Page 59 of Back to You

“Seriously, why am I here?” Michelle asked. She reached out to pat the dog. “No offense, buddy, I just don’t understand why I’m sacrificing my Saturday to wash big smelly dogs.”

“It’s good for your soul, Michelle.”

“My soul is just fine, thank you.” But she grabbed the dog shampoo and began applying it lavishly to the dog’s coat. “Poor bastard, what happened to you?”

“The lady up front said he was dumped on a back road and someone found him and brought him in.”

“Man, there are some sick people in this world. Who dumps a poor defenseless animal in the middle of nowhere? Scum, that’s who. Fuckers.”

They continued to bathe the docile dog, who honesty seemed happy just to be messed with. Once they were done, they moved him back to his kennel and grabbed the next one on their list.

Five dogs later, Brandon said, “Okay, just one left. A chihuahua.”

“Oh hell no, I don’t do chihuahuas,” Michelle said.

“Why not, they’re purse dogs.”

“Yeah, and they’re mean as shit.”

“Oh, I’m sure it’s fine.” Brandon took himself off down the row of kennels to find Muffin the chihuahua. Its name was Muffin, for God’s sake, how bad could it be?

He heard a vicious snarl to his left and glanced over. Kennel number 145, that was … the kennel he was looking for. He regarded the snarling, barking little ball of death inside and saw his sister’s point.

“Buddy, I’m not any happier about this than you are.”

Muffin remained both unimpressed and homicidal.

Brandon sighed and opened the kennel door. He reached down to grab Muffin and almost lost a finger.

“Now look. Your bitchy ass is getting a bath whether you like it or not. Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way?”

Muffin chose the hard way.

Michelle started laughing when she saw him running down the aisle holding the hysterical chihuahua away from his body while it tried desperately to draw blood. “That is all on you, B, I’m not going anywhere near it.”

Brandon dumped Muffin in the tub and turned the water on him. Oddly, the dog seemed to relax a little bit. “Bath is good, huh? Don’t you want to be all nice and clean for your next murder spree?”

He managed to soap up the dog and rinse it off without too much drama. He ran back down the aisle with the clean dog, dropping him in his kennel and hauling ass back out. Muffin had resumed snarling and wishing death on all who approached.

Michelle ducked out after they finished washing dogs, but Brandon stayed around to see what other help he could provide. There was a little bit of heavy lifting he was happy to do, and then they asked him to socialize some kittens, which was right up his alley. He parked himself on the floor of the kitten room and happily let the little balls of fuzz overtake him.

He heard the door open, then someone said, “Oh my.”

Brandon glanced up at the young man who had come in the door and was now staring at Brandon. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

Brandon went back to his kitten cuddling, but sensed eyes still on him. He looked back up at the guy still standing in the doorway staring. “Need some help?”

The guy startled. “Sorry, I just got distracted. Nothing cuter than tiny kittens crawling all over a hot guy.”

Brandon snorted. “Uh, thanks, I guess?”

“Hey, I’m not embarrassed, I’m not telling you anything you don’t know.” The young man walked over and sat down opposite Brandon, taking hold of two kittens and raising them to his face. “I just love this room,” he said, rubbing his face against fur.

“You volunteer?”

“Yeah, as much as I can. I’ve been doing it for a couple of years now.” He set the kittens down and offered his hand. “I’m Max.”

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