Have you ever heard anyone saying, "Fighting like cats and
dogs," before? I have. Or maybe I should say that I have
experienced it through my sister and my dog, Tender. Tender is
the main character of the story that I am going to tell you.
Tender is a girl, a Chow chow. The name Tender comes from Elvis
Presley's song "Love Me Tender." Why? . . . because my mother was
crazy about Elvis when she was young. But in fact, Tender is very
ferocious and violent. When she was two years old, she did an
awful thing. The scar on my sister's check always reminds me of
the disaster. But before that, I'll have to tell you the
relationship between my big sister and Tender.
To say it easily, they practically hate each other. My sister
was simply against buying a dog, and ever since Tender came to
our house to be a part of our family, my sister's "dog abuse"
started. Whenever she felt stress or anger, she would let loose
her anger on Tender by pulling and pinching her body parts, or
hitting her with the broom. I guess it was unbearable for Tender
because one night her anger broke out. That night, Tender was
sleeping in the hallway when my sister snuck up and pinched her
as usual. But this time, things were a bit different. Tender
turned up and in a second she was biting my sister's face and
neck. I saw that and ran up to Tender to stop her, but she
wouldn't let go. Finally, I got Tender away from my sister and
threw her outside.
When I went back into the house, my father was examining the
wound. My sister was bleeding quite a lot; and the wound, it was
simply terrible. I can never forget that sight. There was blood
and white mushy stuff coming out of my sister's cheek. I like
horror movies, but I never thought that I would see one like that
in real life. I was very upset with Tender and ashamed of what
she had done. I couldn't stop crying. Right after the accident,
my parents took my sister to the hospital. I was worried too, but
I was left alone with Tender. I scrubbed the blackish-red blood
stains that were all over the floor and the white wall. The smell
of blood, like rusted iron, was awful. When I finished cleaning
up, I went outside to see what Tender was doing.
She was sitting there wiggling her tail as usual. Tears
streamed down my cheeks, and I couldn't stop crying. She looked
sad too, and seemed to be saying "I'm sorry." I asked her, "Why
did you do such a thing?" But of course she wouldn't say
anything. She was her old self again, my cute and cuddly Tender.
Then suddenly, the thought popped into my mind that Tender
was going to be sent to the health center and be
killed.
So I planned to run away with her and packed some clothes and
blankets into my backpack in a hurry. Just when we were about to
go, my sister came back with five stitches on her face and one on
her neck. I felt so sorry for her, and hated Tender for hurting
my sister. But my sister was kind enough to forgive Tender, and
accepted her, or actually my own apology.
Tender didn't have to go to the health center. I promised
myself that I would never feed her or take her for a walk, but it
didn't last even for a week. I still loved her very much.
So this is the story about my experience with "Fighting like
cats and dogs." And I believe there is this kind of relationship
between human and human, but also between human and animal. After
this whole incident, my sister actually stopped abusing Tender.
They seemed to have made up, though I'm still not sure. All I can
say is be nice to your pets, because you never know what may
happen. Your pet might turn into a ferocious animal one day if
you pick on it too much, just like my Tender did.
by Aki Komatsu
