Lola Learns to Play

Lola stared across the yard at Ruckus and London.  That little mean Chihuahua had already rejected her again, whipping his fluffy little tail at Lola, and then barking and hissing in her face.  It was mean.  The Chihuahua:  Mean.

She approached Ruckus, the Cairn Terrier.  Her tail did not go between her legs.  She jumped on him!  They were almost equal size now, so fast!  The big Husky, London, ran over and knocked Lola on her back and ran his huge tongue all over Lola's face.  Lola paused, then licked him all over his mouth.  It seemed like the right thing to do.

But there was a new dog in the yard.  Lola walked up to it, cautiously.  It was unusual looking.  It had a fluffy fur-like coat, but had strange skinny legs and a weird looking mouth.  It had a red, flesh Mohawk.  Maybe it was related to the Chihuahua.  Lola stuck her nose in its butt.  The thing ran away.  Well, sort of flew.

Lola heard the human ladies snickering.
"She thinks the chicken is a dog!".
Lola didn't care.  They could laugh all they wanted.  To each his own.  Man, she hadn't even been on the planet three months.  There was a lot to figure out.

Like the Wardrobe.  In the back of her main human lady's yard, the human lady without the braids, the one she lived with now with the arms.  She would let Lola explore the yard, while hovering close by.  The Wardrobe was a huge, cavernous thing, with arched branches and big green leaves accented by bright flowers as large as Lola's head.  She would enter it, slowly and stoically, tail stretched out and head up high.  It was shady in there.  The branches and leaves formed a cave that Lola would walk through slowly.  Sometimes she would dart back out.

But one day, she emerged on the other side.  Into the other world.

Painted Feathers in her Hair

"Her name was Lola, she was a puppy...."  Lola liked it when the lady sang to her while they walked to school.  Or, while Lola rode to school in the arms of the human. 

She also loved the tall, soft thing that the humans slept on.  Oh, so luxurious.  And thick.  Lola would carefully place her nose on the human lady's arm and fall asleep.  Sometimes she would put it in the back of the human man's neck.  She liked his fur.  So wiry and only covering the head.   In the mornings, it was so exciting to see them.  She jumped all over, diving her face and her nose into their fur, their long head fur, so different from the fur that covered Lola's body.  A new day had begun!  She pounced on them. It was all good.  But really, she didn't care if they were in the tall soft thing or not.  She would lay in it alone at times, if the human lady lifted her up their in the arms.  It was so nice.  Oh, so nice.

"Who's that puppy???!!" the lady sang, doing weird back up vocals at the same time.  "Wonderful puppy," the lady human said in a low voice.  "Who's that puppy.....".  The arms were fun.  And always a new song.  

There was another interesting thing. Lola loved it.  It was white and shiny and it opened.  The humans put the things they ate off of in it and water sprayed.  Lola licked it, whether the door was open or closed.  It was amazing.

But, there was something else.  Something awful and menacing across from the lovely white shiny thing.  It was silver and made a frightening, clunking noise.  Randomly.  A hose sound followed it.  It was terrifying.  Now and then, the humans would open that door and pull some solid, cold, white thing out of there, out of the hideous place and put it in in their liquids and drink it.  Lola hated it.  It was evil.

And the there was the Wardrobe.  The secret world that she would walk through in the yard and emerge on the other side...she didn't understand it yet.

But she knew she liked it.

Lola Switches Homes

And then she was there, the human lady without the braids.
"Hey...when your class comes to Spanish can Lola come too?"

The human lady had a sad look in her eyes, the same look she had had when she let Lola go that morning.
"Take her!" the new human responded, "She's going crazy!  She bit Syd!".

Lola rode in the familiar arms back to the classroom and went to sleep.  The little hands touched her gently in the room of the lady human without braids.  Lola did not bite anyone.

She went home with her human mommy that night, her mommy with the multicolored braids.  Lola felt calm laying on her back on the lady's lap, playing gently with those long ropes.

"Unfortunately, I have to give Lola up" the email said.  "The dog that Lola thought was her mother seriously injured Lola's dad.  She is a Presa, she has gotten territorial.....". 

The next morning, Lola had both her human mommy and the lady human without braids in the same room.
"I've never owned a dog before....," the lady without braids said, stroking Lola.  "Let alone a Pit Bull.  And I just got laid off....but I want her.  I know it's crazy, but I want her".
"I was hoping that you would be her new mom" Lola's human mommy responded.  Lola liked how she looked when her white teeth showed. 

She rode back and forth, in the new human lady's arms to the house behind the school and in the car with her human mommy with braids.  She stayed both places.

But soon, she only stayed at the lady human without the braids' place...

Lost and Found

That human lady did not teach that day.  She carried Lola everywhere, each action was dictated by Lola's desires.  Her sleepy desires.  Lola didn't understand how this human could just throw out her job, nor did she care.  She liked being petted by those little humans and the minute that the lady would take her away from them and let her hide and sleep behind the desk.  The new human lady, the one without braids.

She was surprised when the lady carried her home.  The new human lady.  It was a close ride, a two minute ride in the arms that she had been in all day.  Lola ran for the first time that day and rampaged by the lady's tomatoes and back into her arms.  The lady human put her in a car.  Lola didn't like that so much, but the lady let her ride by the steering wheel, in her lap.

The lady carried her up some stone stairs.  Another nice human lady started to pet her.  And then, she saw her own kind.  There was a little dog, a Chihuahua, named Dude.  That dog was vicious.  He did not want to play.  Lola did not understand how he could have such an irresistible tail and then bark so awfully in the face of anyone who wanted to play with it.  And then, she saw the others.

There was a dog almost her size.  Ruckus, they called him, the humans.  He was a Cairn Terrier and he wanted to bring it.  Another giant dog entered the picture.  The humans called him London; he was a huge Husky with eyes as blue or bluer than Lola's.  Lola sniffed them and felt her tail sneak up between her legs.  The human ladies picked her up and took her to the front of the house.  She slept there, on their laps, while they talked and stroked her.

The new human lady without the braids took her back to the car and then, carried her to a wide open green space close to the house.  Lola was tired.  The human lady complied, laying on her back while Lola climbed on her chest.  She slept, hard.  The new human lady looked up at the oak leaves and petted her.  It was divine.

"That a Pit?!" a group of kids called, waking both of them up.
"Yes..." called the lady.
"Can we pet her?"
"Yes...."

The new human lady let her sleep in a tall, soft comfortable thing with her.  And Lola did.  The next morning, she rode in the familiar arms with the lady, still wet from a shower and barely awake, up to that place with the kids.  Lola licked her wet hair.

And then, she was in a new place. There were other little animals there, animals that were not her kind.  The children pulled her tail and chased her.  She felt her teeth lash out and she bit one.  He screamed.  Lola didn't get it.  Where was she?  And where were her humans, the new one and the one with the braids?

Her Name is Lola

She laid on her back, with her mommy stroking her stomach.  Her human mommy.  Not the one that laid on top of her to try to protect her, smothering five of her siblings.  She played in her hair, her human mommy's hair.  She liked the long braids, like ropes, multicolored ropes.  And then she dozed off.

She was in a school.  There were little hands everywhere.  Tail pulling, ear grabbing.  And softness.  Light pets.  She stayed in an office away from her human mommy.  And slept.  But people kept looking at her, wanting her.

"Many of you have seen Lola, my puppy..." the email began.
"She is ready to be hosted in your classrooms if you would like to sign up!".

She was alone in a classroom, a big open space with lots of stuff.  Her human mommy had brought her bed and some toys, and then closed the door.

After ten minutes, another human lady came in.  She petted Lola.  And Lola climbed all over her, smelling her, licking her.  She liked the lavender smell, the stuff that human lady had put on her skin, her fur-less skin.  Lola ate her shoe a little and then persisted until the human lady picked her up and let her sit on her lap.  She dozed there, knowing that the human lady was typing away on a computer, typing away on some thing that was stupid and a distraction.   The new human lady looked upset.  And she did not have braids. 

Little humans started filing in.  This human lady had rules.
"This is Lola.  She is a puppy.  If she walks up to you, you can pet her.  But you cannot chase her.  It scares her.  She is only eight weeks old".
"What kind of dog is that?" one of the children asked.
"Well, she's a Pit Bull" the human lady answered.
"I am afraid of those dogs...."
"Don't be afraid.  I won't let her come near you, but when you are ready, you can pet her if you want".

Lola's bed ended up in the middle of the rug that the kids sat on for instruction.  Each child could put one hand on her, and they did.  It felt nice.  Lola slept, and was stroked and petted by sixteen five year-old hands. 

Oh so drowsy.  So very drowsy.