Never Know What You'll Find

Once her mom confirmed that she also heard the whining from the other side of the river, Rebel inched forward, both of her mismatched forepaws now standing in the shallow edges of the flowing river while she tried to get a better look at the other side. After some squinting she spotted a bit of movement from the brush on the other side and she watched as a little pup wiggled out from under the branches of a bush. She gasped softly, her eyes widening with surprise. It seemed like a pup like her, but really little and still wobbly on its feet. She couldn't really tell what kind of canine it was, but she could tell it wasn't another wolf at the very least. "Mom! Look!" she whispered excitedly, watching the pup for a few moments with her tail wagging excitedly, but the longer she watched the pup that was stuck on the other side of the river from her she started to notice how upset it looked and maybe a little lost.

Her smile faded into a frown and her magenta gaze shifted to look up and down the river a couple of times, looking for a place they could cross. She spotted a place where the river was shallow enough that some rocks were sticking up past the surface almost like stepping stones. Rebel turned and ran down the bank of the river and started to hop across to the other side, probably missing some kind of warning or scolding from her mother along the way in her determination to reach the lost pup. Once she was across the river she hurried over to where she had seen the little, fuzzy, gray and tan pup. She knew she was still little, but even compared to her the jackal pup felt tiny.

The pup saw her coming and cowered a bit, backing up toward the bushes where it had appeared from. She slowed down, her ears folding back as she tried to lower herself down and not look scary. "It's okay! I'm not gonna hurt you!" she insisted even though she wasn't sure the pup would be able to understand her. She glanced back over her shoulder to see if her mom had followed, looking up at her with a pleading look. "Momma, we can take her back with us, right? She looks so scared!"

"Rebel Klein"