ON THE NIGHT of the uttermost traumatic event Angeline had ever experienced; the sky turned dark gray, the clouds roared like tigers and lions desperate for food, and the sky felt so bad for her it started to cry. The voyage from the devil's house seemed like the voyage of the Israelites to the new land. The house she departed from glowed red from the hatred that was trapped inside it and stunk like the rotting remains of a black and white rug. The concrete on the sidewalk became darker and darker even though it was already as dark as the Joker’s soul outside. The thick-cut, long grass that draped over the sidewalk even seemed to appear gloomy and miserable. The entire world had appeared to all come crashing down tonight on her shoulders, and it was heavy. 

As she walked in the midst of night the only thing that seemed to light up her night was the skyscraper light poles that hung over the sidewalks and neighborhood roads. Every step left a marking insinuating the past, it's always one step forward and three steps back, I'm the love of your life until I make you mad – cause my heart is in so much misery I will never break it the way you did. The oval markings on the pavement tell a story of family and unity, family should never get left behind, family should never be forgotten, family should trust one another, family should be respectful of feelings, family should stick together during the hardest times – not break up. The spacing in-between the ovals represents the separation of the family and the brokenness of trust. Each of these steps taunted Angeline as she trotted on the road. She missed her family deeply and kept repeatedly asking herself these questions: what did I do wrong, why have I been abandoned, what could I have done more, what happened to my family? 

The walk seemed endless at this point and time. The sun was rising and welcomed Angeline to the delightful morning. The sun said, I have removed the dark scary clouds, the rain, the thunder and lightning, and the horrors of the night. I've brought you daylight, happiness, and food, go ahead and seize the day. The heavy heat started to warm her thick, black, white, and tan spotted coat. In the morning, walking on all fours felt heavy, she was dragging her feet on the hot pavement. Angeline soon came upon a natural park, one that was not human-made, though she wasn't all that intelligent, she didn’t know if this could be a hallucination. She longed for a cool shaded spot to lay down to take a rest. She adventured forward to what she hoped was a real tree with a shaded area, successfully she arrived at the tree and lay down to rest in the shade. As dehydration hit, the sweat that constantly dripped from her tongue and nose abruptly stopped.

A dream, a vivid, colorful, dark dream arose into Angeline’s mind as she slept. Angeline was with her family – Rose the mother, Bob the father, Anny the daughter, and Simon her brother. They had a pretty nice countryside home, but once the stock market crashed, Angeline’s owners lost everything. They were all back in their barn back in Nebraska having a roasted chicken dinner with sauteed asparagus, but for Simon and Angeline some cooked groundhog Bob had hunted during the day. Simon and Angeline played with the chickens and the cows out in the field - like they always did - and then Anny came out with a bell to round up the sheep, but shockingly screamed as she saw the house being swept away by a tornado. Angeline saw the house being demolished, then saw Rose and Bob sprinting out into the yard to quickly grab Anny, they took her and then ran away, but abandoned her and Simon. Angeline looked at the sheep and at this time the sheep turned into vicious, barbaric wolves that wanted Angeline and Simon for dinner. The sky turned black and shards of lightning fell out of the sky like broken glass, the thunder rumbled the ground causing an earthquake, but Simon was left on the unprotected side, then – then Angeline woke up in a cold sweat around noon. Her heart began beating out of her chest as she woke up and remembered the tragedy of her brother's death and the abandonment of her family. To escape the memories Angeline started her voyage again to the new land.

Angeline had toured away around the underprivileged countryside to the fresh, exuberant, new land. Here, local owners saw her rawboned, famished, dehydrated self. An owner of the bakery welcomed her with a toasty, medium-sized loaf of rustic artisan sourdough bread, with a crunchy crust, that obtained a cloud-like texture that pleased the eyes when pulled apart. The smell rumbled her stomach so severely she thought it would burst, the bread was so fresh and so pure that she felt the need to lick her lips, which appeared to be as dry as the Sahara Desert. After quickly damping her lips Angeline took in yet another breath, filling her sensors and lungs with the smell of the sweet yeasty bread. The smell was so aromatic it seduced her brain into lifting a single front paw. The owner pulled off what looked like a third of the loaf and Angeline took the bread aggressively, as she was desperate for food. The owner of the bakery, Grace Johnson, had seen Algeline was starving and dehydrated, she got Angeline more food and a bowl of water. As Angeline was drinking, Grace wanted to help the poor unfortunate soul that had traveled many miles and could've possibly died along the way. Angeline expressed such gratitude that Grace and her husband decided to take her in as their own. Even though Angeline deeply missed her family, at least someone would take care of her. Now instead of it being one step forward and three steps back, it's three steps forward and no steps back.

Lucky for Angeline her new parents lived on a farm and were pretty well set off from owning the bakery. First arriving at the farm brought Angeline deja vu from her previous years. She never knew something in her life was missing until she returned back to the luscious verdigris grass. Acres upon acres of this prodigious grass was now all for her. Grace and her husband wanted to give Angeline the best life possible; though they didn’t know what had happened during her journey or at the devil's house; but it didn’t matter, she was home now. Everything was perfect. Until she met Max, the other dog of the house. Max was a golden retriever who was enclosed in mud. This wasn’t too odd to Angeline as she grew up on a farm, but she preferred to stay clean - what she thought was hygienic. Max was kooky and nutty, full of energy 25/7. Angeline hadn’t fully recovered from her journey hence the malnutrition and dehydration; so it was hard for Max to accommodate her behavior. 

Max learned many new ways on how to deal with a new dog who didn’t exactly meet his energy. He learned how to care for her: helped show her around the farm and the house, showed her where the food was, and showed her the ropes. As time and time ticked on the clock Angeline and Max’s relationship grew stronger and stronger; strangers became friends.