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Then came a soft, scratching noise. When his eyelids fluttered open, Rhett used every muscle in his body to keep himself from reacting. Humphrey sat only inches away, staring at him from rheumy brown eyes. With his head drooped like that, his ears hung forward, he looked so much like the vulture persona Snoopy did in the old comics Rhett had to stifle a laugh. He suppressed the urge to reach out and pet Humphrey on the head. Any movement he made might send the dog back into his crate, faster than he could blink.
“Hey, old man. You come out to say hi?”
“Am I seeing what I think I’m seeing?”
At the sound of Stanzi’s voice, Humphrey fled. With a wild scamper, he was back in the crate, nothing left to prove he’d been there but the sweet smell of his freshly shampooed fur.
“Shh!” Sunny, who’d come inside with her, gave Stanzi a nudge.
“Sorry.” Stanzi covered her mouth. Rhett stayed where he was at, on the ground, observing Humphrey inside his cage.
“Did I just see what I think I saw?” Sunny squatted down and peered into Humphrey’s cage. She turned to Rhett with narrowed eyes. “You didn’t pull him out against his will, did you?”
“I’m insulted.”
“Sorry.”
“All right.”
Stanzi laughed, but tried to stifle it. “I don’t even have words.”
Rhett cast a glance inside Humphrey’s cage. The little dog had tucked himself away as far in the back as he could go. “I thought he didn’t like people.”
“He doesn’t.” Sunny watched him in silence. She planted her hands on her hips.
Rhett rose to his feet and dusted off his jeans. “I should get home.”
“What did you think of the tour?” Sunny opened her arms to the rescue.
“I think—” Rhett looked around at this hodgepodge of dorky mutts, the special food, the carefully built and maintained structure “—that you and your sister are something else.” He glanced over at Humphrey. “What will you do with him? If nobody adopts him?”
Sunny shrugged. “We’ll keep trying.”
“Before you go.” Stanzi had a glimmer of hope in her eyes. “Let’s be real quiet. Just sit in silence and give Humphrey another chance.”
Sunny gave a slow nod. “All right. But I’m stepping out. I think three’s a crowd, in this instance. Humphrey will never come out with this many heartbeats in the room.”
After she left, Rhett shrugged. “I don’t think he’ll come out again.” But even as he said it, he sank back to the floor and closed his eyes. Stanzi followed suit. At first, his mind chattered away with noise, the events of last night and all the things he wanted to do today, but then he thought about the massage, and his mind gave up on thinking altogether. His thoughts drained away like water down the pipes. He imagined his troubles choked up before they let go, like that bubbly, sucking sound when the suds reach the hole in the sink. After that, it was a blank sort of bliss and random splotches of color and light. His body relaxed like a rag doll, and the peace inside gave him a buoyed feeling of being suspended in water or air or somewhere else he could become weightless.
After a while, Rhett sensed a presence, close by. There was a change in the air. Someone else’s breath. His eyes opened, and though the blissful feeling vanished, he couldn’t help but laugh under his breath.
“Aw, hell, no,” Rhett muttered, even as he smiled.
The little beagle was about a foot away from Rhett’s thigh and staring like a vulture as his ears drooped forward.
“Stay very still,” Stanzi said. “He likes that. Quiet people. Still people.”
Humphrey seemed to watch him, with those brown-tinted eyes. His black, tan and white coat looked a little dull, even though he’d clearly had a bath. His paws seemed bigger than usual, but that was because his body was too skinny.
Rhett’s gaze lingered on the dog’s feet. Humphrey’s nails were all pale, like a yellowed ivory. Except for the fourth nail on the right paw. That one was a reddish-brown color, like an extension of the few tan spots he had on his white feet. Like a shard of his clinging hope, or a tidbit of his youth, before life had been so cruel to him.
“Look at that,” Rhett said. “He has one dark nail on his paw.” Humphrey’s nose bumped Rhett’s fingertips. The little beagle inched closer. His paws nearly touched Rhett’s thigh.
“He bumped you,” Stanzi whispered. “I can’t believe it.”
Rhett raised his hand a few inches off the ground and extended it in the beagle’s direction. Humphrey stretched his neck out and bumped Rhett a second time.
“Wow,” Stanzi gasped. “He really likes you.”
