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The Dog

Holly Day

My mother-in-law brought the dog home the day after I brought my baby home.
The thing was huge, a great big standard poodle, fully grown with black eyes
nearly covered in thick curly brown fur. It never made a sound, just watched everyone
moving around the house, every once in a while asking to be let out the back door.

The dog didn’t react at all to me or my son, didn’t
come over to smell the baby, or greet me, or do anything different at all.
It just watched us moving around the house, so quiet
eventually running upstairs to hide in its crate
when the baby’s cries were too loud.
I never even thought of petting the dog
never saw anyone else touch it, either, never could figure out

why my mother-in-law had brought it home.
I don’t even remember it having a name.
A few months later, the dog was gone, and no one ever mentioned
what had happened to it, why it wasn’t there any more
why it had even been there in the first place.
I remember walking around my mother-in-law’s house
peering into side rooms, looking for the dog, the dog crate
some random squeaky toy, a gnawed-on rawhide bone,
anything belonging to a dog

but it was like there had never been a dog in the house at all

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