They found him when he was five months old — just a puppy, barely old enough to have learned what love feels like.
He was thrown from a moving car.
The impact shattered bones that were still growing, still soft with the innocence of youth. Emergency surgery followed, a desperate attempt to piece him back together. But the infection came anyway — relentless, unforgiving. The leg couldn’t be saved. They amputated.
One would understand if he became wary. If he flinched at every approaching hand. If he curled into himself and decided the world was cruel.
But he didn’t.