Page 2 of Christmas Shelter

Thomas whistles, impressed.

"That's quite a drive from Salamanca," he comments with a nod. "Aren't you worried about driving with the storm coming?"

In truth, Patricia is worried. Snowstorms like the one approaching this afternoon aren't common in Salamanca, and she would have preferred to be home when it hits, but she can't control the weather.

"If nothing holds me up, I'll be gone before it arrives and leave it behind," Patricia winks at him, making it clear he shouldn't keep asking, "see you when I'm back."

"Sure, safe travels."

Patricia exits the building and breathes in the cold winter air deeply. Dusk approaches, and the Christmas lights in the streets have just turned on. She's not passionate about Christmas, at least not since discovering Santa wasn't real, but she must admit that, deep down, she's never lost the Christmas spirit.

Her car sits parked two blocks away, and although she usually enjoys looking at the Christmas decorations shop owners use to decorate their windows, this time she rushes to her car because, as she told Thomas, she doesn't want the approaching storm to catch her leaving Salamanca. Though judging by the sky's appearance, completely covered in clouds, Patricia has her doubts.

She climbs into her car, where she'd already stored her suitcase this morning, and sets off to leave the city and drive to Gibraltar. It's five in the afternoon and, although she normally leaves work at seven, she requested special permission to leave early. Even so, she knows she'll arrive past midnight at her destination, but that doesn't matter because she's heading to a specific place, the Blue Star Inn, run by her two best friends, Sonia and Yolanda, who startedtheir business two years ago and whom she hasn't seen since.

Just as she leaves the city and drives along a secondary road, Patricia thinks she spots something moving a few yards ahead of her car and hits the brakes. When she manages to focus her vision, she realizes with dismay that it's a dog wandering between the shoulder and the road.

"Damn it," she mutters, checking her mirrors for other cars.

She approaches the dog slowly and quickly realizes from its appearance that it seems abandoned. Patricia can't help but curse internally because, although it's the most inconvenient moment, she can't ignore it and drive past. Frustrated, she turns on her hazard lights and pulls over to the shoulder. In the opposite lane, two other vehicles have stopped to prevent the dog from getting hit by another car, but Patricia is the only one who gets out to try to catch it. She goes to the back of her car and opens the trunk because she always keeps dry dog food there for cases like this, since there's an animal shelter near this road and it's not the first time people abandon dogs in the area hoping the shelter will take them in.

The dog stands still a few yards from Patricia's car, clearly scared and disoriented, and possibly blinded by the car lights, but this helps the veterinarian approach slowly while talking to the animal with all the tenderness she can muster as she leaves food on the pavement to try to lure it with food.

As she places kibbles, she moves away and gives the animal space to build trust. Minutes pass and cars pile up, but fortunately, people remain patient and let her do what she must until the dog, driven by hunger, begins to approach.

"That's it, sweetie, eat, here's some more," she says and looks down when she notices it's starting to snow. "Great," she adds with a grimace of displeasure, now she'll have to drive in snow, exactly what she didn't want.

With great patience, Patricia manages to get close and finally grab the broken rope the animal has tied around its neck. After that, without forcing it, she moves aside to let the cars pass so the animal won't stress. When they're alone and, after many pets and more food, she manages to get it into the car and closes the door. The animal sits and starts licking her hand when she sits beside it.

"Yes, I know you're grateful. It's better in here, isn't it?"

Patricia pets it and examines the rope.

"Let me guess what happened to you, your owners wanted to go on vacation and you were in the way. They left you tied to some tree, but you're very smart and finally broke free, right?"

Obviously, the dog doesn't answer, but Patricia feels certain her theory isn't far off. The dog is too gentle to have escaped from some orchard or warehouse where people still keep them alone all day for surveillance, like they're an alarm system.

"Well, now I'll take you to the shelter, you'll be better there and they'll take care of you," she says and when she starts the car, the snowfall intensifies.

Patricia activates the wipers at full speed and resumes driving with unease. She must admit she hadn't fully believed it would snow as heavily as they announced on TV, but she's barely covered a couple of miles and watches in amazement as the snow begins to stick to the road.

"Looks like we're in for an interesting ride," she tells the dog, which remains still in the passenger seat, as if used to car travel.

Three hundred yards ahead, Patricia takes the turn onto the dirt road leading to the shelter. She's barely half a mile from her destination, but the snowflakes fall so hard that she struggles to see what's ahead and two curves later, her rear wheels skid and, before she knows it, her car is stuck sideways in a sort of earthen slope that has left the car tilted to the right.

"Are you okay?" she asks the dog, feeling her heart pounding from the scare.

The dog doesn't seem bothered beyond the unexpected movement of the vehicle, but when Patricia tries to return to the path, her wheels spin in the mixture of snow and mud and, despite her efforts, it proves impossible. The veterinarian knows she can curse and unleash all the expletives she can think of, but that won't solve her situation and she needs to think fast, because more snow keeps accumulating on the path and soon she could become disoriented.

"Okay, dog, the shelter isn't far, we'll have to continue on foot, but I promise they'll give you meat cans and you'll sleep warm."

Patricia puts on her coat, grabs her purse and the dog by the rope serving as a leash, and abandons the car to walk to the shelter hoping to get inside and call emergency services to send a tow truck or firefighters to find her. Although they aren't far, she and the dog—more because of her than the dog—take almost twenty minutes to arrive. Patricia rings the doorbell simply to try, she does it out of habit, but before she has time to look for a place to jump the fence, a female voice answers her and she hurriedly relates what happened to her.

The outer gate opens automatically and Patricia walks as fast as she can to the shelter's cabin door with the dog. When she finally reaches the porch, the door opens and she has to wipe the snow from her face to make sure the person she's seeing is who she thinks it is.

"Carlota?" she asks confused.

"Hello, Patricia," Carlota responds, more surprised than she is.

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