“They’re coming for you today, Lily,” she whispered. “I can’t let that happen!”
A good puppy would make her girl feel happy. But right now it did not seem that I could do it. Maggie Rose did not even kneel down to cuddle me. She just let her head droop and stared at the floor.
“I’ll tell you what,” Dad said. “We had such a good time together yesterday releasing the squirrel back into the wild. I’ll take Maggie Rose with me this afternoon. We’ll ride up into the mountains, and it will keep her mind off Lily. The new people can come meet her, and if everything is successful, we can explain to Maggie Rose that there is another family who loves Lily just as much as she does.”
“That is not true,” Maggie Rose whispered to me. “Nobody loves you as much as I do, Lily. Nobody.”
“That’s a really good idea,” Mom agreed. “If everything looks good, I’ll let them take Lily home with them today on a trial basis. When you and Maggie Rose get back, it will already be settled.”
Not long afterward, I heard Dad coming down the hall toward us. He reached down and held out his hands to me, and I sniffed them but stayed with Maggie Rose. She was my girl.
“Hey, Maggie Rose,” Dad said. “How would you like to ride with me to do some work? I have to go survey a mountain goat herd up above Echo Lake.”
“What’s survey mean?” Maggie Rose asked.
“I just need to check on the population of mountain goats and see how many there are. Does that sound like fun?”
Maggie Rose swept me into her lap and held me tightly. “Can Lily come?”
Dad chuckled. “Well, no, that’s not a good idea.”
Maggie Rose looked up at him stubbornly. “Why not?”
“Let’s just have it be you and me, okay?” Dad replied. “I think Lily should stay here at the rescue. Why don’t you put this puppy back in her kennel and head on out to the truck. I’ll be joining you out there in just a minute.”
Dad walked out, leaving us by ourselves. “Come with me,” Maggie Rose whispered in my ear. “But don’t make any noise, okay?”
I did not know what we were doing, but I was happy to be carried by my girl. She stopped and opened the door to a very tiny room that had no space for anything except shelves and things stacked on the floor. A wave of new odors greeted me. I wagged, eager to explore everything I could smell, but my girl did not set me down. Instead, she reached in and pulled out a small bag and set it on the floor. With a quick zipping sound, she opened it. She threw the top flap back, and I stared curiously into what smelled like a cat bed.
“Okay, Lily,” my girl whispered, “I know you are not going to understand any of this, but I need you to get into this carrier and be really, really quiet.”
I understood something was being asked of me and wondered if maybe we were about to play Bring It Here with the bouncy ball again.
Maggie Rose leaned over and dropped me gently into the bag. I was delighted at all the animal smells—it was a cat bed! I had my nose to the soft padding when there was a sudden movement and the flap came down over my head. There came a zipping noise. I realized I was now inside the cat bed!
10
Maggie Rose picked up the entire bed with me in it. I spread out my paws as the thing swung back and forth, trying to keep my balance.
Nothing like this had ever happened to me before.
We moved quickly and quietly down the hallway and out a door, and soon we were at Dad’s truck. Maggie Rose opened the back door and put my cat bed on the floor between the seats. I stared up through the mesh top at her, utterly bewildered.
“Okay, Lily,” she said urgently. “Please be quiet. Okay? Please be quiet. Be quiet.”
Obviously, be quiet meant to do something, but I had no idea what. Bark?
Maggie Rose shut the door. Her feet dangled above me. The mesh top of the cat bed was sort of like a blanket; it was soft, and when I pushed my nose against it, I could make it move. But I could not climb past it to get to my girl. I wagged, pretty confused by all of this.
“Okay, Lily,” my girl said, “just one more thing. I promise you, this is all going to be fine, but I need you to be really, really quiet. Okay? Be quiet.”
There were those words again. Maybe they had something to do with what happened next, which was that a blanket came down and landed on top of the cat bed.
Now I could not see my girl! What were we doing?
The blanket smelled like a lot of dogs. I liked that part but wanted to be able to see Maggie Rose.
I heard another door open and shut and immediately smelled Dad.
“Fasten your seat belt, honey,” Dad said.
I felt the truck start to move with a lurch.
This was all very strange. I did not understand why I was lying in a cat bed with a blanket over it. Last time I was in the truck, I was allowed to sit at my girl’s feet. This was not the same thing at all!
Probably Maggie Rose would figure that out soon. Any moment, she would whip off the blanket and let me out. Dad would be so happy to see me!
But Maggie Rose didn’t seem to get it. I tried to be patient, but after what seemed like a long, long time, I begin to worry that my girl had forgotten all about me. We were bouncing along, and no one was paying me any attention.
I was her dog! How could she possibly forget me?
Unable to take it any longer, I finally let out a small whine. Not a loud one, just a tiny cry to remind her I was still stuck inside this cat bed.
There was no response at all. Well, if there is anything a puppy knows how to do, it’s to make noise. I squealed a little louder.
“What in the world was that?” Dad exclaimed.
“What was what?” Maggie Rose responded.
No one had said my name yet. No one seemed to be planning to let me out of this cat bed. I tried an even louder whine.
“That!” Dad said. “There’s an animal in here!”
“An animal?” Maggie Rose replied innocently.
“Maggie Rose,” Dad said, “don’t play games with me. Is there something you want to tell me?”
“Want to tell you?” Maggie Rose repeated. “No, Daddy, there is nothing that I want to tell you.”
“All right,” Dad said. “Is there something that you need to tell me?”
“That you are a very good driver?”
Well, time for me to get serious. I barked.
“Maggie Rose,” Dad asked pleasantly, “what just barked from back there?”
“A puppy?” Maggie Rose guessed.
“Did you hide a dog in the back with you?” Dad asked.
“Yes, but, Dad, there were some people coming to take Lily away!” Maggie Rose replied in a rush. “She wouldn’t understand! She knows I’m her person! She’d think I was giving her up!”
Just then there was an odd tinkling sound from up near Dad. “That’s your mom calling,” I heard him say. “My guess is that she figured out that Lily isn’t in her pen. Hang on.” The truck swerved, got slower, and stopped. “Hello? Hi, honey. I think I might know why you’re calling.”
Dad was quiet for a moment, but I heard my girl twisting in her seat.
“Right. I guess Lily is in a pet carrier in the back. Maggie Rose was just explaining why disobeying her parents was a good idea.”
Dad was quiet, the girl was quiet, I was quiet. “I will have that conversation with her, yes,” Dad said. “Talk to you soon, Chelsea. Love you, too.”
Dad was silent for a time. I prepared myself to bark again. “That was your mother, Maggie Rose.”
“Uh-huh,” my girl said.
“Maggie Rose, you have to know that taking Lily without permission was wrong. Your mother was worried when she found that she’d lost a puppy from the shelter.”
“But, Dad, they wanted to take Lily away from me!” Maggie Rose cried.
My girl needed me! I barked again. The blanket came off, and I could see Dad peering at me between the front seats. I wagged at him frantically. Maggie
Rose hadn’t figured out that it was past time to let me out of here, but Dad would surely know!
I was right! Dad reached down, and there was the same strange sensation of moving and tilting as he picked up the cat bed. He opened it, and I surged out, licking his face. He chuckled. Then he put the cat bed down, placing it at my girl’s feet. I stood up on my back legs and licked her feet and knees. I was so happy to see her!
“Okay. Good dog. Lie down, Lily.” My girl pushed me firmly, and I understood she wanted me to stop trying to climb up. I sat in the open cat bed and gazed up at her adoringly.
Soon we were moving again. “Maggie Rose,” Dad said after a long moment of no talking, “your mom runs an animal rescue. And the job of rescue is to find homes for creatures who are lost or abandoned.”
“Lily could live at our home,” Maggie Rose replied instantly. I wagged at the sound of my girl saying my name.
“We will get a dog someday, Maggie Rose, but right now we just have too much going on with your brothers’ sports, your school, and our work. It will be much better when you’re older and can take care of a puppy.”
“I can take care of Lily now,” she said insistently. “I promise!”
Dad sighed. “It’s a lot more complicated than that. Your mother is the boss of the rescue, but she reports to the board members. Do you know what that means? The board of a rescue are the people who make the important decisions. So your mom is the boss, but the people on the board are her bosses. Your mother always has to keep that in mind. Also, your mother must consider what the volunteers who work there would think, not to mention the people who donate money to the shelter. How is it going to look if your mother breaks her own rules and keeps the best puppy for herself?”
I could clearly see and smell my girl’s feet, which was nice. I was much happier than I had been when I was underneath a blanket. I stretched out for a nap because it was, after all, a bed—a cat bed, but still a bed.
“Dad, please. I promise I will take care of Lily,” Maggie Rose begged. “I promise I will feed her and walk her and clean up her messes in the yard, and I’ll give her baths and play with her every day. Please.”
“Hang on, honey,” Dad said. “I’m getting another call.”
My girl made a frustrated noise. The truck stopped once more, and Maggie Rose leaned forward and put her hand down inside my cat bed. I sniffed her fingers and then gave her a lick. I wanted her to know that even though we were having a very strange day and I was sitting in a small bag at her feet, I loved her and she would always be my girl. Nothing could ever change that.
“All right, I should be there in about ten minutes. Bye,” Dad said. The truck began to move once more. “Maggie Rose, we’re going to have to check out the mountain goats some other day. That was a call from the sheriff’s department; they’ve got a deer caught up in a wire fence. I guess it’s in a pretty bad way.”
“Oh no! Can you help it?” Maggie Rose cried.
I looked up at her with concern. She sounded very alarmed about something and needed her puppy in her lap. I sat up, preparing for the leap.
“I hope I can help it. We’ll just have to see,” Dad replied. “Sometimes the deer cut themselves on the wire, trying to get free, but usually the wounds are very shallow. The biggest danger comes from their reaction when people approach. That’s when deer get frantic and can really hurt themselves.”
“I’ll help,” Maggie Rose proclaimed.
Dad chuckled. “That’s my game warden girl, but no, you’re not going to help. If a trapped deer is kicking and struggling, it can injure people. These are always tricky situations. We’ll have to see when we get there if we can help it or not. Sometimes we can’t.”
“Then what?” my girl wanted to know.
Dad was silent for a moment. “It’s the worst part of my job,” he finally replied, “but we can’t allow animals to suffer needless pain. If it comes to that, Maggie Rose, I’ll tell you so that you can look away.”
I felt a flash of worry and anxiety from my girl. Now! I leaped and made it into her lap! “Lily!” my girl said with a surprised laugh, her mood instantly better. “No, you silly dog, you have to get down.”
I was amazed and baffled when she dumped me back into the cat bed. I had just been doing my most important job, and it was much easier to do it on her lap than at her feet!
When the truck stopped, Dad got out, and Maggie Rose bent down to pick me up. Finally! I licked and licked my girl while she giggled and turned her face from side to side so I could kiss every bit of her. “Enough! Stop, Lily!” she laughed. I heard my name and figured she wanted me to keep kissing.
Dad left the truck, shutting his door behind him, but after a long moment he came back and opened a door behind us. I turned to try to climb up Maggie Rose and over the seat to see him, but my girl held me tightly. “Well, I’m afraid it’s bad,” he said.
“Oh no,” Maggie Rose said softly.
I heard Dad opening some bags and moving things around. “She’s really bound up. We can’t just cut the wires; we need to untangle her. Right now, her back is to us, and her nose isn’t good enough to know we’re there, but the second she catches sight of people, she’s going to start kicking.” He shut the back door and opened the one next to us. “The good news is that she’s not injured; she’s up against the fence post on one side, and it’s keeping her from fighting the wire. Maggie Rose, I want to try something. It’s a crazy idea, but it just might work. Do you think I could borrow Lily for a little bit?”
11
I heard the question in Dad’s voice when he said my name, and I wagged a little.
“Sure, Dad. You can take Lily,” my girl replied.
I was happy that they were both talking about me.
Dad reached for me. His hands were so much larger than Maggie Rose’s that they felt as if they were wrapping my entire body in fingers. I heard the snick of my leash clicking into place on my collar and turned quickly to my girl, who understood and held out a treat that I gobbled up instantly.
Then I got ready for a walk, but Dad lifted me up and carried me. He shut the door, and I stared in concern; my girl was still in the truck! She waved and smiled at me through the window, which I recognized as meaning she was happy, but how could she be happy if the two of us were separated?
Dad carried me over to where two people were standing and smiling. As he did, a powerful, wild animal scent reached me, sharp on the air. I glanced around, trying to see what it was.
“So here’s my idea,” Dad said, still holding me.
I wagged at the two people, my nose still full of the smell of the new animal. It smelled big. It smelled tired and frightened and hurt.
One of the people Dad was talking to was a woman with long hair, and one was a man with short hair. They both wore dark clothes and were happy to see me because I am a puppy. I had the sense that the strange animal scent was coming from somewhere just behind them, but Dad’s big hands still gripped me too tightly to allow me to wriggle for a better view.
“Where the deer is bound up in the wire, she can’t see down into the drainage ditch right in front of it. There’s a mound of earth that blocks the view,” Dad continued. “So I’m thinking if one of you went into the ditch—you won’t even need to crouch over much—and put this puppy, still on her leash, up where the deer can see her, I can sneak up behind while she’s distracted and inject her with ketamine. She’ll go right to sleep and we can cut her loose from the wires.”
“Wait, won’t she panic when she sees a dog?” the woman asked. I could smell that she had recently been petting a cat. It was too bad that she had to settle for that instead of a dog. I had cat friends back home, but nothing is better than a puppy.
“In my experience, most animals don’t find a puppy to be very threatening. I think the deer will be curious more than anything. And if I know Lily, she’ll be acting full-on happy dog, which should be both nonaggressive and pretty distracting. I’ve never tried anything
like this before, but I’ve seen sheep stare at an active puppy like they’re hypnotized.” Dad shrugged. “The worst thing that could happen is the deer is afraid and starts to kick, but anything else we do is going to cause the same reaction.”
“Might work,” the man agreed. He had not been near any cats as far as my nose could tell. “If we get into the ditch out of the doe’s eyesight, the first thing she’ll be aware of is when the puppy pops up.” He chuckled. “That’ll take her mind off the fence for sure.”
“I’ll take this sweet little girl into the ditch, if you’d like,” the woman offered. “I’m shorter, so there’s less a chance the deer will see me.”
“Thanks, Officer Simmons,” Dad replied. “Her name is Lily.” I wagged at Dad.
The woman reached out and took me from Dad, the leash trailing below me into the grass. Besides cat on her hands, I could also smell peanut butter, which made me think of Bryan’s breath. “Hi, Lily,” she said softly. “Want to see a deer?”
The woman did the strangest thing! At first, she gripped me as securely as Dad had done, carrying me against her chest, and I found myself wishing that Maggie Rose would come out of the truck and show these people the right way to walk with a dog. Finally, she put me down, and I squatted (but the woman didn’t even know enough to give me a treat for doing this, even though I was in Outside).
Then we climbed down a short hill, winding up in a narrow place with walls made of earth on either side. Now I could no longer see Dad and the other man, though I could smell both of them still up there somewhere. The woman was walking oddly, bent over at the waist. I trotted happily along the dirt at her feet. We were moving toward that strange new animal smell!
Then for the most bizarre part of all, the woman picked me up and slowly lifted me along the steep slope of one dirt wall. Just short of the top, she let me go. She still kept hold of my leash, though, so I wasn’t free to run.
This was simply bewildering, but I was more than willing to go along with whatever we were doing. The woman was still hunched down, gripping my leash, and for a moment I considered leaping back into her arms, but then I decided to climb up toward Dad’s scent. As soon as I cleared the lip of the small hill, however, I stopped dead.
Puppy Tales 07 - Lily's Story Page 6
