This is a short story I wrote for a Christmas Anthology on Authonomy (that's a bit of a tongue twister :)) The anthology is called simply Christmas Anthology and is full of wonderful Christmas stories so take a look while there's still some Christmas spirit about!
http://www.authonomy.com/books/39742/christmas-anthology/
Christmas Puppy
By Lindsey J Parsons
His feet were cold. The crunchy white stuff was balling up between his pads and matting itself into the fur on his legs. Pup shivered and blinked the fluffy flakes out of his eyes while hunger pangs clawed at his stomach. He had been walking for what felt like hours and everywhere had become dark and forbidding.
It had started off as fun, a game of hide and seek. Ben, Pup’s new pack leader had taken him for a ride in the car, a long, long ride. Pup had been so excited, wondering where they were going. He had hoped they were heading back to his mothers pack, back to his litter brothers and sisters. Life had been so much happier with his first pack. The humans had been gentle and kind, never raising their voices, always careful with their paws.
In his new pack, Pup was the only member to walk on four paws, the only one with a tail. At first they had been friendly and playful and even though he didn’t understand what they were saying it had been fun. But that hadn’t lasted long, soon Pup found himself locked in a room alone or worse shut out in the garden in the rain. The smaller human pack members had started to hit and kick him. Ben was forever shouting at him and once when Pup failed to get to the newspaper in time he had rubbed Pup’s nose in the puddle.
Things got much worse when Ben brought home a tree and all the pack members gathered around, hanging sparkly, glittery things on its branches. Pup joined in, full of excitement he tugged at some of the lower branches until the tree toppled over. There had been a lot of shouting and Pup was tossed bodily out of the back door and across the yard.
It was shortly after the tree incident that they set out in the car. When Ben put him down in the white fluffy stuff Pup was excited and raced off gambolling around in it. He hadn’t noticed the car leave, he didn’t realise he was alone until it was too late.
Lonely and dejected Pup ran, not slowing down until the roadside changed from hedges and trees to buildings and lampposts. As the day turned to evening, tired and dejected, Pup wandered along the dimly lit streets. Occasional cars glared bright lights at him causing him to cower, slinking into the shadows. He longed to be back with his mum curled up warm and snug against her tummy.
A large vehicle splashed slushy water at him and Pup jumped sideways, landing in a puddle. Shaking his paws and whimpering he stepped out of the icy water.
“What have we here?” a gravelly voice spoke from the shadowy doorway to Pup’s right. He cowered, searching the darkness with frightened eyes. A scruffy human sat hunched against the door, half hidden under a large dirty looking coat.
“Come an ‘ave a warm with ol’ Fred for a while.” The man stretched out his hand, his voice soft and reassuring. Pup slinked forward until he could sniff the outstretched hand. The smell was so strong it made Pup wrinkle his nose, but Fred made no move to grab him so Pup cautiously crept closer. Before he could stop himself, Pup had crawled up onto Fred’s stomach and was squirming into the warmth inside the dirty coat. Fred chuckled stroking Pup’s head, “you all alone in the world too little fella?”
Pup snuggled against the old man, warm at last and in no time drifted off to sleep.
“Hay you get away from there!” A loud angry voice bellowed out of the darkness. A large bald man appeared towering above Fred and Pup. He reached down and shook Fred’s shoulder. “Clear off and find somewhere else to sleep.”
Startled, Pup yelped and dived off Fred, bolting away into the night. Blinded by fear he ran egged on by the screeching of rubber on tarmac as a car lurched towards him, its hot fumy breath ruffling Pup’s fur. He didn’t stop until he was suddenly surrounded by people all walking past in the slush. Pup hid behind a dustbin and waited till they’d gone by. Then as he crept out he noticed a big solid door in the nearest building was open and warm orange light was spilling out inviting him in.
*********
Paul kept very still, his head bowed and his hands clasped together in prayer. He had actually finished his request for god to look after Margret and keep her safe. He was now just playing for time, putting off the moment when he’d have to make a start back to his empty house. He could hear the priest tidying the bibles and prayer books that had been hastily dropped back on the shelf by the door at the end of midnight mass.
All the rest of the congregation had left, scurrying home, looking forward to their Christmas day. It filled Paul with dread the thought of his first Christmas completely alone. Margret had died last spring and now with no other family the whole season held nothing but heart ache.
“Oh no, you can’t stay here.” The priest’s voice broke the silence and the sound of his feet marching down the aisle made Paul look up. He would have to go now, but there had been no need for the priest to shout at him like that. As he started to persuade his arthritic knees to lift up from where he was kneeling, a dirty cream ball of fur skidded down the aisle and bolted between the pews crashing straight into him.
“Oh good you’ve caught it,” the priest said as Paul grabbed the fur ball. “Last thing I need is to be mopping up after some stray dog on Christmas morning.”
“Hay, it’s ok I’m not going to hurt you,” Paul held on to the wriggling puppy. “He’s only a baby and he’s so thin you can feel all his bones, poor little mite.”
“Looks like another one that’s been thrown out when it’s not wanted anymore,” the priest said shaking his head. “The dog’s home will be shut by now and the police won’t want him, not tonight.”
Paul looked down at the puppy in his arms, it had stopped struggling and sad brown eyes gazed back at him. “Seems as if I’ll be sharing my Christmas dinner after all,” he chuckled gently hugging the pup to him, a little spark of happiness starting to glow in his chest.
