Narrative+Writing

Amanda Portnoy 5/21/12 Dabrush L&L 4

I remember when I got my first pit bull puppy. His name was Bear because he thought he was so big and tough, but he was just so little and cute. I got Bear when I was in kindergarten. My mom loved Bear a lot. She used to play with him when she came home from work and she took him for long walks. My dad never really enjoyed Bear’s presence. He was a puppy, so he was still being potty-trained, and Dad got really mad when he had an accident. When we first got Bear, Dad had a really good job that he loved. But about a year later, Dad got fired from his job. After Dad was fired, he was always in a grumpy mood. He kept to himself and I even walked in on him crying in his bedroom. A few weeks went by and one day I came home from school to play with Bear and he wasn’t home. I looked around the house, but I couldn’t find him. I started to yell for my dad, but I didn’t get a response. My dad was usually home when I arrived home from school because he still didn’t have a new job. I was never left home alone, I was only 5. In a panic, I grabbed the phone and called my mom’s cellphone because she was at work. She picked up the phone and calmly whispered, “Hello Sweetie, what do you need?” I didn’t know what to say at first. “I just got home from school and Bear isn’t here. Neither is Dad!” She was quiet. “I will try to get a hold of your father, but I can’t leave work until 5 o’clock.” “Okay Mom.” I didn’t know how to respond. I didn’t want to stay home alone. “Make sure all the doors are locked and watch some T.V. Sady, you will be fine.” She hung up the phone. I did as my mom told me and locked all the doors and turned on the television. At five thirty Mom came home. There was still no sign of Dad or Bear. I was worried, but Mom didn’t seem to be. We sat and waited for about an hour and finally the front door opened and Dad came through. He was okay, but he didn’t have Bear. I ran up to him and gave him a hug in relief that he was alright. Mom looked at me and told me to go upstairs to my room. I didn’t know why, but it was probably because she wanted to talk to Dad alone. I did as I was told and I went up stairs to my room. As I sat in my room alone I thought about Bear. He couldn’t possibly get out of the house by himself. I came downstairs after spending about an hour in my room sulking. Mom and Dad were strangely quiet. It wasn’t normal for our family. They were both sitting at the table and their eyes were wandering around the room. I think I even saw a tear drip out of my mom’s eye. She looked at me and said something that I wasn’t expecting to hear. “Sady, come sit at the table. Your father and I need to talk to you.” I wondered why. “I’m sure you know that Bear is just a puppy, but I’m afraid he won’t be living with us any longer. He will be okay for now, but Dad needs to train Bear.” I wanted to cry even more. “Train Bear for what? Is he entering a show?” I was clueless. I was so blind as to what was happening. I was so young and I just didn’t know, but I was soon to find out. “Something like that. Your dad has been working with a lot of dogs lately and he was not home when you got back from school because one of his dogs was too tired to keep training. Because Bear is so young, Dad is going to try to replace that dog with Bear.” I was still utterly confused. Why was my dad training dogs? I didn’t even know that Dad had a job. What else could he have been hiding from me? “Dad, what is your job? Why was a dog too tired to train?” I asked with a tone of curiosity. “This may be hard for you to hear, but I just want you to know that I am doing this to bring money into our family so we can have a good life...” The rest of his words went right through my head. My dad? A dog fighter? Those words coming out of his mouth felt like bee stings to my ear drums. I could feel my heartbeat in my throat. I didn’t want this. I would rather not have money. I never thought of my dad as the kind of person to hurt an innocent dog. The worst part was that his new victim was my puppy. The one that slept at the end of my bed at night and licked my cheeks so I would wake up in the morning. For years I was so mad at my dad, but four years have gone by and things have started to get better. I still despise the fact that my own dad lied to me for months. I still haven’t gained my full trust with him. Every night when he comes home from a training session or fight I go straight to my room. Seeing him walk through that door with blood on his shirt feels like I’m witnessing a crime. Dog fighting is illegal in the United States and I’m the daughter of a felon. I am 9 years old and no longer live in a happy household with a happy family. Now there is tension between all of us. My dad knows I don’t like that he dog fights. He even tried to take me to one of his fights. A lot of dog fighters bring there children so they grow up to think that dog fighting is entertaining and that they should pursue to do it when they become an adult. My dad tries not to talk about his dogs around me because he knows I’m still mad about Bear. I go through every day knowing that my little puppy was aggressively trained and was brutally killed by another pit bull. I didn’t know a lot about dog fighting when I found out that my dad took part in it, so I did some research. Before pit bull were known as fighters, they were known as hunters. After they were hunters, they were known as “butcher’s dog” and baited bulls. Bull baiting was also illegal and it was rather hard to hide a bull. With no place to hide the bull baits and with the cops looking for them, they needed something smaller to fight. The pit bulls were then turned against each other. They hold the dog fights underground where the dogs are placed in a ring and cheered on by their owners and the crowd while they viciously tear at each other’s faces and throats. Pit bulls are arguably among the most loyal dogs. They are chosen as fighting dogs because of their loyalty. Once abused by their owners, they are still loyal to them. Pit bulls start training at a young age, that’s why Bear was able to learn the ways of a fighter. With all of this new knowledge I knew that this was something I didn’t want my friends from school to know. They would think that my family was evil. I have been hiding this secret from all of my friends for four whole years. Every night I lay in my bed and I imagine what it would be like if someone was to find out my secret. I would have no more friends and everyone would think that I was a monster. I didn’t want to think about that situation any longer. I have school tomorrow and I need to get to sleep. It is a Monday morning and Mom and Dad are off to work bright and early. I get up to the annoying beeps of my alarm. I put on my favorite pink dress with my pink sparkly flats and brushed out my blonde curly hair. I make myself breakfast every morning because I am the only one home to do so. I eat as fast as I can and run outside to the bus stop. I take my seat on the bus, move to the inside and quietly look at the window and watch the passing trees. As I arrive at school nothing is out of the ordinary. I say hello to my friends and go straight to my class. I always doodle in class and my teachers usually get mad if they catch me. Today I am drawing Bear, as I always do. I started my drawing and it looked very good, but too happy. I added another dog to the picture. This dog looked mad. In my mind this was going to be the scene of a dog fight. You could see the angry dog’s white sharp teeth. Bear looked scared and innocent. I drew a ring around the two dogs. I then drew the crowd around the ring. There were people shouting and cheering for the dog they wanted to win. I looked at the picture and realized that there was something missing. My dad wasn’t in the picture. I drew my dad outside of the ring right behind where Bear was. He had stains on his shirt and you could tell that he was yelling. I put down my pencil and gazed at the picture for a moment. I felt ashamed. I needed a title for my picture, but it was hard to think of something that described this. I thought for a minute and instead of dog fights, my picture would be called Dad fights. As I finished writing the title on the paper my teacher started to walk towards me. I quickly put my drawing in the desk in hopes that I wouldn’t get in trouble. My teacher glared at me and I looked at the ground trying to avoid eye contact. “Sady, what do you have there?” I didn’t want to get in trouble for this. “It’s just a piece of paper. Nothing special...” I hoped that would get her off my back. “Can I please have that piece of paper?” Oh no. I reached into my desk and handed her the piece of paper. She didn’t look at it yet, but she walked over to the white board and took a magnet. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Is she even allowed to do this? She took the magnet and stuck my picture up for everyone to see. My only reaction was to hide my face in my arms. There were ten minutes left of class. I just sat there hiding my face hoping that nobody would show interest in the picture. Ten minutes passed and the bell rang. Every person got out of their seats and rushed to the board. As each person got a better look at my drawing of Dad’s fights they glared at me. They knew what the picture meant. Their eyes felt like lasers to my body. This was something that I had hoped would never happen. There were so many thoughts going through my head. Was Dad going to get arrested? Would I have to tell these kids a lie to keep my family safe? Either way, my secret was out.