Page 31 of Love, Always and Forever
Getting to know the adult dogs took about half an hour, during which the breeder explained that Olde English Bulldogges were active dogs that required regular exercise. Once Amy assured her that was exactly what she was looking for, they headed for the enclosure where the puppies were getting some playtime.
Mikhail took his cellphone out and snapped a bunch of pictures of Amy as the puppies climbed all over her while she laughed at their antics. It didn’t take long to realize that she already had a favorite, one of the males. His body was mostly black with a white streak down the middle of his chest. His face was white, but with black ears and black circles around his eyes. Somehow Mikhail doubted she’d name him Panda, but he suggested it anyway.
To his surprise, she grinned and nodded. “I like it!”
While she got further acquainted with her new roommate, an adult bulldog with a brindled coat watched Mikhail from a short distance away. When he finally knelt down and held out his hand, the dog edged closer to give it a good sniff and then a quick lick. Then he bumped his head against Mikhail’s fingers, a not-so-subtle hint about what he wanted.
“Hi, buddy. Do you need some attention, too?”
The dog immediately laid down and rolled over, offering up his belly for a rub. Finally, Mikhail sat down in the grass and let the dog sprawl across his lap. The dog seemed content to sit there dozing in the sun with him; his rumbling snores made Mikhail smile. If he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine himself back sleeping in a barracks with his buddies. Some of those guys could really rattle the rafters, making it hard to fall asleep.
Damn, he missed that. Missed them, especially the ones who hadn’t made it back.
A shadow fell across him, dragging him back to the present. Lydia stood a short distance away watching the pair of them. “Sarge really likes you.”
Something in her voice caught Mikhail’s attention. “Are you surprised by that?”
“A little. He’s a rescue dog that we’ve been fostering for a while now. He was a stray, so we don’t know anything about his background. When we first got him, he was underfed and pretty skittish, but we’ve been working with him. Our best guess is that he’s about two years old, no more than three. The vet checked him over again the other day and gave him a clean bill of health.”
At the sound of her voice, Sarge woke up and blinked sleepily at the two humans. Mikhail gently eased him off his lap to stand up and backed away, determined to ignore the way the dog followed his every move. “Why the name Sarge?”
Lydia laughed. “That was my grandson’s doing. He thought that brindled coat resembled the camouflage uniforms the military wears.”
The kid was right. Sort of, anyway. The mix of black and brown would certainly make the dog hard to see in certain environments.
“What will happen to him?” Not that Mikhail really wanted to know.
Lydia leaned down to scratch Sarge on the head. “We only keep rescue dogs until they’re ready to be adopted. We’re about to send him on to one of the shelters to see if they can place him. His picture is already posted on a couple of the online adoption sites.”
The image of Sarge locked up in a cage or a kennel waiting for some stranger to choose him over any of the other dogs in the place hurt a lot more than it should have. Poor guy, especially if he was just now getting over the trauma of being lost or abandoned by his previous owner. Being uprooted again to move first to a shelter and then again to some stranger’s house wouldn’t be easy for him.
“If someone wanted to adopt him, what would that entail?”
The question slipped out before Mikhail could stop it. Even so, with those big brown eyes watching his every move, he couldn’t bring himself to regret asking.
Lydia’s worried expression lightened up at the question. “If you’re really interested in adopting him, I have all the necessary paperwork inside. If you’d rather think about it for a few days, I can put a hold on his transfer. Adopting a dog is a big step, especially if it’s not something you’ve been planning to do.”
Mikhail appreciated her offer, but he already knew that Sarge had found his new home. “I could use a roommate. While I fill out the paperwork, would you make a list of everything I’ll need to buy for him?”
“I’d be glad to. Will you take him with you today or do you want time to get everything set up and then come back for him?”
“I’ll take him home with me today, if that’s all right. I live on the other side of the mountains.”
It wasn’t that he’d mind driving the distance again even if he let Lydia think that was the case. No, the real reason he was taking Sarge home with him today was that he couldn’t stand the thought of driving away and leaving Sarge there thinking yet another human had abandoned him.
“If you’ll come with me, I’ll get you all fixed up.” She smiled down at the dog. “Sarge, you can hang around out here while your new owner signs on the dotted line. It will take a while since his friend Amy is taking her little friend home today, too.”
Sarge tilted his head to the side as if listening hard to what she had to say. Even so, as Lydia led Mikhail toward her office, Sarge followed along right behind as if he was afraid to let the two humans out of his sight. Before entering the building, Mikhail stopped to talk to the bulldog. “Don’t worry, Sarge. Marines never leave a buddy behind. Starting tonight, you and I will be bunking together.”
Sarge woofed softly and parked his butt right outside the door to wait. An hour later, four friends headed back over the mountains.
—
People rarely called in the middle of the night for happy reasons. Amy’s pulse kicked into overdrive as she snatched up her phone. “What’s wrong?”
Probably not the best way to start off a conversation, but too late now.
“Nothing’s wrong, Amy. At least not with me.”
