Page 111 of Family Bonds- Kelsey & Van

“Yep,” she said, giggling. “It was a hot spot, all right. Probably pee.”

She tried to gently pull Frankie’s ear from his back and the puppy whined.

Not working. She didn’t want to panic though she was darn close to it.

“There has to be an easy way to get it out,” he said.

“Hold him,” she said. “Dr. Google to the rescue.”

She shoved Frankie into Van’s hands and pulled her phone out of her back pocket and did a quick search.

“Find anything?”

“Oil,” she said. “Coconut oil, which I don’t have. I do have regular oil and cooking spray. To the kitchen we go. Want to tell me how this happened?”

“I let him out,” he said. “I brought his ball with him and we were playing catch and fetch.”

“He caught the ball?” she asked. “He doesn’t do it for me. Doesn’t bring it back to me either.”

“As I learned,” he said. “Maybe I threw it too hard and it went in the bush.”

“Which explains why he ended up in there. I don’t let him go near it. Boy, I guess you need to learn the rules.”

“Guess so,” he grumbled.

She found the whole situation kind of cute. Or she would once they got this mess out of Frankie’s fur.

She put Frankie on the counter and got to work while Van put her groceries away.

After a few minutes she’d managed to get most of it out and grabbed Frankie’s comb and attacked it that way.

“Thanks for putting the food away. Can you go to my bathroom and get my conditioner out of the shower? I’m going to bathe him now. I’ll show you theproperway to do it. Then I’ll put the conditioner on it and comb some more. Hopefully that gets the rest out.”

She was pouring water over Frankie and soaping him up in the sink when Van returned.

“How many bottles of conditioner do you have?” he asked.

He put it down on the counter. “Two,” she said. “One is daily and one is weekly. You don’t think I’ve got this gorgeous mane by doing ordinary things, do you?” She shook her head and her hair floated around a bit.

“Should have figured,” he said drily.

“Now watch how I do this. Notice there is only a little water in the sink on his paws. It fills up as I wash and rinse him. No more than that. If he’s standing in it, he pees. You know, like putting your hand in a cup of water while you sleep.”

“That’s not true,” he said.

“Sure, it is,” she said. “We did it to a friend during a sleepover once. She woke up and said she swore she was going to pee her pants and ran to the bathroom. We were bummed she didn’t do it before she woke up.”

“You’re making that shit up,” he said when she was laughing.

“Maybe,” she said. She poured the last of the water over Frankie to get the soap out and put conditioner in her hand and rubbed it all over her pup and in the area where the burdock was.

More water was used to rinse and finally after close to twenty minutes she thought she got it all.

“This is getting you used to having a child,” he said.

“Yep,” she said. “I think I handled it better than you trying to drown my dog.”

“I didn’t drown him,” he said defensively.

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