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“Sure.” I leaned down, still holding Dolly and not wanting her to get attacked in case his dog was upset. It was the barking that threw me off guard.
They both started wagging and the man's dog was being very gentle, so I set her down. I was the first to speak. “I just adopted her from Newtown on Sunday.”
“I adopted Davey on Sunday.” I’ve been down this path already with Eli, so I cut to the chase.
“Her intake forms noted another dog on the premises—her owner died.” The man had the look of a lightbulb turning on. “Yes. Davey too! Wow. So, they must have been roommates at their last home. Samantha said he came with another dog, but their old owner had just adopted him before they died, so the dogs weren’t bonded. I’m Davey’s third owner.”
What were the chances of this? Pretty high, it seemed.The Lord worked in mysterious ways.
“Well, since they know each other,” he started to ask me to join them whenhe looked back at my car. “Or are you just leaving?”
“No, she still wanted to play, but all the small dogs left so we were going to check out another park. We can go back here so they can play.”
“Cool.” He smiled and nodded, motioning for me to take the lead on the path.
Not so fast, potential ax murderer. Never turn your back on a stranger.
I swatted the compulsive chants out of my head, but I did feel hesitant.“I have to get something out of my car, we will meet you there in a minute.”
Nice save. My mother would be proud.
I took a drink out of my water bottle and while I was at it, I refreshed my lip balm. I looked through the bag I packed and saw I still had the bag of cookies from the doggy bakery inside, so I decided I would share them with our new friends. We walked back over to the Bark Park and I put Dolly in the pen. The man had Davey inside already and was pulling out small tennis balls of all colors and Davey barked excitedly. When he finally got hold of one, the man said ‘drop it’ but he wouldn’t. He started laughing and looked a little embarrassed, “I swear he knew this command yesterday.” He gave up the power struggle for the tennis ball and let Davey hold onto it, following me to the benches.
“I’m Micah, by the way.” He showed off his sparkling teeth and smiled at me.
“Katie.” Play it cool, I told myself. Yes, he was quite handsome, but that didn’t mean anything. I had encountered plenty of handsome men with strange commonalities to my newly adopted dog this week. This was just the new norm.
“What a coincidence,” he shook his head while looking at our two dogs chasing each other around. “I’ve seen stranger things happen.” It was true, meeting Dolly’s potential brother the last time we were here was high up on the list.
My mind went back to Eli, and I shut it down as fast as I could, changing the subject. “So, Micah, what do you do?” Right to the getting-to-know-each other part.
“I’m a fireman.”
It was a very attractive line of work, I must admit. Rugged men only appliedfor that. “It’s mostly saving kittens from trees, since we live in such a wet climate.” He laughed to himself.
“So, is Davey a firedog? Or is that role reserved for only Dalmatians?” I really had no idea what I was talking about, but I knew I’d read somethingsomewhereabout it. I traipsed through my bag remembering the cookies we had to share.
“I got him as a therapy dog of sorts. I’ve just been promoted to a role that will help teach others about fire safety, and that means a lot of schools and young children. I thought I could take him as a way to get their attention.”
If he would just target women’s groups, he wouldn’t need any help getting their attention, I thought. “What a great idea!”
He went on. “I found a dog fireman’s costume online. Of course, I ordered it. I wasn’t planning on getting a small dog, but as you know, they pick them out for you at Newtown.”
I did know. “Yes, they just handed Dolly over to me, too.” Now the mystery of the dog was solved. Micah noticed I had a blue bag in my hand.
“Is that from Pup Street Bakery?”
“Yes! Does Davey want one? I was just going to give Dolly one.” I reached into the bag.
“Sure, that’s nice of you. I know those aren’t cheap.” He laughed.
True, they were a small fortune at $3 apiece, but it was worth it for such intricate designs.
“I know. And I couldn’t stop picking out designs.” I held out my hand with the cookies and remembered the one I picked out that was slightly different from the rest. Thefireman’s hat.
“Well, this is one of thosestranger things happeningmoments I was telling you about,” I held out the cookie for him. His eyes grew wide, and he laughed, shaking his head. “That’s amazing.” He looked at the cookie and smiled. “Do you want to give it to Davey, or should I?”
I handed it to him. “Go ahead.” I got up and gave Dolly her little princesscrown. She loved it, chewing happily as she did. I was so proud of her little crunching.
