Puppy Tales 07 - Lily's Story

by Cameron, W Bruce

  Now my girl was sad! I could feel it in her body. I snuggled closer, wondering what was troubling her. I wanted to help.

  I had made Missy feel less scared. I ought to be able to make Maggie Rose feel less sad.

  Amelia crouched down to look at Maggie Rose. “I can tell you really care about Lily, but your mom’s right. Plus, we only have room for a few animals here. If Lily stays, then there’s one less place for a rescue animal. That’s not fair to all the animals who need us.”

  I rolled onto my back in Maggie Rose’s lap and stuck my legs in the air. Now this should make anyone happy!

  “But Lily could help,” Maggie Rose insisted. The hope was draining out of her voice. “She likes the other animals. She helped with Missy.”

  Amelia sat back on her heels a little. “Well, that’s true. Lily did help Missy calm down. But that doesn’t change the facts, hon. We do the most good when we place animals into homes, and that’s what we’re going to do with Lily. In another week or so, she’ll be ready to leave her mother, and then we’ll find her a good family who’ll love her as much as you do.”

  My girl’s mood was not improving. Time for some serious cheering up. I wriggled over onto my feet, put my front paws on Maggie Rose’s chest, and tried to lick my girl on the chin. Instead of laughing, though, she just turned her head away.

  “Maggie Rose,” Mom said. “Put Lily down and come with me. You can visit her every day this week—right, Amelia? Even if I’m not here, you could watch my daughter?”

  “Sure thing,” Amelia agreed, standing back up. “I’ll watch her. You always say it’s important to get the puppies used to being with kids. Makes them better family dogs. Besides, Maggie Rose is a good worker.”

  My brothers were stirring, becoming alert as they realized there was still a girl in the kennel and that the door was open to the two women in the corridor.

  “We’re going home now, Maggie Rose.” Mom patted my girl’s shoulder, but her voice was firm. “Tell Lily good-bye.”

  “You can come help me as much as you want next week,” Amelia said.

  Mom and Amelia left the kennel and shut the gate behind them. My brothers rushed at the gate, milled around in confusion, and then turned their attentions to Maggie Rose in a stampede.

  I could tell that my girl was still sad even though I was frantically licking her cheeks. She gave me a kiss before setting me down in the midst of the pack of jumping brothers. Then she slipped out the kennel door and stood for a moment, watching my littermates clamber all over me. What was going on? Why couldn’t I kiss her and cuddle her into happiness?

  “Don’t worry, Lily,” Maggie Rose whispered to me, sticking her fingers through the wires of the kennel. “I’ll never let you go. You’re going to stay with me.”

  I could hear good-bye in her voice. I licked Maggie Rose’s fingers to tell her I was not done trying to make her happy, but she didn’t seem to understand me. She stood and walked away.

  I hurried over to my mother, my brothers on my heels, chewing on me as I went. Only the fact that they were also chewing on each other made it possible for me to duck into the protection of my mother’s warm body.

  I was ready for another nap after such an adventure outside my pen. Meeting other dogs and the cats and that long, funny ferret … playing with Missy … cuddling with Maggie Rose. It had all been very exciting, but it was time for a good long rest.

  As I drifted off into sleep once more, I thought about what I now saw as my job—making Maggie Rose happy.

  And I had a plan for that. Though there was not much I understood about, well, anything, I did know something about Maggie Rose.

  5

  What I knew about Maggie Rose, knew more than anything, was that she loved me. It was in the tender way her lips touched my face. It was in the warm, soft feel of her hands stroking me, in the way she stared into my eyes and cuddled me against her cheek. I was the puppy she loved, and if something was making her unhappy, I needed to fix it.

  I just hoped she would give me a chance. Would I see her again soon? I thought I probably would.

  Sure enough, Maggie Rose came back every day! I soon knew her scent and the sound of her footsteps, and I’d be waiting at the gate when she arrived, my tail wagging hard enough to make my entire butt wiggle. My girl would take me out and hug me and pet me. She’d sit on the floor and let me climb in her lap and lick her chin and sniff at her clothes, which were always full of the interesting odors she brought with her.

  Most days, my girl arrived with Mom, but every now and then, a man came with them both. His name was Dad. He was taller than Mom and had shorter hair and a wide smile. He knew my name was Lily. “Hello, Lily,” he would greet me. His voice was strong and deep.

  I liked Dad. I especially liked his shoes. A complicated and marvelous smell clung to them, especially the soles. Maggie Rose’s tennis shoes smelled a little like Dad’s. Plus the laces were so good for pulling on.

  I loved Maggie Rose’s shoes. I loved Maggie Rose.

  * * *

  It wasn’t long before I learned what made Maggie Rose’s shoes—and Dad’s, too—smell so good. A day came when Maggie Rose scooped me up in her hands. “Come on, Lily, we’re taking you outside,” she told me. Amelia and Mom picked my brothers up. They carried us down the hall to a door. My mother dog followed anxiously.

  When they pushed open that door, I was astounded. A blast of warm air brought us so many new scents! I could see my brothers’ noses twitching frantically and mine was doing the same. Giggling, Maggie Rose set me down in the short grass.

  “I love it when they see the outside for the first time,” Amelia said as she put White-Tail-Brother down beside me.

  Outside! Outside was the best!

  I wanted to do nothing but press my nose to the ground and inhale everything, but naturally, my brothers thought we were all out there to play Let’s Climb on Lily. I dashed away from them, and Maggie Rose followed. Now we were all playing Chase Me! Maggie Rose was chasing me, and my brothers were chasing her while my mother sat and watched alertly. My girl was laughing and laughing. What a great day!

  I wanted to stay in Outside forever, but after a while, we were all carried back to our pen. I slipped immediately into a nap, pressed up against my mother, dreaming of Outside.

  I loved Outside nearly as much as I loved Maggie Rose. And she loved me. But all this love did not fix the problem. Deep inside, Maggie Rose was still sad, still wistful. I could tell that she was longing for something she could not have.

  I could make her giggle, and she covered me with as many kisses as I gave her, but I couldn’t take away this deep sadness. What Maggie Rose needed to do, I decided, was to come live with me here, in this place with all the dog kennels. She could sleep between my mother and me. I could work on keeping her giggling all day and night.

  But Maggie Rose did not do this. She always went home at night, although she came back each day. Sometimes her big brothers came, too.

  “Hey, runt. Still playing with the flower dog?” Bryan, the shorter one, asked one day as I was trying to pull a rope toy out of Maggie Rose’s hand. I was very interested in Bryan’s arrival because he held some peanut butter pressed between two pieces of bread and was chewing at it. “Perfect dog for you. Look, she’s so tiny and weak, she can’t even win at tug-of-war!”

  Maggie Rose’s shoulders hunched stubbornly. “There’s nothing wrong with being little,” she answered.

  Bryan snorted. “Oh, I know. I used to be little, too, when I was a baby. Bye, runt.” He went on down the hall, taking his peanut butter with him. I watched him leave regretfully.

  “There’s nothing wrong with being little,” my girl repeated softly to me. “Better to be little and nice than big and mean, Lily. Right?”

  She let go of the rope toy, so I won! I gripped it in my teeth and shook it hard. Then I ran back to her and plopped the damp bit of rope in her lap so we could play again.

  While I tugged, I heard a door
open somewhere. Footsteps approached. New people were arriving! I leaped into Maggie Rose’s lap so I could check them out from a safe place.

  Mom came down the hall, leading another woman, a man, and a boy who was bigger than Maggie Rose but smaller than Bryan. “These are wonderful, active dogs,” Mom was saying as they walked. “And they’re fine with children. I bring my own kids here to play with the pups regularly to socialize them. They’re going to be great family dogs.”

  Mom and the pack of people she was leading stopped by our kennel. Maggie Rose scooted to one side to give them room. She put both hands around me, and I felt her body tense. Suddenly, she grabbed the front of her T-shirt and pulled its soft folds completely over me.

  I was inside my girl’s shirt, held against her skin. I wiggled in surprise. Was this a new game? Her heart was pounding. Now Maggie Rose wasn’t just unhappy—she was afraid!

  I knew there was something I should be doing to help her, because I was her puppy, but what? I could see Maggie Rose’s chin up through a small hole at the top of the shirt. Should I try to climb up there?

  I heard my brothers yip inside the pen, the wire gate rattling as they jumped up to put their paws against it.

  “The spotted one! I want the spotted one!” I heard one of the new boys say.

  “Oh,” the new woman said. “Is that the mother? I didn’t realize these were pit bull puppies. Aren’t they … dangerous? The breed, I mean.”

  “No,” I heard Mom reply firmly. “There’s a lot of misinformation out there. Some of it’s ridiculous! Supposedly, pits have special locking jaws, which is of course not true. People also say their brains never stop growing and that the increasing pressure makes them crazy. No idea who would believe that! Some pits are trained as attack dogs, which is a shame. But most of them are as gentle as this sweet girl. If you treat them with love and kindness, that’s how they will be with people.”

  “Can I have him?” the boy begged.

  “His name is Gunner, but you should feel free to rename him whatever you would like,” Mom said.

  “Yes,” the other lady said. “If that’s the one you want, that’s the one we’ll take.”

  I felt Maggie Rose relax suddenly. Thank goodness. Whatever was bothering her had stopped being scary. I seized a fold of her T-shirt in my teeth and shook it. Then I wrestled with it.

  “Here, Lily,” Maggie Rose whispered to me. She picked up the hem of her shirt so I could squirm back out into the light.

  That was a strange game. I liked Tug the Rope better.

  The new boy had picked up White-Tail-Brother and was holding him under his chin. White-Tail-Brother was wiggling around to lick the boy’s neck, just as I liked to do with Maggie Rose.

  The new woman and man were smiling as they watched.

  “Yes! I want him,” the boy insisted, hugging White-Tail-Brother close.

  “Okay, then. You’ve already filled out an application, and we’ve checked your references, so we’re all set!” Mom said.

  “We can take him now?” the new woman asked. “We’ve got a crate in the car.”

  “Perfect.” Mom smiled.

  The boy carried White-Tail-Brother away down the hall. He must be going on an adventure. Maybe he was heading Outside! Oscar meowed as they went past, and Freddie the ferret dashed up to his gate to see what was happening and then dived back into his den.

  Mom lingered behind to gaze down at Maggie Rose.

  “You see, hon? See how happy they were?” she asked gently. “That’s how this works. We don’t just find new owners; we make families.”

  My girl didn’t answer. She put me back in my pen after a final cuddle and kiss. Her sadness was out in the open again. I sat and stared up at her, wondering if I should have tried to stay under the T-shirt longer.

  Later that day, I realized that something very strange had happened. White-Tail-Brother did not come back.

  I dodged away from Biggest-Brother, who wanted to sit on me, and nipped at Brown-Brother’s nose so that he’d keep his distance. Then I went to my mother, who was sitting up in her corner, watching the gate alertly.

  She barked once, sharply. The meaning could not have been more clear—she wanted all of us near her.

  I pressed against her side. My brothers stopped splashing in the water bowl and went to her, too.

  But White-Tail-Brother did not come. Not ever again. He was gone.

  Over the next few days, the same thing happened again. And again! New people came and talked and were happy, and when they left, they carried a puppy from my family. Brown-Brother went with a man and three girls who all talked at once. Biggest-Brother was carried away in the arms of a tall young woman wearing jeans and boots and a wide, wide smile.

  Maggie Rose was playing with me each time this happened. She kept me in her lap the whole time, which made me feel better when the people left with a brother. Maggie Rose was safety, just like my mother. She had strong arms and a warm lap, and I could feel the love in her hands and hear it in her voice. I knew she would not let anyone take me away.

  6

  The day after Biggest-Brother left, Maggie Rose came to visit with a new scent on her hands. It smelled like Oscar the cat, except this smell had been left behind by two cats! Two different cats, ones I had never met.

  “Oh, Lily, the new kittens are so cute!” my girl told me. “I bet you’d like to see them. When they get a little older, you can play together!”

  “No way, Maggie Rose,” Amelia said from out in the hallway. She was brushing at the floor with a broom.

  “Why not?” Maggie Rose asked, looking up from where she was sitting on the floor with me. “They’d have fun.”

  “It’s not worth the risk,” Amelia answered. “Somebody could get hurt.”

  “But Lily wouldn’t hurt a kitten,” Maggie Rose responded indignantly. “Remember how careful she was with Missy?”

  “Maybe she wouldn’t mean to. But puppies and kittens play very differently, and it would be easy for one of them to get scared and lash out. Remember when Craig let Freddie out of his cage when a cat was loose? Your mom and I were terrified that one of them would bite the other. We have to keep the animals separate to keep them safe.”

  “I’ll bet that if she got to meet the kittens, Lily would be the gentlest dog in the world,” Maggie Rose said.

  “Well, you can ask your mother, but I’m willing to bet that she’ll say no,” Amelia replied.

  Amelia swept her way down the hall, and my girl took me to Outside! I looked around to see if I would find my brothers out there, but it was just me and Maggie Rose.

  When I squatted in the yard, something marvelous happened—Maggie Rose gave me a treat. “Good dog, Lily! When you go outside, you get a treat.”

  I loved being good dog, and I loved getting a treat. From that day on, whenever I squatted outdoors, my girl gave me a treat. What a strange and wonderful thing!

  And that wasn’t all. Maggie Rose also took out a rope, which she called a leash. She came over to me and connected the leash to my collar with a metal buckle. The buckle made a snick sound as it latched.

  The moment I heard that snick sound, Maggie Rose stuck a treat in front of my nose. I gobbled it up. The world was such an amazing place with treats for all these squats and snicks!

  I soon figured out that a leash was meant to let Maggie Rose drag me in one direction and to let me drag her in another. We played Leash for a while, and then Maggie Rose took the leash off my collar. It made another snick sound, but I did not get a treat. Why not?

  Maggie Rose found a ball in the grass. She picked it up.

  I knew this game! We were going to play Bring It Here!

  When we played this game, Maggie Rose would toss a bouncy ball and I would chase it, biting at it and trying to catch it. Once I finally had the thing under control, I would pick it up and drop it back into the grass at my feet.

  “Bring it here, Lily!” Maggie Rose would call every time.

  I di
d not know what she was saying, but knew that if I played with the ball long enough, she would come over and try to take it from me, and then I could run away with it. Chase Me!

  So that’s what I did when Maggie Rose threw the ball. I raced after it and snatched it up and dropped it between my front paws. I looked at Maggie Rose and waited for the chasing.

  “Lily,” Maggie Rose said to me, “that’s not how we play ball! You’re supposed to bring it back to me. It’s called retrieving.”

  I figured she was telling me that I was doing it correctly because we were both having so much fun. I picked the ball up again and shook my head to show her that I agreed with her.

  The back door opened, and Bryan came sauntering out. He stood with his hands in his pockets.

  “What’cha doing, runt?” he asked.

  “Nothing,” Maggie Rose replied in a mumble. She shrugged. “Teaching Lily to retrieve.”

  “Let’s see,” Bryan suggested.

  “Well, first I have to get the ball from her,” my girl explained.

  Bryan laughed. I wagged, ready to run! “Okay,” he said. And he lurched into motion, thundering straight at me!

  Bryan was so much bigger and faster than my girl! And he moved so quickly that he frightened me. I shrank back, cowering on the ground. The ball fell from my mouth. The boy lunged forward and snatched it up. “Got it!” he announced.

  “Hey, you scared Lily,” Maggie Rose said. “That’s not nice.”

  I glanced at her uncertainly.

  “She’s a puppy. She’ll get over it,” Bryan said with a shrug. He wasn’t running at me anymore, so I felt better. Also, he still smelled like peanut butter, and it was hard to be frightened of someone who smelled as good as that.

  Still, I kept a careful eye on him. I liked Bryan’s smells, but I couldn’t be sure what he was about to do next. Was he going to run at me again?

  “You ready, Lily?”

  I heard my name. Bryan had his arm cranked back. I tensed. Then he whipped his hand over his head, and the ball fired straight at the fence. I chased it. But when it hit the wooden barrier, it bounced back so hard it skipped right past me!