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Pepper
“It’s supposedto rain the day of the fundraiser.”
Vivian tossed her phone on the table in disgust.
“I thought you had a backup plan.” I glanced around the mostly empty room.
Paths of Purpose was a shelter for abused women and children. When I’d had nowhere to go, I would’ve given anything for a place like this.
It was clean and welcoming, like a home.
Millie sniffed around in search of crumbs from her position under the table. She’d already made herself at home.
I looked around again. I’d been leaving Miss Adeline alone at the rescue too much lately, but she’d insisted I come. A partnership between Paths of Purpose and Grey Paws was too important to continue to put off.
“So sorry to make you wait.” A woman in a sleek pantsuit with her hair pulled back in a low bun rushed over.
Millie sat up and edged closer to my leg.
“We had some last-minute details to go over for the fundraiser anyway,” Vivian said.
I hadn’t come to terms with the event yet. Fortunately, I hadn’t had much time to dwell on it.
“I’m Audrey Quinn.” The woman took the chair across from us.
“This is Pepper.” Vivian introduced me, and I appreciated it.
“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Quinn.” That was what Vivian referred to her as, so I followed suit.
“Lovely to meet you too.”
“This is Millie,” I said, pointing under the table. She’d put her head in my lap. I stroked her head.
She was so good with Eric, I decided to bring her along as a test. As any dog might be, she was a little nervous being out of her normal circle of familiar places. Every minute she was here, she became more comfortable.
“Hello, Millie.” Mrs. Quinn held out her hand. Millie sniffed, then licked, giving her a stamp of approval.
“I’ve spoken to a lady who runs a rescue upstate. She works with a prison in her area.” My face heated. “I don’t mean to insinuate your facility is like jail,” I said quickly.
Mrs. Quinn offered me a kind smile. “I know you didn’t. Those kinds of programs can give us a guideline as we form our own.”
“Yes.” Relief filled me. Thank goodness I hadn’t insulted her. “Eventually her dogs stay with the people involved in the program. I don’t know if that’s something you’d be comfortable with here, but for me, we’d have to work toward it.”
“Agreed. When we built the shelter, we didn’t plan for the possibility of therapy dogs.” She shook her head. “That feels like a major oversight looking back.”
“We’ve never done anything like this,” Vivian said. “And if the preliminary program works, then we can deal with reconfiguring.”
“Until recently, we didn’t allow pets.” Mrs. Quinn took a sip of coffee. “After seeing what the dog did to bring new life into the shelter, we began to think of possibilities. This seems to be falling into place.”
I appreciated her enthusiasm. Vivian’s topped all of ours, and it was contagious.
“My biggest concern is logistics. There are only two of us at Grey Paws. Until the dogs and the ladies get used to each other, I wouldn’t feel comfortable dropping off our dogs for hours or letting them spend the night.”
“I wouldn’t either,” Mrs. Quinn said. “The beginning stages would be a time commitment for all of us, but our goal is to create the least amount of stress all around.”
“Maybe it would be best for the residents to go to the rescue at first. Or maybe we split it. Half the time they go there and the other half the dogs come here. Since some of the ladies need to stay close to Paths.” Vivian tapped the tabletop with her finger.
“That’s not a bad idea.” I warmed to it. That seemed more doable than hauling our dogs here all the time.
