“He’s dangerous. He almost killed our Mia! I don’t feel sorry for him.”

The man was stalling for time. Even in the car he tried to object:

“Maybe it’s a misunderstanding… We shouldn’t do this…”

But the woman was unyielding. Since morning, she had firmly decided to get rid of the dog, blaming him.

She demanded severe punishment, and now it wasn’t enough just to drop the animal off far away—she wanted Roger gone forever.

At first, the dog sat calmly as always, even wagging his tail.

He thought it was just a long walk. They had gone off to take care of something and would be back.

Even when he heard the car engine fade into the distance, he thought, “They’ll come. I just need to wait.”

The man tied him tightly to the tree, scratched his ear, let his hand linger on his head a moment—as if in farewell—and walked to his wife.

Two silhouettes slowly faded into the forest—the very people he once called his family.

Roger looked around. He sniffed carefully and listened to the sounds of the woods.

Occasionally, small animals scurried by, and somewhere in the distance crows cawed. When a rabbit appeared, Roger even barked happily—as if nothing had happened.

But by evening it became clear: hunger comes first. Then thirst. Then cold. And fear.

The skin under his collar had already begun to bleed. He tried to break free, pulled from side to side, but the chain was strong. The small area in which he was left became his prison. Every step in a circle felt painfully familiar.

He even made up a game for himself: to circle the tree in the opposite direction—just to feel like he was going somewhere. But it didn’t help.

By nightfall, he stopped resisting. He curled up at the roots of the tree and let out a plaintive howl. Not from hunger or pain—but from loneliness. From the realization that no one was coming.

He wasn’t guilty of anything. Not even a little. On the contrary. He had saved the girl.

He had seen Mia, the one-year-old toddler, climb onto a stool and reach for a hot pot.

Hearing the creak and sensing danger, Roger lunged forward and knocked over the stool so the child wouldn’t get burned.

But the woman had only seen her daughter falling and the overturned furniture.

She thought the dog had attacked the child. That he was jealous of the new family member.

And so began this injustice.

He loved them all. He loved when Mia tried to touch him, when she threw spoons at him from her high chair.

He endured it, because he knew: children can’t control themselves. But he had learned to.

Mia was growing before his eyes. She now stood confidently, walked around the room, explored the world.

And Roger followed her like a shadow, guarding her from every danger. He was her invisible protector.

But one second—and everything changed.

That day, after the fall, the mother had run from the bathroom and seen a scene she interpreted her own way:

“He knocked her down! Trapped her under the stool! I told you he’s jealous! We should’ve never kept him in the house!”

“Her knees are all scraped up!” she screamed at her husband, demanding action. “You have to do something!”

The idea to abandon the dog in the forest was born in her furious mind.

She insisted on it, cried bitterly, imagining a threat where there had been a savior.

“I’ll go with you,” she declared firmly. “We need to be sure he won’t come back. What if he attacks again?”

Roger no longer struggled. He just sat and howled, head thrown back like a wolf on a moonless night. His voice rang with pain no one would ever hear.

He was nearly unconscious when another person found him—a boy named Anton.

For Anton, the forest had also become a refuge. After a tragedy the year before, he had lost touch with the world around him.

His birthday, a firework that exploded too early—it all ended in a terrible facial burn.

Doctors diagnosed severe damage to his eyes. Retina, cornea—the prognosis was grim.

For the first two weeks, he couldn’t see at all. Then his vision partially returned—as dark shapes and blurry smudges. Everything around him felt distant and alien.

The sound of his mother crying in the doctor’s office stuck with him for life:

“At least a year is needed to stabilize his condition.”

And surgery—offered no guarantee of recovery.

Everything that had once given Anton’s life meaning—playing with friends, computer games, swimming, and school—was now in the past.

One moment changed everything. A thirteen-year-old boy dreaming of a bright future lost his sight and, with it, his familiar way of life.

Anton changed noticeably. Once energetic and cheerful, he became withdrawn, apathetic, and irritable.

It turned out that most of his interests required sight.

Without it, his world shrank to sounds and smells.

He had loved sports, read science fiction, and attended programming classes for kids.

Now, he was to attend a specialized boarding school for visually impaired children—a whole new reality full of uncertainty and loneliness.

A whole year at the boarding school brought him no friends.

At home, he avoided contact, spending time with music, audiobooks, or simply sitting on the balcony, listening to the sounds around him.

He refused to go to a summer camp for the visually impaired, insisting on staying home.

Summer began quietly and gloomily—Anton barely left the apartment.

Only with great effort did his mother convince him to spend a couple of days at their dacha.

“What for? I can’t run through the forest or go to the river,” he protested.

“Just two days. We’ll be nearby, go wherever you want, we’ll make it comfortable.”

“Exactly—‘we’ll be nearby,’” Anton replied bitterly.

“My peers walk around alone, and I’m an invalid now. I’m not like them anymore.”

The dacha was in a picturesque area beyond the city bypass. Because of the deep wooded ravine between the highway and the village, it was very quiet there. Their cottage stood on the edge, beyond which stretched an endless forest.

As a child, Anton had loved mushroom-hunting walks.

He knew every path and could wander the woods for hours. Until that incident.

Now he could only sit on the swing his father had set up right on the edge of the woods, listening to the rustle of leaves, bird songs, and forest murmurs.

But even that grew boring, and he returned to his headphones.

With the help of a voice assistant, he easily picked music or rewatched favorite films he already knew by heart.

“Damn, the phone’s dead again!” he muttered in frustration. “How can you keep track of the charge if you can’t see?”

He took off his headphones, grabbed his white cane, and headed to the house for the charger.

But suddenly he heard a strange howl from the forest. Anton stopped.

At first, it seemed like the wind rustling the trees. But after a minute the howl repeated—long and plaintive.

In the past year, his hearing had become unusually sharp. He’d learned to distinguish sounds and roughly determine their source.

By rough estimate, the sound came from about forty-five meters away.

If he followed a familiar path, he could reach a clearing. “I can check for a minute and come right back. I know this area well,” Anton decided and, grabbing his cane, slowly moved forward.

The forest was darker, silhouettes blending into a blur.

He had to feel the path with his cane to avoid getting lost. But he confidently reached the clearing, where he could make out the vague outlines of objects.

He listened silently, waiting for the howl again, but all was quiet except for the rustling of leaves.

But just a few steps away lay the unconscious, emaciated dog named Roger, losing his last strength.

To keep his bearings, Anton turned around and sat down in the grass. That’s when he heard faint breathing, like a whistle.

“Could it be a wolf?” flashed through his mind. The sound came from the right, just a few meters away. Focusing his hearing, he detected an unseen shape.

Gathering courage, the boy crawled closer and felt the fur of an animal, then a leash and collar cutting into the skin. The dog didn’t move.

Anton carefully felt the leash and realized the dog was tied to the tree.

Attempts to untie it by hand failed, and he remembered the folding knife he always carried.

With it, the boy gently cut the rope, rolled up the remaining leash, and carefully lifted the dog.

He had to hold his cane with one hand.

A bit disoriented, but trying to keep his balance, Anton began to walk along the edge of the clearing, searching for the return path.

The way back took much longer than getting there.

Meanwhile, his parents, worried by his long absence, had already begun searching the whole village.

At home, Anton laid the exhausted dog in the yard. The first thing Roger felt upon waking was someone’s caring hands bringing water to his mouth.

That moment would remain the dog’s warmest memory.

“Can I keep him?” Anton asked when the dog began eating from his hands.

“Of course, sweetheart. You saved him. How could he be without you now?”

The name “Roger” was embroidered on the leash, so it stayed the same.

The dog quickly adapted to his new home and became a true support and loyal friend to the boy.

Over the summer, Anton changed noticeably. He became cheerful and active again. His mother couldn’t hold back tears when, for the first time since the accident, she saw a genuine smile on her son’s face.

Now Anton could walk in the yard with Roger, throw him a ball.

It turned out the dog knew many commands and was remarkably intelligent.

But most importantly—Roger had a natural sense.

If the boy came too close to the edge of a step or curb, the dog would sharply pull him aside, preventing a fall, and press his head under Anton’s hand.

With Roger on a leash beside him, Anton felt confident.

He could walk freely, using his cane with the other hand. The dog never tugged or ran off, but carefully chose a safe path, stopping at dangerous spots—like near a curb.

His parents even considered training Roger at a guide-dog school but soon realized it wasn’t necessary—their bond and intuition were stronger than any training.

By the end of summer, doctors decided to proceed with surgery, and Anton’s vision was partially restored.

When the boy first came out of the hospital room, his main thought was: “So this is what Roger looks like.”

He had memorized every feature by touch, but had never seen him with his own eyes.