I looked around the cage and saw there were a great many puppies. None of them were alike. Some were bigger than others, but none of them were very big. They were almost all asleep, some lying on top of others, but presently one of them woke and yawned and got up. He didn’t pay any attention to me, but went over and took a drink of water and licked at a plate that looked as if food had been in it. Then he went back and lay down again.
The friendly puppy and I talked together a a long time. He told me his name was Fido. I told him my name was Muffins.
He said the shop was a place where people came when they wanted an animal. Some of the dogs there were very fine dogs. I told him about Fifine and Bijou and Prince Coco, and he said some of the dogs in the cages around us were just as fine as they were, if not finer. We weren’t, though. None of the dogs in our cage were worth much. He said there was a sign on the front of our cage. He had heard people read it and he knew what it said. It said:
“Just plain dogs! Two dollars and a half apiece.”
I asked him if people seemed to like plain dogs, and he said no; they seemed to like the other dogs better.
Well, it got on toward supper time and I grew hungry. Every now and then I whined and yelped. Then the man came along and put some food in our cage, and the other dogs woke up and we all ate from the plate together. One dog kept growling all the while he ate, but nobody paid any attention to him.
It grew dark in the shop and the man went away, and all the animals were still.
Then came the morning and the noise began again, and the man opened the shop and fed us. People came and went. Sometimes they took a dog or a cat or a bird away with them, but no one took a puppy from our cage. They just looked at us and read the sign and went on.
After a while we were turned out in a dark, narrow yard to run about for a while, and then we were put back in our cage.
Every day it was just the same thing. After awhile I began to sleep most of the time the way the others did. They were stupid dogs, all but Fido. He and I used to play together sometimes, and I liked him. I liked him better than any dog I had ever known.