Nico’s day began like every other—except it didn’t. Something was off. 

Sure, his food bowl was filled, his water dish topped off, and his favorite squeaky Lamb Chop toy rested in its designated spot on the bed. But his humans… his beloved humans were moving around the house in a very suspicious way.

Nico, a Shih Tzu mix with shaggy black fur that looked like a particularly mischievous cloud had designed it, sat bolt upright on the couch, eyes wide.

 His paws trembled, and his brain buzzed with nervous energy. They were leaving. He knew it.

Maybe they’d leave him forever.

This thought alone was enough to send Nico into a panic. He rushed toward the front door where his humans, Rachel and Nick, stood in their going-outside clothes. His tiny paws pitter-pattered on the hardwood floor, and his breath came in short, rapid snorts. 

Maybe if he made them see how much he loved them, they’d stay! He jumped in circles, tongue lolling out in a desperate attempt to make them reconsider this potential betrayal.

“Don’t go! What if you forget about me? What if you get lost? What if you’re eaten by a very large squirrel?!” he tried to say, but all that came out was a series of high-pitched yips, barks, and a vigorous tail wag.

“Calm down, buddy. We’ll be back in a few hours,” Rachel said, bending down to give him a scratch behind the ears.

“Hours? Hours?” Nico thought. “What’s an hour? It sounds like a lot! It sounds like forever!“

Nick grabbed the keys, and Rachel stood up. “Be good, Nico. Olivia and Oreo will keep you company.” 

Nico’s head snapped toward the corner of the room where the cats—Olivia, a feline who clearly thought she owned the place, and Oreo, a chunky tuxedo cat who loved to start trouble—sat, observing him with the kind of detached indifference only cats can muster. 

Olivia flicked her tail. “You’ll be fine, Nico,” she yawned. “They’re just going to the city for the day.”

“Or forever,” Oreo added lazily from the floor, barely lifting his head.

Nico’s heart leapt into his throat. Forever. They were leaving him forever.

He bolted toward the door, paws scrabbling, but it was too late. The door closed with a finality that echoed through Nico’s very soul.

***

The moment they left, the silence of the house wrapped around him like a heavy blanket. His world had officially ended.

Nico paced around the living room, peering out the window, ears perked for the sound of the car pulling back in. Nothing. Just an empty driveway. 

A whole world out there. Without him. What were his humans doing without him? Were they okay? Were they lost?

He tried to remember what life had been like before they’d left. Was it even real? Had they ever been here? Were his humans just figments of his imagination? 

Maybe they were just illusions conjured up by his fragile little doggy brain. Nico started to doubt everything he had ever known. Who was Nico, even?

It was a full-blown doggy existential crisis.

“Calm down,” Olivia drawled from the armchair. “They’re just out. They’ll be back before dinner.”

Nico whipped around. “How do you know? What if they’re eaten by—by a bear? Or kidnapped by raccoons?”

Oreo stretched his body out across the floor like a fuzzy sausage and sighed. “Or they could be having a nice time in the park, away from your incessant barking.”

“But they wouldn’t leave me! They love me!” Nico said, his voice rising.

“Love? Hmm,” Olivia said, squinting at him. “You really don’t understand humans, do you? Love for them is conditional. Give them a few hours of ‘freedom,’ and they’ll forget all about you.”

“Forget about me?” Nico’s paws fidgeted. He hadn’t even considered this possibility. “But—no, they wouldn’t!”

“They will,” Olivia continued with a flick of her tail. “It’s been scientifically proven.”

Nico blinked rapidly, unsure what “scientifically proven” meant but horrified nonetheless. “What do I do?”

“You could try lying down and resting like a normal animal,” Oreo mumbled into the floor.

Rest? Nico couldn’t rest. His whole world was spiraling into chaos! 

How could they just be so… calm? He raced into the kitchen, skidding across the tile, and stared at his food bowl. It was full. That was good, right? They wouldn’t leave him without food, unless…

“Unless it’s a trap,” Nico whispered to himself. “They’re preparing me to fend for myself.”

He wandered back into the living room, ears drooping. Olivia had curled up on her chair, eyes closed, and Oreo hadn’t moved. How were they so relaxed? Maybe they wanted the humans gone. The thought struck him like a bolt of lightning. He gasped audibly.

“You’re in on it,” Nico whispered. “You’ve wanted this all along!”

Oreo cracked an eye open. “In on what?”

“Getting rid of me! You’ve been plotting this for years, haven’t you?”

Olivia rolled over, giving him a pitying glance. “Nico, you’re spiraling. Take a nap.”

“A nap?! While the world falls apart around me?!”

“Look,” Olivia sighed, “you’re a dog. They’ll come back for you because you’re needy and make them feel important. Trust me, I’ve been observing humans for years. It’s their nature to baby you.”

Nico wasn’t sure if he should be insulted or reassured. Maybe both. He spent the next few minutes trying to calm himself by gnawing on his squeaky toy, but the repetitive squeaking only seemed to match the frantic beat of his heart. Time crawled. The minutes felt like days. The house, once a warm, loving space, was now an empty, hollow cavern filled with doom.

What if he had to find a new family? A cat family? Could he become a cat? The idea made him woozy. No, no. His humans would come back. They had to.

“You’re making that face again,” Olivia observed from her perch.

“What face?” Nico asked, snapping out of his spiral.

“The one where you look like you’ve just seen your reflection for the first time.”

Nico whined softly. “I miss them.”

“We know,” Oreo said, rolling onto his back and stretching his legs in the air. “Everyone knows.”

***

Hours (or years, Nico was convinced) passed. Once fluffy and soft, his fur now felt weighed down by the stress of impending abandonment. He had checked every window at least five times, hoping, praying, that his humans would magically appear.

Just when Nico was about to collapse under the sheer weight of his dread, a sound echoed through the house.

Was that…?

The rumble of a car in the driveway. A jingle of keys at the door. A familiar voice calling, “Nico! We’re home!”

For a moment, Nico froze. Could it be real? Or was this some kind of cruel mirage, a trick played by his exhausted mind? 

But no—there they were! Rachel! Nick! HIS HUMANS!

He sprang into action, paws moving faster than his brain could process. He bolted across the house, practically flying over furniture as his entire body wiggled with uncontrollable joy. 

His humans! They hadn’t abandoned him! He was saved!

The door opened, and there they were, real and alive and smelling like the outside world. Nico exploded into a frenzy of ecstatic barking, wagging, and spinning, his body a blur of black fur and uncontainable joy. 

He jumped up, down, sideways—he didn’t even know what he was doing anymore, only that he had to make sure they knew he would never, ever, ever let them leave him again.

“You were gone forever!” Nico barked, leaping up to lick their faces. “I thought you were lost! Or kidnapped! Or worse!”

Rachel laughed, bending down to scoop him up. “We were gone for just a few hours, silly boy.”

“Hours?” Nico thought. “You mean decades!”

Nick scratched his ears, and Nico’s frantic energy began to ebb. He was home. He was loved. He had survived. 

Oreo sauntered in, blinking slowly, while Olivia observed from a distance, tail twitching. “Told you they’d come back,” she said smugly.

Nico ignored her. He was too busy being the happiest dog in the universe, nuzzled between his humans, basking in the glow of their return. 

For now, the world was perfect again.

But tomorrow? Tomorrow would be a whole new set of anxieties.

The End