We awoke when, with a lurch, the jostling stopped. The side of the van opened up and admitted a flood of dog smells!
We were all whimpering, eager to run free and sniff everything this new place had to offer, but that was not to happen. Instead, Sam Dad moved each cage, one at a time, out the door. When it was our turn, Lacey and I flattened to the floor, made dizzy by the way Sam Dad carried us. We were placed on some sandy ground, still in the cage. Across from us I saw Heavy Boy Buddha and two of my brothers, and realized that all the dogs from the van were now here, their crates arrayed in a rough circle. The canine odors were even more rampant and available now. Lacey and I sniffed, and then she climbed on top of me and it turned into a long wrestle. I was aware of humans young and old darting around the kennels, but Lacey absorbed most of my attention.
Then Lacey shook me off and I saw what she was staring at: a girl not much older than Ava, with completely different features—Ava’s eyes and hair were light, her skin pale, but this girl had black hair and dark eyes and a darker cast to her skin. She smelled very much like Ava, though—sweet and fruity.
“Oh, you are the prettiest baby. You are so beautiful,” the girl whispered. I felt the adoration coming off her as she poked her fingers through the wires and Lacey licked them. I pushed my way to those fingers for my share of the affection, but the girl was only focused on Lacey.
Sam Dad crouched down. “That’s Lacey. She’s obviously mostly boxer.”
“She’s the one I want,” this new girl declared.
“Ask your parents to come over, and I will let her out for you to play with,” Sam Dad offered. The little girl skipped off. Lacey and I exchanged baffled expressions.
Very soon a man around Sam Dad’s age approached, followed by a boy older and bigger than Ava. I was wagging because I had never seen a boy before: it was like a male version of a girl!
“Are these two from the same litter? The female looks smaller,” New Man observed. The boy stood with his hands in his pockets, hanging back. I had never before met anyone who didn’t want to play with puppies.
“No. We’re thinking the male’s father might be a large breed of some kind, maybe great Dane. Pup’s probably ten weeks old and already pretty big,” Sam Dad replied. “The mother is mostly malamute. The girl there is from a different litter; she’s a boxer mix. Her name is Lacey.”
“It’s a big dog we’re needing.”
“Well, unless by big you mean tall, like an Irish wolfhound, you’re not going to get much bigger than a malamute with some Dane in him. Not stockier, anyway. Look at his paws,” Sam Dad noted with a chuckle.
“Your rescue is in Grand Rapids? A bit of a haul.”
“Yes, we drove up with some of our bigger dogs. Up here people like large dogs; in the city they like them small. When I head back I’m filling the rescue-mobile with Chihuahuas and Yorkies and other small breeds from shelters around here.”
I fell on my back so that Lacey would attack my neck. An older woman joined the new man and smiled into the cage, but I was too busy being mauled by Lacey to pay her much mind.
“Like I said,” New Man continued, “it’s the bigger dogs we’re interested in. It’s for my other son, Burke. He was born with a spine problem. The doctors want to wait until he’s older to operate, so he’s in a wheelchair. We need to get a dog to help him around, pull his chair, all of that.”
“Oh.” Sam Dad shook his head. “There are organizations that train companion animals. It’s hard work. You should contact one of them.”
“My son says the trained dogs should go to people who have no hope of walking again. He refuses to consider taking a companion dog out of the system.” New Man shrugged. “Burke can be sort of … stubborn about things.”
The boy with his hands in his pockets snorted and rolled his eyes.
“That’s enough, Grant,” New Man said. The boy kicked at the dirt.
“You want to have your son come meet the male? His name is Bailey.”
New Man, the older lady, and the boy all looked up sharply. Lacey and I caught the sudden motions and froze, wondering what was happening.
“Did I say something wrong?” Sam Dad asked.
“It’s just that my family has a history with dogs named Bailey,” New Man explained. “You, uh, mind if we changed his name to something else?”
“It would be your dog. That’s fine. You want to bring your other son over? Burke?”
No one said anything for a moment. The older woman touched a light hand to New Man’s shoulder, saying, “He’s … he struggles with people seeing him in the chair right now. He didn’t used to mind, but this last year has been difficult. He’ll be thirteen in June.”
“Ah, the end of the preteen years,” Sam Dad observed dryly. “I’ve heard about them. I’ve got a few more years before I have to worry—Ava’s only ten.”
“I think I can make the command decision, here,” New Man declared. “I assume there’s a fee?”
“Fees and forms,” Sam Dad replied cheerfully.
The new people went away, talking together. Suddenly the little girl with the dark hair came running back, followed by two adult humans.
“This is her, Daddy!” she cried out. She knelt, opened the cage, and scooped out Lacey. When I made to follow, she clanged the cage door shut right in my face.
I watched in concern as she turned away. Where was she taking Lacey?
{ FOUR }
The little girl with the black hair took Lacey over to meet the two adults—the girl’s parents, a part of my mind decided. Mostly I was just trying to catch a glimpse of Lacey in the little girl’s arms. For some reason, this felt different, more threatening, than when Ava carried one of us. Lacey was just as desperate: when she was lowered to the ground, she ignored the dark-haired girl and ran straight over to my cage and stuck her nose through the bars to touch mine.
“Lacey!” the little girl called, leading her parents over and snatching my Lacey back up.
New Man and his family were returning, and I saw him stiffen at the sight of the little girl’s family. The boy regarded New Man curiously.
“Hello,” said the man with the dark hair. New Man reacted oddly, ignoring Dark Hair Man and kneeling to pull me out of my cage, hopefully so I could be with Lacey.
“Hello,” the older lady replied to Dark Hair Man. “Are you adopting a new puppy, too?”
“I’m getting Lacey,” the black-haired girl sang.
I decided there were two separate families—Black Hair Girl and her mother and father; and New Man, a boy, and an older woman who didn’t seem to be the boy’s mother. Though the two families were both human, they smelled slightly different from one another.
New Man picked me up and turned away from the conversation with Dark Hair Man. “Are you coming, Mom?” he asked after he took a few steps. An odd tension flowed through New Man’s hands as they held me.
“Nice speaking to you,” the older lady (who New Man called “Mom”) said to the Black Hair Family before she hurried after us. She was frowning at New Man. He waited as she caught up to us. “What in the world was that?” Mom asked in low tones. “I’ve never seen you so rude.”