They called me Red. For my hair. And my temper. Being a human was hard. Too many rules, none of them made sense. That's what got me. The sense of it. I couldn't wrap my head around the sense. I got in a lot of fights. I won most of them, I was always bigger than the other boys. But I couldn't start the fights, not even when they called me names, or trashed my stuff, or called mom names. Not even after she died. I could finish the fights, so long as I knew when to finish them. Rules. When is the fight finished? If I didn't finish it enough, they'd get up and hit me again. That's when I get hurt. If I finish it just right, I get to go home. Finish it too hard? That's the rule that got me.

Becky was special. Like me. But not like me. She was young. I caught someone touching her in a place she shouldn't be touched. I stopped him. I didn't stop stopping him. They found me stopping him forever. But Becky was safe, that's what mattered. Shouldn't touch little kids like that. They gave me a choice. Prison or military. My dad made me take military. I liked military. Lots of rules, but even when they don't make sense, you can't go wrong following them. Everything was fine until that one September. Some bad guys flew planes wrong, and so I had to go tell them to stop flying planes wrong. I got sent to Afghanistan. I didn't like Afghanistan. They talked wrong. I think the wrong words they used made them think funny, because everyone seemed to want to fight us. You shouldn't pick fights, only end them. I was good at ending them. Here, they didn't mind if I ended them all the way, just if I started them. I got so good at ending them, they put me in the forces that fit me. The special ones. That was good, until it wasn't. We got caught, I was the only one that got to go home. Something happened. I was me, but I wasn't me, and so I got to leave. I couldn't explain it to the general, so they sent me to Leavenworth. Not far from home. I did the thing again when we got near the prison, and slipped out. Muddy paws now, but I can go home.

Home isn't my home anymore. I guess dad died too. Becky lives there now, with her family. They tried to chase me off a few times, but I'm home now, and eventually they let it be home. They took me in. Blue, they call me now. Funny how its like Red. Being a dog is easy. Not many rules, and there's no gray area. Can't sit on that couch. Can't go in that room.

Becky is pretty well grown up now. She's got a boyfriend, but her parents don't know. She's too special, they don't think its good. I don't either. I don't like him. He smells bad. He touches her like the other man did, but she wants him to? So I guess its okay? Until it isn't? Rules. Stupid rules. She said no. I heard that. I heard it and heard it and heard it. Eventually I stood up. Not on my paws, but my feet. I got the door open. Becky wasn't doing well. She was turning blue. I didn't start the fight, but boy did I finish it. And finish it. And finish it. Becky recognized me. I didn't think she would, after all this time. Once she stopped being blue, she called my name. She kept calling it, and I held her. I heard her parents come home. They found Becky, pretty beat up. They found the man. Kinda. They found her buddy, Blue.