moving together, the cat pack returned to the den area where we’d spent the night. Big Kitten scuffed dirt and twigs over the large chunk of meat, her cubs watching approvingly. Then, Girl Kitten buried her smaller piece.

  It was just what cats did.

  With full bellies and a nice food source, the cat family slept well, and Big Kitten did not hunt that night. When I awoke, I decided to get a drink and trotted down to the small babbling stream nearby. Not for the first time, I admired Big Kitten’s choice of den.

  Standing there by the water, a placid wind in the trees, I felt a new peace come over me, and realized, after a time, the source of this gentle contentment: Big Kitten and the cubs were safe in their lair. I had come with them all this way and protected the kittens, but now I was free to pursue my own goals on my own time.

  I roamed somewhat aimlessly that day, searching for but not finding the scent of my boy. That night, Big Kitten again didn’t hunt, though the kittens were awake and active. I trotted off in a different direction the next morning, and this time I noticed that the cubs were tracking me, so I did not venture as far. No matter—I still could not locate Lucas on the air or find the insistent tug of the invisible leash. He was not close.

  Big Kitten hunted successfully that night, and the family fed at dawn. I watched them, thinking that my travels were hampered by the kittens. So I waited patiently with them in the den, watching Big Kitten’s eyes blink shut, and when the cubs curled up with their mother, preparing to sleep the day away, I crept away, secure in the knowledge that they were all unconscious.

  I struck out in a new direction, heading uphill toward thinning trees, and hadn’t gone far when a stirring sensation revealed something wonderful.

  Lucas was near. Somehow, he had managed to come close enough that I could feel him as strongly as I could sense when he was returning home from work.

  I knew then that, even while I was doing Go Home to Lucas, he had been doing his own version of the same thing: searching for me. My boy loved me, and he was trying to find me, guided by the opposite end of the invisible leash.

  I went to find him.

  The sun had slipped past its high point in the sky when my nose told me I was very close to my boy. It was an area of craggy, slippery rocks, and I picked my way carefully through them.

  And there he was.

  Lucas was lying with his face to the sky, his head on his backpack, his eyes closed. I could not help the joyous bark that escaped my lips as I ran clattering over the hard, rocky jumble to reach him.

  His eyes snapped open and he sat up. “Bella?”

  My boy! My Lucas!

  “It’s you! It’s really you!”

  And then I was all over Lucas, jumping on him and licking him and whining with relief. All this time, all this searching, and I had finally found my boy.

  He hugged me, his face dampening with tears as he kissed me on the nose and ears and scratched my chest with one finger.

  “I knew it. I knew we’d find you, Bella. Even with all the sightings, everyone told me you couldn’t possibly still be alive, but I knew that you were the dog who took two years to come all the way across the Rocky Mountains. I knew you were headed home, and I knew I’d find you. I knew you were close. I could feel it!”

  It felt so good to be with my boy.

  “Oh, Bella, Olivia’s going to be so happy.” Then his voice changed tone and lowered. “She went to get help, Bella.” He smiled at me ruefully. “I fell like an idiot and the rocks slid and my foot got trapped. No way to get free without help. And no signal up here, so Olivia left this morning. She should be back soon.” He regarded me thoughtfully. “How did you survive, Bella? What did you do for food?”

  I loved hearing my name being spoken by my boy.

  When Lucas stiffened, I looked in the direction he was staring and there she was: Big Kitten. She was standing in front of Girl Kitten and Boy Kitten. The cubs must have tracked me and, of course, she had felt compelled to follow them.

  I wondered if Lucas would put them in the Jeep so we could all go back to the house together. That’s what I wanted.

  After a long moment, Lucas reached for his pack and carefully pulled out his phone. He was not looking at me now; he was staring at Big Kitten. Then he turned his head slightly, glancing at his phone while he touched it with his thumbs. He cleared his throat. “Olivia…”

  His voice choked off and I sniffed him in concern. Waves of emotion were pouring off him, fear and sadness like I’d never felt from Lucas. How, I wondered, with a good dog back in his arms, could he possibly be unhappy?

  “Honey. I have so much to tell you, and I don’t know what sort of time I have. First, look.” Lucas tilted the phone and I glanced at it, but it was just a phone. “Bella found me. It’s … crazy. I don’t understand any of it. And I want you to know, our family, you and me and Bella, has given me so much happiness.”

  Lucas wiped at his eyes and I whined quietly. “Just, when you find this … just know you’re the best thing in my life, Olivia. From the moment I met you, I knew I would never love another woman. I’m so proud to be your husband. And I want to say, no matter what happens, I know you’ll be the best mother in the world to our baby.”

  He took a deep, shuddering breath. “I’m looking at a full-grown mountain lion. She’s about twenty yards away. She’s stalking me and Bella. It might be the same one from before, at the river. I’ll try to fight her off if she comes down here. But if I don’t make it … I love you, Olivia. God, I love you. I maybe didn’t tell you that every day but I thought it every minute I was awake.”

  Lucas wiped his eyes. “I’m going to stop recording, now. I wouldn’t want you to … to watch. My last thoughts will be how much you mean to me.”

  Lucas set the phone down. He looked at me, gazing into my eyes. “Something very bad is going to happen now, Bella,” he murmured.

  Thirty-five

  Lucas stretched out an arm, visibly straining, gritting his teeth until his hand reached a rock shaped like a big toy ball. He clutched it in his fist and pulled it close. “She has young with her … that makes her more dangerous than anything,” he told me quietly.

  I sniffed curiously at the rock. Lucas still hadn’t stood up, and now he was going to throw the rock for me? If he did, I would go get it because I am a good dog, but it did not look like it would be much fun to pick up with my mouth. I looked from his phone to the rock to my boy’s face.

  We remained frozen there for some t
ime. I could feel Lucas’s heart beating in his chest. His jaw flexed tightly as he breathed fast and hard. I realized then that he wasn’t just afraid, he was terrified, even though I could see nothing to alarm him. Was the fire coming back? I sniffed the air. No, and if it were, I was confident Lucas would start digging energetically with a shovel.

  This was something else.

  Girl Kitten separated herself from her mother, dodged around her brother, and edged forward curiously. Her approach looked unusually cautious, so I wagged to let her know everything was all right.

  She bounded a few more steps forward and stopped. Lucas tightened his one-armed hug, rock still clutched in his other fist. All of Girl Kitten’s attention was focused on my boy. I wondered if she was remembering how, just a few nights before, a man had thrown her scraps of meat in his house. I had been friendly with that man, and obviously I was friendly with Lucas. Was she thinking that Lucas would feed her as well? I figured there was a strong possibility that was precisely what was about to happen. I pictured how Girl Kitten would react to a t-i-i-iny piece of cheese. She probably had never tasted anything so wonderful before!

  Girl Kitten kept staring. Maybe she didn’t understand that Lucas had his arms around me to love me, not to trap me.

  Lucas was still sitting perfectly still. A seated animal, even a human, doesn’t pose much of a threat. This was my boy letting Girl Kitten know there was no reason to be afraid.

  “Bella,” he said with sudden urgency.

  I wagged.

  His arm dropped from around me. The sensation of losing his hug, when I had been craving it so much, was like a sudden gust of cold air.

  “Run,” he whispered. He gave me a small shove. “Get away. Okay? Go!” His voice rose on this last word.

  I shook my body and stood. I thought I understood what he was saying, so I skipped gaily up to Girl Kitten, who impassively watched my playful approach. She was more like her mother every day, her face less and less expressive.

  “No! No, Bella!” Lucas called in anguish.

  I was not doing anything for which “no” seemed appropriate. He wasn’t saying “Come” or “Heel,” either. Did Lucas, a boy who loved cats, think I was going to hurt Girl Kitten? To demonstrate that nothing could be further from my intentions, I closed the distance and play-bowed and wrestled with Girl Kitten, though she wasn’t fully engaged and clearly wanted only to stare at Lucas.

  I heard him breathe, “No way.…”

  Now, I hoped, Lucas would understand that this was my cat pack, that Girl Kitten and the still-reticent Boy Kitten and Big Kitten were my family. I would never hurt them. With that settled, I turned away from playing and picked my way back through the loose rocks to Lucas. This time, Girl Kitten decided it would be all right to follow me. Together, we approached my boy. His eyes went large in his head and he sat without moving while Girl Kitten sniffed his outstretched hand.

  “No way!” he whispered again.

  Humans say things all the time to dogs, but we rarely know what they mean.

  Boy Kitten was watching and when he saw Girl Kitten so close to Lucas, he took this as a sign that everything was safe and left his mother and scampered down to us, perhaps worried that his sister would be fed fresh meat and he wouldn’t. He was much more cautious than his sister had been, but he joined us, and Lucas reached out and touched Boy Kitten on the back, stroking him, a look of wonder on his face. Then he lifted his palm to his nose.

  “Skunk,” he said.

  I could see that my boy was no longer afraid. He was happy, I thought, because he understood that I had been a good dog, taking care of the kittens.

  Big Kitten was taking this all in without any visible reaction. I decided I needed to do something to let her know that my boy would not hurt her. While the cubs continued sniffing curiously at my boy, probably wondering when the raw meat would make its appearance, I trotted up to their mother, play-bowed, and then moved close, touching her with my nose. Big Kitten examined me carefully, smelling the human scent on my fur.

  The kittens had already become bored with Lucas and were wrestling with each other right in front of him. He let go of the rock he had been clutching in his fist, perhaps understanding that a cat would care even less about fetching a stone than a dog would.

  I took a few steps back to Lucas, then looked expectantly at Big Kitten, who glanced down at my boy, and then at me. She decided to move. I led her as she flowed languidly down through the broken rocks.

  Lucas’s eyes grew large again as she approached him. He caught his breath, gulping.

  Big Kitten stopped just out of reach of Lucas. She sat, staring at him for a long, long moment. Lucas stared back. I got impatient with both of them. Why didn’t Lucas call her? Why was Big Kitten holding back? I demonstrated how much I loved my boy by licking him on the cheek.

  Finally, Big Kitten’s curiosity seemed to get the better of her. She closed the remaining gap between herself and my boy. He was breathing shallowly, and did not move as she sniffed him up and down. When he raised his hand, she did not react. I saw he was trembling as he touched the top of her head.

  “Oh my God,” he whispered.

  Big Kitten was as unimpressed with Lucas as her cubs had been. She turned and strolled casually away, glancing over her shoulder in a way that I knew meant that she expected her family to accompany her.

  Lucas shook his head in wonder as the kittens scampered after their mother.

  I looked to Lucas, knowing how much he loved cats. And there were no better or more special cats than Big Kitten, Girl Kitten, and Boy Kitten. He should call them back. If necessary, he could even take Big Kitten in a tight hug so she’d understand she needed to remain here with us, because I certainly wasn’t about to abandon my boy.

  When Big Kitten reached the top of the jumble of rocks, she paused and twisted around to peer at me, and I knew what she wanted. She expected me to follow the family. I studied my boy and saw no sign he was willing to do anything but let my cat pack go.

  I left his side and clawed my way up through the uneven terrain until I reached Big Kitten. She drove the top of her head into my shoulder, knocking me back a little. Then I lowered my nose to Girl Kitten and Boy Kitten, who were playing and oblivious to what was happening.

  But I knew.

  This is goodbye, Big Kitten. You are a good mother cat. Your cubs need to be with you. But I am a dog. Dogs need to be with people.

  The cats moved off, and I watched them go. I recalled saying goodbye to Big Kitten a long time ago, when she sat on a rock and watched me return to Lucas. Now it was I who sat on the rock, watching them, and every time Big Kitten turned back to look, I wagged my tail a little.

  At one point, Girl Kitten stopped and stared at me, confused. Why wasn’t I with them? What was I doing?

  I had been the other-mother cat for a long while, but the kittens were already starting to watch their real mother more carefully, to move like she did, and to bury their perfectly good dinners in dirt. They had followed me to meet two humans, but Lucas hadn’t offered any meat, and ultimately sat pointlessly in the rocks.

  Girl Kitten was a good kitten and would remain with her mother, now.

  And that is exactly what happened. Big Kitten and Boy Kitten continued to walk away, and Girl Kitten, after taking a few hesitant steps in my direction, made the right decision. She turned and scampered after her mother.

  At the top of the trail, where the path twisted and vanished behind big boulders, Big Kitten paused and glanced back for one last look. Both cubs sat at her feet and regarded me solemnly. We all shared a long, lingering moment until they turned and disappeared from sight.

  Wagging, I trotted back to my boy. I could smell sweat on his skin, and he was shaking his head at me.

  “Is that how you survived?” Lucas put his hand out to touch me and I smelled Big Kitten and stinky Boy Kitten on his palm. “You lived with a family of mountain lions? How is that even possible?”

  After a w
hile, Lucas relaxed. I did not understand why he didn’t stand up, why we didn’t go for a walk or do something more interesting than sit there, but he seemed to want to remain right where he had been the whole time, so I lay down and put my head in his lap.

  Suddenly, he stirred. “I know what you want.”

  I sat up and watched alertly as he rummaged around inside his backpack. There was a delightful crinkling sound and then he brought out a morsel so pungent and wonderful I immediately began to drool.

  “Bella? Do you want a t-i-i-iny piece of cheese?” He extended his fingers and I delicately pulled the delicious cheese from between his fingers.

  T-i-i-iny piece of cheese meant that Lucas loved me.

  The treats didn’t stop there. He pulled out another packet and opened it. “I’ve been carrying around dog food for just this moment.” He unfolded a bowl and poured the contents into it. I ate greedily; it had been so long since I’d had real dog food.

  I was happy.

  Lucas and I had both fallen asleep when the air was suddenly split with a heavy thumping. Lucas looked up into the sky, the source of the noise, while I nudged him and tried to crawl into his lap for reassurance. I had felt percussions like this before, and associated them with a very bad time under wet blankets.

  “There’s the helicopter. Here they come.”

  A short time later I saw someone come around a bend in a trail and heard the most wonderful sound: “Bella!”

  Olivia.

  I ran to her, at first carefully, because I was still in the jumble of rocks, and then, on stable ground, I galloped toward her as she dashed to me. I leapt up to give her kisses on her face and she sank to her knees and kissed me back. “My God, this is impossible! You are so amazing! How did you find him, Bella? You are the best dog in the world!”

  There were two men and a woman with Olivia. They seemed nice, and I wagged at them. They were carrying big boxes. When they reached Lucas, they all touched hands with him, and then set about working with chains and long metal bars.