Anubhava

Over at Murphy and Stanley's place it is last Friday of the month story day... click to read more!!!.

They give us a prompt sentence, which we have to weave into our tale (highlighted), but the story can go anywhere it wants to... the approach on MY TAKE TOO is to use photo prompts so for this theme I seek to do my usual but incorporate the FFHT prompt as well.
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Monsoon came and went.  As did the autumn.  Then came the early winter.  Mothers went hunting for fathers.  Strong ones.  Sturdy, survivor types to bring in good bloodlines. Even if they already had pups in tow.

The previous litter was generally gone by the time breeding came around again. There could be exceptions though. 

Every now and then along came one who just wouldn't take the hint.  Anubhava** was one such pup.  The only survivor of her litter she stuck like ghee to the hind-quarters of her mother, B1, aka Winkie. This did not necessarily make life any easier.  There comes a point, you see, when the pup must compete with the parent for food and territory.

Anubhava had been present when Winkie and Blackie along with Daddy-dog and a one or two peripheral dogs formed into their 'B pack' to try and terrorize Radha-ji and her brood. 

That poor bitch was so sweet and never chased Anubahva away when she tried to play with the white and black pups. They were, after all, her half-siblings.  Daddy-dog was the stud of the ashram and all the pups here were his. Until last year.  That was when the dog-catchers came.  The round up was raucous and traumatic, but all the male dogs were caught, taken away and returned three days later.  A little lighter in the hind end.

Now the dominant bitch, her very own mother, became crazed with searching for a replacement stud. 

Anubhava was fearful of the older female but at the same time she had her genes, as well as those of Daddy-dog.  She could feel the urge to compete and survive. She would not let up, even when Winkie turned on her ever more fiercely. 

Then there was the strange-amma.  The two-leg in white and with strange, light-coloured eyes, who lived in the window above the path.  Anu would turn and catch the amma watching her closely as she made attempts to catch squirrels or crows for herself. Having seen Winkie do it so often, the time had come to try it for herself or she really was going to starve. In between attempts, she'd turn and see the amma drop something.  Curiosity got the better of her.

Peanuts!!! Oh my goodness they were good.  Cashews too and bread sometimes.  Oh this was good munchables.  Not meat though.  That she would have to find for herself.

Then the day came.  A crow, young and as inexperienced as herself, became her first true meal. Things would never be the same after, for Anubhava had lived up to her name and now she knew she could challenge for her position in the pack.

(c) Yamini Ali MacLean 2014

**Anubhava = sanskrit for 'experience' pertaining to an event of direct realisation where nothing remains the same thereafter.