The schnauzer stared blankly at her, standing completely still. Cotton was taken aback by the bizarre display in front of her. Usually, most dogs that she would encounter would either fight her, try to make moves on her, try to play with her, or steal something from her. 

But this schnauzer wasn’t doing any of that. He was just staring at her, with the most distraught and terrified look on his face. It was as if he had walked in on something terrible happening and had completely frozen up with fear. The two stared at each other for almost a minute before Cotton decided to end this weird staring contest.

“What?!”, she shouted.

The schnauzer screamed in horror and bolted down the hall in the opposite direction. Cotton was speechless. She had never expected any dog to be frightened of her. Even though he was about the same size as her, no dog would’ve ever run away from her unless provoked. Her will to escape being overcome by curiosity, she decided to pursue him.

The schnauzer pressed himself against the wall in the dining room, panting heavily like a steam locomotive. Peering back into the hallway, he saw it was completely empty. He closed his eyes and let out a sigh of relief.

“Yo!”

His eyes burst open when he saw Cotton standing right in front him. He let out another scream of horror as he sprinted away from her.

“Hey! Get back here!”, Cotton yelled as she pursued him. 

She chased the schnauzer through the living room and into the kitchen. He occasionally looked behind him, hoping he had lost her, only to see her right as tail, giving him more incentive to run faster. The two ran around the first floor of the house, running through room after room. 

On their 5th lap through the kitchen, the schnauzer spotted the doggy door, leading to the backyard. Veering right, he flew through it, leaving Cotton to skid across the linoleum floor.

“Huh…forgot doggy doors were a thing”, she remarked.

Rushing through, she saw the schnauzer looking up the fence, separating the yard from the driveway. He looked back in horror to see Cotton approaching her. He was trapped, and he knew it. His eyes welling up with tears, he curled into a ball.

“Please don’t kill me!”, he yelled. “I have a lot to live for!”

Now Cotton was even more confused.

“Kill you?!”, she repeated. “Who said I’m going to kill you!?”

“Y-You did!”

“No I didn’t!”

The schnauzer nodded, whipping tears from his eyes.

“Yes you did! Just now!”, he began, “I felt you had no qualms with killing anyone including me!”

Cotton winced at the scared schnauzer.

“You felt? What the hell are you talking about?”

She slowly approached him, but the schnauzer skidded away to her left, trying to create distance. At this point, Cotton had had enough.

“You know what? Forget it! I gotta get out of here”

She looked up at the fence. It seemed low enough for her to hop over with ease. She readied herself to jump, but the schnauzer jumped in front of her.

“Wait! Don't go yet!”, he shouted.

What was with this dog, Cotton thought. First he was scared that she would kill him for some reason, and now she doesn’t want him to leave?

“Why?”

“Your injuries aren’t fully healed yet!”, he exclaimed, looking at the bandages wrapped around Cotton’s body. “Sonja wants you to stay here until you’ve completely healed up. She told me to look after you while her and Tommy are away”

Cotton tilted her head. “And who’s Sonja?”, she asked.

“She’s my owner, and the one who saved you last night”, he explained. He began to smile thinking of her. “Apparently there was a beast out and about last night that attacked you, and she brought you here and patched you up! She’s such a nice lady”

“Oh, so that’s what happened”, Cotton remarked, feeling mildly disgusted. It was just as bad as she thought. Someone gullible woman had found her in that alley and took pity on her. The last thing she needed was someone potentially growing attached to her.

“Okay look uh…”, she paused. “I don’t think I got your name”

“My name’s Oliver”, the schnauzer smiled, “But you can call me Oli”

“Look Oli”, she began, “I appreciate what your human did for me, but I don’t roll with being a house pet. Been through it several times in the past and it's just not my style”

She began slowly walking backward.

“You don’t need to worry about my injuries. I've had cuts and bruises before and they’ve all healed. And if this one doesn’t, at least I got a damn cool battle scar!”

She dashed and jumped forward, flying over Oli and over the fence.

“See ya!”, she winked.

But then she fell onto the top of the fence, hard. Looking down, she saw that Oli had bitten onto her tail.

“I promised Sonja, I would keep you safe!”, Oli muffled, “You can't leave yet!”

“GET MY TAIL OUT OF YOUR MOUTH!”, she shouted.

She whipped her tail forward and sent Oli flying across the ground. Looking up, he saw Cotton glaring furiously at him.

“Okay, I’ve had enough of your bullshit! No one bites my tail and gets away with it!”

But before she could make a move, she felt herself being lifted up. Turning her head, she saw Sonja looking down at her with a warm smile.

“Good, you’re awake”, she said. “You were asleep for quite a long time!”

With two fingers, she began to tickle Cotton and in spite of herself, the pomeranian couldn’t help but laugh.

“Is that her, Titi Sonja!”, said a voice.

Sonja turned to see her cousin get out of the car and walk up to her. He had the same dark curly hair as his aunt but with a slightly darker skin complexion.

Sonja nodded. “Yes she is! And she seems to be doing a lot better than she was last night”

She then looked back at Cotton as she continued to tickle her. “Aww you liked getting tickled there, don’t you?”, she sweetly teased.

Trying to break free, she kicked her hand and lept out of her arms. Landing on the grass, she took a defensive stance. Opening the gate, Sonja tried approaching her.

“It's okay”, she said as she reached a handout towards her, “Im friendly”.

Wanting to keep the human away from her as much as possible, Cotton nipped at her hand, causing Sonja to let out a short gasp as she had drawn blood. Suddenly, Cotton felt herself getting tackled and pinned to the ground. Looking up at her attacker, she saw it was Oli, looking at her furiously with his teeth barred.

“Don’t you dare hurt her!”, he growled.

Cotton was taken aback. She had not expected him to be this aggressive, as he had mostly been cowardly and passive up to now. And what’s more, she could feel that Oli was definitely not some normal dog. She couldn’t explain why but she felt the dog was strong, possibly as strong as her. 

“Oliver!”, Sonja boomed, “Get off of her now!”

At this, Oli’s facial features softened as he got off Cotton and sat on grass looking ashamed of himself. Sonja then walked up and picked her up as if she was a baby. Cotton squirmed in her arms as she gently caressed her back

“You poor baby. You must’ve gone through a lot”, she said, oblivious to Cotton’s protest. “Come on, let's get you cleaned up”

And with that, she walked through the backdoor and into the house, leaving Tommy and Oli to look at each other and shrug.

Inside, Sonja was giving Cotton a bath in the upstairs bathroom while Tommy and Oli hung out in the living room.

“Oh man, Oliver, the movie was so cool!”, he exclaimed, “Spiderman was just as cool as he was in the trailer! And I loved the car chase scene between Bucky and the Black Panther!”

Oli only nodded as Tommy rambled on and on about the movie they had just seen. He didn’t understand half of what he was saying, or who Iron Man and Spiderman were, but he listened because it was the polite thing to do. Just then, they were interrupted when they heard the fast pitter patter of dog paws rushing down the stairs. It was Cotton, finally free from the bathroom but looking on in horror at the pink ribbon wrapped around her neck.

“Finally!” Sonja trundled down the stairs, sweat beating from her forehead. “Took a lot longer than I thought. At least Oliver knows to stand still”, she said with exasperated sigh.

Tommy got off the couch and walked up to her, kneeling to get a good look at her. He was about to pet her but decided against it, not wanting her to bite him.

“She looks so cute, Titi”, he smiled but then noticed that her bandages were missing. “Where are her stitches?”, he asked.

“Took them off for the bath”, she answered. “I was going to put on new ones but its weird. The cuts were so deep when I found her but they’re completely gone!”

“I guess that’s a good thing they weren’t too bad”. He then looked up at Sonja, “Do you think we can keep her?”

Sonja furrowed her eyebrows in deep thought. “Well, my plan was to take her to a shelter to see if she belonged to someone but considering its likely her previous owners abandoned her”, she let out a sigh, “I think it's best that she stays here with us. Oliver could use a new friend”

Tommy bounced up and down happily while Oli barked excitedly. Cotton, on the other hand, had a distraught look on her face. This was possibly the worst thing that could’ve happened to her.

“Oh good grief”, she moaned.