Mick jammed the last squirming puppy into a sack and tied it off, hefting the whimpering bag over one shoulder and heading down to the river. Mick was an old hand at farming. His parents and grandparents and their parents and grandparents had all been farmers before him. As long as he’d been alive, he’d lived in a farmyard setting, surrounded by livestock and work animals. Some they killed and ate, others they fed and kept. It was simply the way things were. Occasionally one of the hounds would get herself pregnant and there wouldn’t be room for more dogs. You can only put up with (and feed) so many baying hound dogs. The solution was as simple. Get rid of them. He had always done it in the past and his father had always done it before him. Too many dogs were impractical, and on a farm one had to be very practical, or one might begin to lose money and perhaps even the farm. You had to have tough skin to run such an outfit, and decisions had to be made without getting silly and emotional.
Ironically, at that very moment his daughter Isabel pulled up in her new Jetta. Isabel was a very silly and emotional person, in Mick’s opinion. Why she had wanted to move to the big city was beyond him. He couldn’t understand why she was so eager to go off on her own and be “her own woman”. Then again, Mick had never really understood the workings of women in general. His wife had been a rather practical woman in comparison to most, but she had her moments of sobbing and gushing as well. Isabel saw him and waved and he lifted his free hand in brief reply. He hoped she would go inside and wait for him and not follow him down to the river. Unfortunately, following after him was precisely what she had in mind. Mick reached the landing stage first and heaved the sack into the water, doing an about face and marching back up the path to try to deter Isabel from getting in a tizzy over the deed. He didn’t get far, however, being forced to stop before the young woman who, in turn, stood on her tip toes to look over his shoulder at the last evidence of the sinking litter.
"Hey Dad. What’s that you threw in the water?" Mick pursed his lips and rubbed his nose.
"Nothing." Isabel’s eyes narrowed and she pushed past the older man. Heels clicked across the dock then she leaned over to peer into the water. She gasped.
"Oh my God - it’s moving! Dad what did you DO?" She ran and picked up a long stick, returning to poke and pull at the submerged bundle, snagging it at last and guiding it close enough to grab after a few attempts.
"Isabel, don’t open that thing." Mick scowled.
"Tell me what’s inside!" She yelled, tugging at the knotted rope. Mick sighed and bumped his hat up to scratch his forehead.
"Corky’s last batch of pups. Had to get rid of 'em." Isabel looked at him, horrified.
"PUPPIES?!? You were drowning PUPPIES???" She started to get hysterical as she fought with the rope, unable to loosen the knot properly. "How could you DO this? How could you? You’re inhuman you monster!" Mick frowned and pulled his pipe and tobacco from his overalls pockets. He stuffed some tobacco in the pipe as Isabel bawled and worked at the knot, then he resealed the little baggy and traded it for a book of matches.
"Had to be done, Bel." He lit the pipe and stuffed the matches back in his front pocket. "We can’t keep every animal that comes along. You know that. They’d just become a burden." Isabel didn’t seem to know – or at least to accept it.
"Just because they can’t talk or defend themselves doesn’t mean they’re hunks of meat you can throw away!" She raged, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. "They can still feel! Just because you can't hear them screaming as they die doesn't make it okay!"
Mick held out his hands in bewilderment,
"They’re just animals...It’s not as though they’re human beings." He clamped his lips tightly around the stem of his pipe and sucked on it irritably. Isabel seemed to only grow more wild,
"They’re living things – Who are you to say they don’t have souls? Who are you to be their judge, jury and executioner?" Mick sighed the sweet-smelling smoke from his lungs, not exactly possessing an answer. Isabel finally got the sack open and began to pull out wet dead puppies, shaking her head. She held one in her arms and gazed up at Mick with an anguished look, her mascara blackening the rivulets running down her face, "Why didn’t you at least try to find homes for them? There are plenty of families out there who would like a dog! You didn’t have to kill them!" Mick scratched at his whiskers, feeling more and more guilty each passing moment. As Isabel looked miserably down at the five pups laid out on the gray wood Mick put out his pipe and approached her.
"Maybe you’re right. Maybe I should have looked into putting an ad in the paper first. I guess I thought it was just too much of a hassle at the time. I probably should have given them a chance. Here–" He stooped and began to ritualistically lay each pup on top of the sack, "I’ll help you bury them."
Isabel sniffed and blew her nose as Mick shoveled dirt over the shoe boxes. It was hard on his back, but so was everything of late. And he felt he owed it to his daughter. As he finished patting the soil, he stepped away to allow Isabel to lay down a few blooms she’d picked from his wife’s neglected flowerbed.
"Look, I’m sorry. I promise I won’t do it again. Next time I’ll give them over to the pound or something if I can’t find homes for them." He placed a consoling hand on her shoulder. Isabel sniffed again and whispered a pitiful "okay". They walked back up to the house together, quiet at first until Mick broke the silence.
"So I take it you’re recovered from your operation?" Isabel wiped her nose one last time and put away her tissue with a nod.
"Yes, everything went just fine. The insurance is going to cover a good chunk of the cost and Randy has volunteered to pay for the rest."
"Oh, that’s good. So, what was wrong? You’re mother never told me exactly why you were in the hospital." Mick’s brow creased with concern.
"Well..." She rolled her eyes and shrugged, "Randy and I got a little carried away and I got pregnant. Neither of us were ready to have kids though - let alone get married, so I had to have an abortion." Mick stopped and stared at her, blinking in disbelief. He opened his mouth to speak, but then clamped it shut and continued down the path. He really never would understand women.
