Karies’s world had always been small. The kennel, his cage, and the routine clatter of feeding bowls were the edges of his existence. Life outside those walls was distant, incomprehensible—a world glimpsed only through the slats of his cage. Until the silence came. It struck abruptly, stealing in like a predator, unnoticed until it was too late. In an instant, …

Karies is a mutt. He knows this well, and he carries the truth with quiet pride. It is not a flaw, not a shadow to shrink from. Being a mutt is a simple fact of life, as unremarkable as the color of the sky or the cycle of the seasons. And yet, even with that truth etched deep in his …