He had been lying in the mud so long that even the rain seemed to have given up on washing him clean. The ground around him was soft, cold, and uneven—filled with shallow puddles, tiny stones, wet leaves, and a thick layer of dirt that clung mercilessly to every part of his frail body. With nowhere else to turn, he had curled himself tightly against a stark concrete wall. He didn’t seek the wall for warmth, because there was none to be found; he sought it because it was the only thing in his unstable world that did not move. The small corner gave him a solitary place to press into when the vast, cruel world felt far too open and overwhelming. His fur was soaked through and thin in places, flattened heavily against his fragile skin by the mixture of mud and relentless rain. One side of his little […]
