Undog
ShortStory 1,734 words Recommended by 3 award/anthology sources
"There’s a dog in this house. A not-quite-a-dog. An undog. I heard its whimpering the first week I slept here, the thump, thump, thump of its bulky legs on the old tiles. I found long brown hair mixed with dust bunnies where the walls met. When there’s a loud noise outside, the undog barks, a wounded kind of bark..."
Content warnings 2
abuseanimal-harm
Quasar links out; the story lives on Strange Horizons, where the author gets the click.