The Snarling Chihuahua

Taz experienced the puzzling
and bleak miseries of abuse
confusing the very small animal,
causing him to quiver with fear
and anticipation of more pain.
Finally abandoned, how
would the vulnerable
creature understand its
unspeakable agony of fear
and pain had abruptly ended. Its
young brain and memory
patterned in trauma. Now, it is
loved and reassured in new
surroundings with gentle souls and
stability, salving its hurt to a
degree that evaporates 
to usher fear back in whenever
strangers whose unfamiliar presence
threatens a return to terror; the
dog resilient but forever
in the permanence of memory
a helpless, beaten cur.