Why I Love dogs

Oh the wonders of Internet. I finally got to download a short story I first read almost 20 years ago. This story has had a major impact on me and explains my passion for dogs. After all these years , I still can't help but get teary-eyed after reading this story.

TWO WERE LEFT
By Hugh B. Cave


On the third night of hunger, Noni thought of the dog. Nothing of flesh
and blood lived upon the floating ice island except those two.

In the breakup, Noni had lost his sled, his food, his furs, even his knife. He had saved only Nimuk, his great devoted husky. And now the two, marooned on the ice, eyed each other warily each keeping his distance.

Noni’s love for Nimuk was real, very real as real as hunger and cold nights and the gnawing pain of his injured leg. But the men of his village killed their dogs when food was scarce, didn’t they? And without thinking twice about it.

And Nimuk, he told himself, when hungry enough would seek food. One of us will soon be eating the other, Noni thought.

He could not kill the dog with his bare hands. Nimuk was powerful and much fresher than he. A weapon, then, was needed. Removing his mittens, he unstrapped the braces from his leg. When he had hurt his leg a few weeks before, he had made the brace from bits of harness and two thin strips of iron.

Kneeling now, he wedged one of the iron strips into a crack in the ice and began to rub the other against it with firm, slow strokes. Nimuk watched him, and it seemed to Noni that the dog’s eyes glowed more brightly.

He worked on, trying not to remember why. The slab of iron had an edge now. It had begun to take shape. Daylight found his task completed.

Noni pulled the finished knife from the ice and thumbed its edge. The sun’s glare, reflected from it, stabbed at his eyes and momentarily blinded him.

Noni steeled himself. Here, Nimuk, he called softly. The dog suspiciously watched him.

Come here, Noni called. Nimuk came closer. Noni read fear in the animal’s gaze. He read
hunger and suffering in the dog’s labored breathing and awkward crouch. His heart wept. He hated himself and fought against it.

Closer Nimuk came, aware of his intentions. Now Noni felt a thickening in his throat. He saw the dog’s eyes, and they were wells of suffering.

Now! Now was the time to strike!

A great sob shook Noni’s kneeling body. He cursed the knife. He swayed blindly, flung the weapon far from him. With empty hands outstretched, he stumbled toward the dog and fell.

The dog growled as he circled the boy’s body. And now Noni was sick with fear. In flinging the knife, he had left himself defenseless. He was too weak to crawl after it now. He was at Nimuk’s mercy, and Nimuk was hungry.

The dog circled him and was creeping up from behind. Noni heard the rattle in the savage throat. He shut his eyes, praying that the attack might be swift. He felt the dog’s feet against his leg, the hot rush of Nimuk’s breath against his neck.

A scream gathered in the boy’s throat. Then he felt the dog’s hot tongue licking his face.
Noni’s eyes opened. Crying softly, he thrust out an arm and drew the dog’s face down against his own

The plane came out of the south an hour later. Its pilot, a young man of the coast patrol, looked down and saw the large floating iceberg. And he saw something flashing. It was the sun gleaming on something shiny, which moved. His curiosity aroused, the pilot banked his ship and descended. Now he saw, in the shadow of the peak of ice, a dark, still shape that appeared to be human. Or were there two shapes?

He set his ship down in a water lane and investigated. There were two shapes, boy and dog. The boy was unconscious but alive. The dog whined feebly but was too weak to move.

The gleaming object which had caught the pilot’s attention was a crude knife, stuck point first into the ice a little distance away, and quivering in the wind.