closer to a gated community

Chapter Four

Was Z a Love Breather?
Probably not, but he was the sort of dog with a sixth sense, which meant he could understand things that were normally not in his realm. At this point Top Pup was becoming aware of judging every being he encountered according to their degree of "Love." Was D dog a Love Breather, definitely not, but even he, although more remotely, could posses,a level of understanding to for what it meant.
Top Pup's musing were interrupted by a terrible tummy growl. It was very loud he still was not sure if it was his own tummy, or Z's which was close enough considering he was riding his back. It had been a long grueling day and no food had come to their mouths. Just then Top Pup caught a whiff of fresh blood.
Stick appeared with something dangling between his teeth, it was a wild rat, and it was still moving. ...................
Top Pup was amazed by the cheer survival instinct of the other members of the group, be they cats or dogs, they knew how to be lean and mean in order to survive.
It seemed he had almost no such instincts to save his life. Again, he found himself totally dependent on some one else's skills to survive.
It occurred to him that he was not even a dog in the true sense of the word.
He was a different kind of dog, the sort born out of what they called breeding
But then again, that only meant he was special, unpredictable, a work in progress.
No one, including himself, knew what he was capable off, and he was indeed constantly surprised by his own self discovery. One thing he discovered at that very moment was that there was no way he was going to eat a freshly undead wild rat, no sire Bob that was not going to work out for him, at all.
Stick put his fresh catch down at the feet of the big dogs - an offering, they, in turn, exchanged a look between themselves and then with the strange looking battered cat whose head seemed disproportionately bigger than the rest of his body. They took the offering and the three of them divided the rat between them. then Z brought a small piece of flesh to Top Pup, but one look at his expression made it clear that he was not joining the party.
The three eaters turned each in his own direction to wolf down the reviving snack which disappeared within seconds.
Top Pup sat in his own spot and watched.
The cat immediately got busy cleaning himself up once he was done while the dogs settled for a big tongue lick..
The dogs stood for a moment taking in the landscape and digesting at the same time while Stick was still seemingly unaware, still busy cleaning up (which did not have much affect on his disheveled look of his fur) then off they were, in motion, Z stretching down to allow Top Pup to mount him. "We'll find you something civilized to eat soon enough," he said.
Top Pup could not think of  a good rely, so he said nothing, besides, he thought he would faint he was very weak from lack of food and drink. No, he was definitely not good at surviving. He hoped he would be around to see what happens tomorrow. Given the small weak species that he was, who's to say how long he could live without food?. "Your gonna be just fine" he heard Z say.
He felt absolutely stupid being so tragically worried about not having eaten for one day. So again, he opted to say nothing and just save his energy to hang on to Z's back.