A Question of Manhood

by Robin Reardon

  The little group was on its way outside but still in the store, Truffles yipping and tugging out in front of Mrs. Holmes, and I joined them about ten feet from the door.

  JJ said, “Now, here’s an important lesson for Truffles to learn, and for you to learn as well. Paul is going to attach the leash to the collar he’s brought, and then he’ll show you how to handle the leash and the dog in a way that will give you the best control.” I wasted no time getting the choke collar on Truffles and attaching the leash to it. Then I held the blue collar so the dog wouldn’t dash forward and choke. “This is good for the dog for many reasons, which we’ll go into in more detail outside. All set, Paul?”

  Trying to sound calm and professional, I said, “Yes, I believe so. May I have the leash handle, Mrs. Holmes?” I held it just like I’d been holding Dante’s, though with a smaller dog I had to make some adjustments.

  JJ kept on saying things to the Holmes that he knew I knew but might forget, to make sure I looked as good as possible. “Paul is going to wait until Truffles is relaxed and ready to obey before he—”

  “He’s choking her!” Mrs. Holmes cried out.

  “No, I assure you, that won’t happen. What he’s doing is giving gentle tugs on the leash to let Truffles know he is asking for her attention. This is the best way to convince her that he will be the leader and she will be the follower. If you let your dog pull you on the leash all the time, you have allowed yourself to be the follower. She’s the leader.”

  Truffles kept starting up and trying to dash off, and I kept up with the “gentle” tugs, so JJ had plenty of time to reply to Mrs. Holmes, who wanted to know about the dog going to the bathroom, as she put it, or having fun smelling things.

  “The leader decides when those things take place. I’ll show you in more detail outside, but first we have to establish leadership.” He glanced down at Truffles, who had finally decided to stand still. “Now Paul is going to show you how to get Truffles to sit and wait for her next instructions.” I leaned over and pushed down just above her tail with pointed fingers. “This is the easiest way to communicate your intent. Truffles might learn to sit on verbal command, but unless you’ve established yourself as the leader she’ll do that only when she wants to. What Paul just did is the way another dog would indicate what it wanted. Of course, it wouldn’t use a hand. Paul’s fingers acted like the gentle prod of the lead dog’s mouth.”

  He looked at me. “I think we’re ready. Do you agree?” I nodded and stepped toward the door, and Truffles trotted quietly beside me.

  “Paul,” Laura’s sweet voice said, “that’s fantastic! I can’t wait to try it.”

  “Now Paul is going to use the same technique that he and I used on the German shepherd when we get to the door. Note that Paul is going to use the leash to make sure Truffles does not lead him out. He is going to lead her.”

  Thank you, JJ. I almost forgot that. And I nearly laughed; it was just like Jack had said: “Thank you, Jesus!”

  I won’t take you through the entire list of wonderful things I did with that dog. Dad watched just long enough to be satisfied that I wasn’t going to make a mess of things, and JJ took over toward the end so he could demonstrate some things like the bit about how to “allow” the dog to have some loose-leash time for exploring, but he did it without making it obvious that I wasn’t as good as he was at these things. For all Laura could tell, I was a star pupil and knew everything there was to know.

  At the end of the session, which went on much longer than the scheduled thirty minutes (again, thank you, JJ), Mrs. Holmes knew how to walk Truffles the way she should, and so did Laura. Mrs. Holmes stood there gushing over JJ for a good three minutes, and I sent up one more silent Thank You when he carefully turned in a way that put Mrs. Holmes’s back to me. Which gave me some time with Laura. First we talked about school starting again soon, but then I asked her if she’d seen The Day of the Jackal.

  “Ooh, no. But I’d love to. It’s supposed to be really good.”

  I hedged as well as I could. “I’m kind of tied up here most evenings for a little while, what with the dog training and all. But can I call you after that? I’d love to take you.”

  She smiled. Smiled! “Sure. I guess that would be okay.”

  Mrs. Holmes interrupted us. “Laura, dear, why don’t you walk Truffles to the car the way we’ve learned about? And JJ, oh—and Paul, please tell Mr. Landon how much I appreciate this service. I’m sure we’ll be back.”

  JJ was all business professional. “We’d love to see you. And why don’t you keep the collar with our compliments?”

  “Oh! Yes, of course, that isn’t ours. Thank you, young man. Thank you very much.”

  As the two of them walked away from us, I devoted just enough time to the retreating figure presented by Mrs. Holmes to get an idea where Laura got her looks. And I was still standing there like an idiot when JJ said, “I think that went well.”

  I held out my hand to him. “Thank you.”

  We shook and he grinned. “I had a feeling this young lady had caught your eye. Now, you see how much sense it makes that I’m gay? Otherwise I’d have had her fawning all over me.” He punched my arm, winked, and started back toward the store.

  He wasn’t all bad, this kid. Quite a sense of humor, too. Fawning all over him indeed. But—he did have those deep brown, almond eyes…. Whatever, I was flying high all afternoon.

  And over dinner, I was trying to figure out how to bring it up to Mom in a way that didn’t sound like I was bragging—or that gave away how much it had meant to me to spend time with Laura—when Dad did it for me.

  “You’d have been proud of your son today, Irene.” To me, “Paul, I had no idea you’d picked up so much from JJ. I was watching from inside the store, and you were doing most of the work with the dog.”

  “Yeah, I’ve learned a lot watching him, and working with Dante.”

  “I had my doubts, after what happened with JJ’s dog. But I guess you learned an important lesson from that mistake, didn’t you?”

  “What happened?” Mom wanted to know. I knew I hadn’t told her, and although I hadn’t picked up anything from her that indicated she knew what a problem I’d caused, I’d still sort of expected that Dad had told her.

  Dad took a sip of water and leaned back in his chair. “Paul, why don’t you tell your mother about it? I’d kind of like to hear what you have to say.”

  I took a deep breath. If I handled this right, I was planning to ask, sooner than I might have otherwise, about getting some of my money and some car keys for a date with Laura.

  So I described the scene, “just the facts,” mostly. I told how I hadn’t known what JJ’s idea was, with the fence in between, and I gave him credit for having the great idea to use the hose. By the time I was done I was really hoping I’d walked that line in a good way. The line between “I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing and was just trying to show JJ up” and “I was an idiot and I’m sorry and I’ll never do it again because JJ has told me everything I did wrong.”

  Mom was nodding, looking at Dad. “So that’s what you wouldn’t talk about last night. I knew there was something when Paul was so far behind you getting home, and the two of you didn’t say one word during dinner.” She turned to me. “Your father wouldn’t say a word to me. I asked.”

  I looked at Dad, who was now tearing away at a corncob. How d’ya like that? He didn’t just come home and tell Mom what a bad boy I’d been. I was so amazed at his discretion that I nearly forgot where I wanted this conversation to end up.

  “So, anyway, Mom, do you remember the girl I’d been wanting to go out with? Laura Holmes? It was her, and her mother—”

  “She, Paul. It was she.”

  What the f…nobody says that. Never mind. “It was she and her mother who brought in the dog that I worked with today. Her mom was really nice, and she couldn’t say enough nice things about JJ.” Ha! That ought to help my case. I’m not bragging.

 
; And Mom, bless her heart, picked up on it. “Sounds like she should have said a few nice things about you, too, dear.”

  I shrugged. “The good news is that they both know a lot more about how to handle their dog now. I think they really got it. Don’t you, Dad?”

  He nodded. “I do. I do think so.”

  Mom said, “Well, that’s a great story. Andy, if you’re finished with your corn, Paul and I will clear for dessert.”

  But I didn’t want things to get too far away from the topic. So once we were all spooning strawberry-covered vanilla ice cream out of our bowls, I opened.

  “Dad, Laura is the girl I was hoping to take to see The Day of the Jackal. It’s still playing, but it won’t be around much longer, and I know she’d like to see it. What do you think?”

  He let about two spoonfuls go by, chewing slowly. I knew he was dragging this out, but I also knew that was probably a good sign. Finally, “I suppose in the interest of customer service, we could allow this one event.” He stabbed in my direction with his spoon. “But this doesn’t mean you’re off your own leash, young man. Just this once for now. Then we’ll see.”

  Rather than press my luck, I opted to wait until later to ask Mom if I could borrow her car. But right after dinner I checked the movie times, and then I called Laura. And she said yes! The second time I’d ever asked her out, and she’d said yes both times. Never mind that it was nearly a year since the first time. I was just lucky she wasn’t going steady with some guy. We agreed on the Saturday after next; she already had a date for this weekend. No surprise, I suppose; I was just gonna have to be that much better. I was up to that.

  Thank you, JJ.

  That Sunday afternoon, between appointments when customers brought their dogs in to work with JJ, the Carters came in. I’d gone to oversee Marty and Kevin, who were into the cat toys again. What was with that, anyway? I didn’t want them getting me into any more trouble, or my date with Laura could be jeopardized. But when I saw the Carters head straight for the amphibian area where JJ was working, I couldn’t say why but I made my way in that direction as casually as possible. Even from a distance I could tell they were excited, and as I got closer I heard Mrs. Carter talking.

  “He’s absolutely gorgeous! Oh, but JJ, he needs so much help. You know what these dogs are like, even when they’ve been treated well. They’re huge, massive, and solid muscle. This one weighs probably a hundred pounds or more, and he’s big even for a Rottweiler. And you should see the scars on him! My heart nearly broke.”

  JJ turned to Mr. Carter at this point. “You don’t have him yet, do you?”

  “No. We told the shelter we needed to consult with someone first.” He chuckled. “That would be you.”

  “Because, you know,” JJ went on, looking at Mrs. Carter again, “taking on a dog like this is going to be a lot tougher than working with Gypsy. You’ve just pointed out yourself how powerful he is. You won’t be able to walk him. Not right away, anyway. Did he take to you, do you think?”

  Mr. Carter shook his head. “Not exactly. I don’t think he’s likely to take to anyone in the immediate future. He’s been too mistreated.”

  JJ stepped back and looked from one Carter to the other. And suddenly I was aware that Marty and Kevin were behind me, listening. I just hoped we were all out of sight.

  JJ said, “It’s very likely that no one will be able to walk him right away, if he’s as bad as you say. How did they get him into the shelter?”

  Mrs. Carter had the whole story. “He’d been kept in this tiny, narrow area, where all he could do was walk back and forth. The owner had—God, it makes me shudder—he had a cattle prod he was using when he wanted Geronimo to move, if the dog didn’t want to. The poor thing was stepping in his own stools, and he’s got sores on his legs and the biggest scar is on one flank. When the animal control people came to take him away, they had to shoot him with a tranquilizer dart. Then they cleaned him up and treated his wounds, but since he came to at the shelter he hasn’t let anyone near him. They have a special doorway, just big enough for food and water dishes; they can’t go in. He charges all the time. They were hoping he’d calm down once they got him away from where he was, but he’s been in the shelter two weeks with no sign of improvement. So they were going to put him down.”

  “How old is he?”

  “They’re not sure. They think maybe three years?”

  JJ’s face was not radiating its usual optimism. “I don’t know. I’m not sure this is a good idea. Much as I hate to say it, there are some dogs that can’t be recovered because of how they’ve been treated. Because of what they’ve learned to do just to survive. They don’t let go of their ferocity easily, because it’s what’s kept them alive.”

  “But they’ll kill him!”

  JJ’s voice was soft. “Mrs. Carter, there are so many dogs who need good people like you to care for them. I’d hate to see you get hurt, either by the dog or by your own feelings of guilt when you can’t help him and he has to be killed after all. Why don’t you find a different dog to love?”

  She pursed her lips. Mr. Carter said, “Honey, I told you he might say this.” He looked like he was going to say something else, but Mrs. Carter wasn’t done.

  “JJ, we want to do this. And we’re willing to pay for your help. Obviously we couldn’t bring Geronimo in here, not like he is. But we want to pay for your consultation services and have you come to him. We want you to help us help him. Please. Please say you’ll at least try. If it doesn’t work, we won’t blame you. We’ll blame the people who did this to him. But we have to try!”

  I could almost smell the wood burning, JJ was thinking so hard. What I was thinking was that the kid had recovered a goddamn pit bull that had killed its own brother. Why wouldn’t he take this on?

  Finally he offered an excuse. “Part of the problem is this is going to take some time. And it’s August already. I’m leaving to go to college the last week of August. That wouldn’t give us much time, and it might not be fair to Geronimo.”

  “Is it fair to just kill him without even trying?”

  JJ let out a breath and rubbed his forehead a second. “Tell you what. Let me go with you to the shelter to see him. Maybe I can assess how serious the case is.”

  “Can you come now?”

  “Now? I’m supposed to be working here.”

  “Until when?”

  “At least five. The shelter will close by then, won’t it?”

  Mrs. Carter thought for a minute and then said, “Where’s Mr. Landon?”

  “He doesn’t work on Sundays. You could speak to Carol. I think she’s in the office. But please don’t make it sound like it was my idea to leave.”

  “No. No, I won’t. This is all on us. I’ll be right back.”

  In the end Carol called Dad, and he gave permission for JJ to go with the Carters. Not only that, but he went with them. Leaving me at the store. At least Marty and Kevin left without doing anything they shouldn’t, other than making a mess I had to clean up.

  Dinner that night was all talk about the Rottweiler. And all, of course, from Dad, since he was the only one of us who’d seen it.

  “I tell you, that kid has some kind of magic in him. He asked us all to stand at a distance, and from where we were we could see the Rottie, who did not like having anyone come anywhere near him, I can tell you! Snarling, drooling, foam spraying when he barked. JJ started walking toward the cage, slow and easy, very steady. The dog literally threw himself against the chain links, but JJ just kept moving forward. He had a bag of dog treats in one hand, but he didn’t show them to the dog right away. He walked right up to that fence, inches from where it bulged every time the dog landed on it. Finally the dog jumped up, holding on to the fence with his paws, and made as much noise as he could to frighten JJ. But the kid wasn’t scared. He stood there not moving, just staring at the dog, until the dog finally dropped to the ground. It stood there glowering, but at least it stopped trying to break through the fence
.

  “That’s when JJ threw a treat over the top. It landed beside the Rottie, who ignored it. JJ threw another. The Rottie finally turned away from JJ enough to investigate, and he snarfed those treats right up. JJ threw another, farther back in the pen, and the dog went to find it. And another. And another, until the dog was all the way back in his pen. The dog waited, like he wanted more, but JJ just stood there. So the dog moved forward, but it wasn’t charging. When it got to the fence, JJ threw another treat over. He sent the dog all around the pen by where he threw the treats until they were all gone, and the last one was right near JJ. Then JJ just turned and walked away, leaving the dog there.

  “Well, the dog was not happy about that. He started yelping and snarling and pacing back and forth.” Dad stopped long enough to eat something and take a drink. But he wasn’t through.

  “We all went into the shelter office to talk. JJ said that the Rottie was an extreme case and that he wasn’t just charging out of fear. If that had been the case, when JJ walked up to the cage the dog would have kept barking but in higher tones, and it would have backed up and gotten a panicked look on his face. Geronimo didn’t do that; he stayed right there, and he meant business. As JJ put it, his threats were not empty ones.

  “But JJ was encouraged that the dog had allowed himself to be led around the pen, as it were, by JJ, throwing the treats, you know? So he would probably accept a leader at some point, if that leader were very strong-willed and had lots of patience. But he said it would take time and it would be dangerous. And he couldn’t promise how far it would get before he had to leave.”

  “Leave?” Mom asked. “Oh, that’s right. College.”

  “Cornell,” Dad said, and I thought he’d look at me to rub that in, but he didn’t.

  “So, what are they going to do?”

  “They’re going to get as far as they can. The shelter will anesthetize the dog and bring it to the Carters’, but they can’t do it until Wednesday. Nancy and Don have that fenced-in backyard where he can move around more, and they’ll also put a chain from his collar to a stake in the ground at least temporarily. The only other thing in the yard will be a shelter that he can’t get behind, so the chain doesn’t get wrapped around anything. JJ will go see him on Thursday after he’s recovered from the drugs, and then he’ll go every day and stand there with one or both of the Carters until he thinks the dog will let him come in, and then I guess we’ll see. I only wish I could watch this unfold. What an adventure! I tell you, that kid is destined for something great. He’s goddamned amazing.”