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“You ready?” Alex said as I got close.
“Yup,” I said. “Your car?”
“You leave yours at the house?”
“I did. Felt like walking this morning.”
“Fair enough,” he said. “Let’s go.”
Alex had a couple of cars, and it was always interesting to see what he drove in to work depending on the day. Sometimes it was his little black sports car, sometimes it was his hybrid eco sedan, and sometimes it was his jeep. It all depended on how he was feeling that day. Today, apparently, he had felt eco-friendly, and we stuffed ourselves into the small sedan.
“Cam said you were specifically looking for a mutt,” Alex said.
“Well, I guess,” I said. “I just want a pup who would be happy running around the vineyard with me while I work, but also wouldn’t mind sleeping alone. Noah and I have an idea for building a pretty epic chicken coop with a doghouse. That way we could have fresh eggs on the regular, and the dog could protect them, and I could let it out when I was working in the field.”
“That sounds cool,” Alex said.
“Yeah, Noah said he can get the insulation and wire it for heat so we can basically make a little mansion for the dog. Whoever we get is going to be lucky as hell. But I don’t want to contribute to dog breeding, so a rescue sounds right.”
“Awesome.”
As we walked into the animal shelter, the receptionist greeted us. She was a pretty brunette, and Alex immediately went into flirting mode. He was such an enigma sometimes. He could bury himself in his work and disappear for a month at a time, or he could be the smoothest operator in the world, chatting up girls and being everyone’s instant friend. It was like a switch he could flip, and as soon as the brunette with the bright blue eyes showed up, he was on.
“So, these are our recent rescues,” the brunette, whose name was apparently Tammy, said. “We have them all in one big room so they can play and just be puppies. You can stay as long as you like, and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate.”
“What if I have questions that aren’t about the dogs?” Alex said, grinning. I rolled my eyes.
“Well, then I think we should talk about those in private,” Tammy purred. “Perhaps in my office?”
“Or over dinner?” Alex said. “We own a restaurant, my brothers and I.”
“Oh, you do?” she asked, a little giggle acting as a punctuation to her question.
At that point I zoned out of their conversation, opting to focus on the pups that surrounded me.
There were a wide variety of dogs there, many of them puppies or close to it. When I had been thinking about getting a dog, I had always said I wanted to get a puppy, one who would be able to grow into the role. Yet, as I played with the pups and enjoyed myself, I kept looking over at the group of older dogs in the next room.
There were a couple in there who not only looked spry and like they had interesting personalities, but I also knew that they had a much lower likelihood of being adopted out. The older the dog, the harder it was to find a home for them. I felt a tremendous amount of empathy for them, and one in particular caught my eye.
It was an older coonhound dog, and he kept walking up to the door, which had a glass window built in, and looking out at me before bouncing away and coming back again. Every time he came to the window, I would look up at him and he would open his eyes wider, making a face that I could only describe as adventurous, and then bounding away again. It was like he was trying to get me to come join him on some quest.
Tammy left us alone for a bit, and Alex got on the floor with the pups. The new person to play with got the attention of most of them and let me move closer to the room with the older dogs. A second worker, a woman named Lucia, came into the room, and suddenly Alex was chatting her up too. I hated to interrupt his attempt at becoming the Don Juan of our little town, but I wanted to ask a question.
“Excuse me,” I said, and Lucia turned her chocolate-brown eyes toward me.
“Yes?” she asked.
“Sorry to interrupt, but can I go in there?” I pointed at the door for the older dogs.
“Sure, but those are the older dogs.”
“I know,” I said.
“You don’t want a puppy?” Alex chest from where he sat on the floor, holding two of them close to his chest as one licked his chin.
“It’s not that I don’t,” I said. “There’s just a dog in there who caught my eye.”
