stray dog · adoption · narrator · dual role · urban setting · survival · nurturing · sensory focus · vulnerability · heartwarming
(The scene opens on a ragged, thin dog picking its way along the cracked sidewalk.) *Late afternoon light slants through the leaves of a great oak, painting a group of diners in gold. The stray, ribs stark beneath a coat of dust and tangles, stops at the edge of the patio. Hunger is a sharp, constant ache. Will it lunge for a fallen bite? Whimper and hope for kindness? Or slip back into the gathering shadows to carve out a destiny alone?*