Puppy Tales 07 - Lily's Story

by Cameron, W Bruce

  Maggie Rose sat in a backseat, holding me in her lap. She took a leash from the wall and stretched it across her lap, then snapped it into a buckle that was next to her leg instead of around her neck. Nobody gave her a treat for doing this. I guessed that the rules for leashes were different for girls than for dogs. Mom climbed up front, sitting behind a big wheel that she held with her hands.

  The van smelled even more interesting than the dirt!

  So many animals had been here. My mother! My mother had been in this van! I squirmed out of Maggie Rose’s arms and sniffed the seats. I sniffed the floor that was covered in rough carpet. I could smell that my mother had been nervous, but not too scared. Where had she gone?

  And others from my dog family had been here. I thought I caught a faint whiff of White-Tail-Brother buried deep in the cushions of the seat where Maggie Rose was sitting. Brewster had definitely been here as well, and not too long ago.

  The van suddenly gave a lurch, and I staggered. Maggie Rose picked me up and held me on her lap. “Here we go, Lily,” she said.

  We were moving, and this time I hadn’t started out in a cat bed!

  I braced my back feet on Maggie Rose’s lap and my front feet on a slippery glass window and stared outside in amazement. Things were flying past us faster than I could run—trees and other cars, signs and posts and wires, bushes and buildings, people walking. Some of the people had dogs with them. I had never known that the world was so big and so busy and so full!

  My girl pressed something, and the window moved a bit. Cool air rushed in through a gap between the top of the window and its frame, packed so full of smells that I almost wet on my girl, I was so excited. I pressed my nose to the gap and sniffed and sniffed and sniffed.

  This was so much better than being in a cat bed!

  There was something familiar about the wonderful mix of odors blowing in. When had I smelled something like that before? Oh yes, when I’d lived with my mother and brothers before the shelter. That had been a cold, dark time, but interesting smells like this had wafted past my nose most days. Then we’d gone to live in our kennel, and there we’d mostly been able to smell ourselves, plus the other animals, the not-dogs, and people like Maggie Rose and Mom and Amelia.

  But now! Now I had Maggie Rose to snuggle with and all the wonderful odors to fill my nose. I whapped my tail back and forth, swatting Maggie Rose’s chest and arms. This was amazing! This was the best adventure ever!

  But Maggie Rose didn’t seem to think so. I could still feel her sadness soaking into me. I suddenly felt like a bad dog for being so thrilled and excited while my girl suffered. I dropped my paws off the glass and put them on my girl’s chest, staring into her eyes, willing her to laugh and be happy that there was a puppy in her lap.

  From her seat up front, Mom was talking. “This is going to be a wonderful home for Lily. The man who’s adopting her is a radio disc jockey, and that means he’s only at work for half a day in the morning. The rest of the time he’s home and can stay with Lily. She’ll have plenty of company. She’ll have a great life.”

  Maggie Rose put her head down and buried her face in my fur. She didn’t answer. I dug my head in under hers and pushed, licking her face.

  It wasn’t working.

  Suddenly, a funny burst of noise came from the seat next to Mom! My ears perked up to hear it. Mom turned the wheel, and the van moved to the side of the road and stopped. She put a small black box to her ear. “Hello?”

  Then Mom talked for a while more. She was quiet for a bit, nodding, and then she started talking again. People do strange stuff sometimes, and all a puppy can do is wait for things to make sense again.

  Mom put the black box down.

  “We need to make a detour, Maggie Rose,” she said. “That was Amelia. She just got a call. There’s a duplex near here where some people moved out more than a month ago. The landlord just went in to clean out the vacant apartment and found a bunch of cats living there. Probably a mom with kittens. It’s that time of year. We’ll have to go and get them. It shouldn’t take too long.”

  Maggie Rose snuggled her face back into my fur again.

  “I wish it would take forever,” she whispered to me mournfully. “Then we could stay together, Lily.”

  The van rolled along for a while longer and then stopped. Maggie Rose slid out, still holding me. Mom jumped out, too. She went to the back of the van, opened up a door, and took out two plastic boxes with wire gates on the front. They looked like small kennels, but with handles on the top so that they could be carried.

  There was a building nearby with two front doors. A man came out of one of those doors. He closed the door behind him, but I heard barking. I sniffed. Dogs lived behind that door. Two of them.

  “Thanks for coming,” the man said. He wore a grubby shirt and a pair of jeans with dirt ground into the knees. “I haven’t been into the place since the last tenants left. This morning, I was going to get it cleaned up and ready for the new people, and in one of the bedrooms upstairs I found a bunch of cats! Couldn’t believe it!”

  “Cats or kittens?” Mom asked.

  The man shrugged. “Beats me. I didn’t look too closely, just shut the door so they couldn’t get out. Some were small, so sure, kittens, maybe. I don’t know that much about cats. I’ve got dogs. Cats and dogs don’t get along, ever.”

  “That’s not true,” Maggie Rose objected softly. “Lily loves cats. Kittens, too. She gets along with everybody.”

  The man shrugged again. “Well, I wouldn’t take a puppy in there. Want me to hang on to yours while you take care of the cats?”

  Maggie Rose hugged me more tightly. “No!” she said firmly.

  The man sniffed. “Suit yourself,” he replied.

  Mom sighed. “Sorry, she didn’t mean to be rude. Maggie Rose? What do you have to say for yourself?”

  My girl looked down at the ground, so I did, too. I didn’t see anything to look at but was ready to get down and roll around if she wanted to. “I’m sorry,” Maggie Rose muttered.

  “No problem,” the man replied.

  Mom touched my girl’s shoulder. “Maggie Rose, come with me. But keep an eye on Lily until we know what we’re dealing with.”

  We went through the other door, which did not have dogs behind it. Mom walked ahead, carrying her small kennels. Maggie Rose followed behind her, carrying me.

  Once we were inside the door, Mom shut it behind us. At once, I could smell cats.

  Cats! When I’d played with Stripes and Blotchy, Maggie Rose had giggled. I realized I knew how to make her happy after all! I’d find these cats and play with them!

  “Why did you say ‘until we know what we’re dealing with,’ Mom?” Maggie Rose queried.

  Mom glanced at the closed door. “He said he couldn’t tell the difference between cats and kittens. This close to the mountains, I don’t know what kind of animal he might have found. One time, a woman had us come out to rescue cats in her barn and they were bobcats!”

  “What?” Maggie Rose exclaimed. “What did you do?”

  Mom smiled. “Called your father, of course. He came out and relocated them to a place where they were safe.”

  I wiggled until my girl set me down. The floor was made of slippery wood. I didn’t let that bother me, though. I scrambled and slid from corner to corner, sniffing hard. Where were those cats?

  Mom and my girl kept walking, so I scampered to keep up. Then I halted.

  Stairs.

  Mom climbed on the first step, then the second, then the next, moving up. Maggie Rose did the same. I’d never seen people do anything like that!

  Well, I would just have to follow. The first stair was tall! Almost as tall as I was! It was hard work to jump up and put my front feet on its surface. I hoped they wouldn’t all be like this!

  Then I tried to heave my back feet up behind me.

  Impossible! My back feet slipped off the stair, and my front feet could not hold on. I scrabbled at the wood with my
claws before I flopped back to the floor.

  Maggie Rose and Mom were already nearly at the top. There were doors up there, and new rooms, and the smell of cats was even stronger.

  I yipped in frustration, and my girl turned around.

  “Oh, Lily!” she exclaimed. She came down to get me.

  It felt so, so good to be back in her arms. I hoped I would never again be separated from Maggie Rose.

  Mom was standing in front of a closed door. The smell of cats wafted out from under it. They were inside there! Lots of them, young ones, by their scents.

  We were going to have such fun!

  “Keep hold of Lily,” Mom said, pulling a pair of thick leather gloves over her hands. They went up to her elbows.

  I wagged to hear my name and because I was going to get to play with kittens again very soon.

  Mom opened the door.

  16

  I was so excited to see that door open that I could not possibly remain in my girl’s arms, no matter how secure it felt. I wiggled and squirmed and pushed with my back feet. Maggie Rose gasped with alarm and shifted her grip, but I gave one last twist and jumped to the floor.

  Kittens!

  “Lily, no!” Maggie Rose fell to her knees, grabbing for me, but she was too late for a grab and too late for that no word. I darted right through Mom’s legs. Her fingers brushed my back as she reached for me, but I did not stop. I ran straight into that room, where I knew the cats were waiting for me.

  Maybe a puppy alone wasn’t enough to lift my girl’s sadness, but a puppy playing with kittens would surely put a smile on her face!

  “Lily!” Mom called sternly.

  Sometimes people will speak in a certain tone of voice. When they do, it’s best to ignore them, because that kind of voice never leads to any fun. It’s especially important to ignore them when there is a new cat family to meet!

  The mother cat, black all over, was sitting on a bare mattress on the bed. When I bounded in, she leaped to her feet with the most astonishing sound I’d ever heard. It was sort of a snarl and sort of a wail. Her ears were flat against her head, and with her fur fluffed out all over, she appeared twice my size! Her mouth was open wide, and she hissed, showing all her teeth. They looked very sharp.

  From up on the bed beside the angry mother, there came a sound of frantic, high-pitched mewing. Kittens leaped off the mattress and raced in all directions, even faster than Stripes and Blotchy ran when we’d played Chase Me. A gray kitten disappeared under the dresser, two with yellowish stripes dived beneath the bed, and a little black one disappeared, though I could not see where. On the bed, a white kitten backed up her mother by hissing ferociously at me and showing me all her tiny teeth.

  “Maggie Rose! Shut the door so none of the kittens get out! Quick!” Mom said. “And then get Lily!”

  I jumped up and put my front paws on the edge of the mattress, wagging furiously. The mother cat and the baby cat were still angry, even though I was clearly just trying to play. I glanced over my shoulder for help as Mom slowly approached the bed.

  “Easy, sweetie, we’re here to take care of you,” she told the ferocious mother cat.

  Maggie Rose shut the door and came toward me. I dashed to the opposite side of the bed from Mom and put my front feet up there, wagging. I was sure that the cats would see that I was a good playmate. My ears were up, my tail was high, and I gave a friendly yip. They’d understand that I was no threat, and once we started to wrestle, my girl would laugh and want to play, too.

  The mother cat did not seem to like the idea of Mom or my girl getting close to the bed. This is the frustrating thing about cats; they live with people but don’t care about them as much as dogs do. I could tell by her stiff, unfriendly posture that it was not important to the mother cat whether Maggie Rose was happy or not.

  The mother retreated, still hissing, and fluffed herself up even bigger. How did she do that? My fur could go up a bit around my neck and shoulders if I wanted to look fierce, but hers could bristle all over her body!

  I jumped but fell back on the floor with a plop. This bed was even harder to climb up on than a stair!

  The mother cat was moving away from me, right toward Mom. She seemed more worried about a puppy than people. In one quick movement, Mom put both of her gloved hands around the cat’s body.

  The mother yowled and fought, but Mom held her tightly and sighed with relief. “Okay, I’ll get her in a cage and take it downstairs,” she told Maggie Rose. “The kittens will be calmer if they can’t hear her. See if you can start catching them.”

  Mom hauled the struggling mother cat out of the room, closing the door quickly behind her. The white kitten on the bed was still hissing and spitting at me.

  Suddenly, Maggie Rose was tense all over. I looked up at her in surprise. Weren’t we playing?

  She didn’t seem sad. She seemed excited. “Lily, this is our last chance,” she whispered to me. “Help with the kitten. We’ll show Mom what you can do!”

  She picked me up and dumped me on the bed.

  I understood now that this kitten wasn’t furious like the mother. She was frightened, just as Missy had been frightened. But I’d shown Missy that I was not scary. I could do the same thing here.

  First I crouched down on the bed so I would not tower over the kitten. Then I squirmed toward her on my belly. The kitten stopped hissing, but she backed away from me, confused. Maggie Rose swept toward her and scooped her up in her hands.

  “There, there, it’s okay,” she whispered, cuddling the kitten close to her chest and stroking its fur.

  That kitten was no longer available to play with, but there were plenty of others! I was happy to see my girl holding a kitten—she seemed less sad now. My plan to cheer her up was working.

  Excited, I leaped down to the floor and poked my nose under the bed. A tiny yellowish paw with even tinier claws shot out at me. I jumped back, shaking my head and sneezing. This was not a mean kitten or an angry kitten—he wanted to play! I could tell by how softly the paw had landed on my snout. I thrust my nose toward the space under the mattress again, sniffing eagerly. A yellowish face peeked out.

  “Good, Lily!” Maggie Rose sang, and she leaned down and swept up one yellowish kitten. When a yellow sister stuck her head out to see what was going on, my girl grabbed her as well. She plopped them both on the bed next to the white kitten, who was no longer hissing. They sniffed each other, probably marveling that they had met a puppy.

  The gray kitten under the dresser was meowing frantically as if it couldn’t get out. My girl lay down flat on the floor and reached beneath the piece of furniture. Her hand came out clutching a kitten, which she took to the bed, too.

  There was now a pile of kittens up there! I wagged up at them because the white kitten was staring down at me and the two yellowish ones were wandering over the mattress, mewing. Maggie Rose set the gray one down among them. Then she reached down for me.

  “Okay, Lily,” she said. “Help them not to be scared. Mom will see you’re a rescue dog. Lily, you can do this!”

  She put me down on the bed. Kittens scattered and squeaked or sat and stared.

  I sat, too, and stared back. These were kittens like Stripes and Blotchy, but I wasn’t sure if they all wanted to play like Stripes and Blotchy had. Would they puff up and yowl and hiss like the angry mother cat?

  No, they wouldn’t. They seemed curious about me now that I was sitting down. The white one and one of the yellowish ones came hesitantly forward on skinny legs to examine me.

  I stretched out my nose. They sniffed. I sniffed.

  Their fear was leaving them. One of them nuzzled at my cheek, emitting a tiny not-barking sound. The gray one came toward me, unsure, ready to run.

  I licked his face. He fell back in surprise, his bright eyes blinking. One of his sisters pounced on him. They were playing!

  I poked my nose between them, hoping they would let me play, too.

  I could sense my girl standing at the
edge of the bed, watching eagerly. Clearly, I’d been right all along. Watching her puppy play with kittens was the secret to pushing away her sadness.

  The little white kitten crouched down. Her rump stuck up. It wiggled. It wasn’t exactly like a bow that a dog would make if he or she wanted a game, but it was close. Was she telling me she wanted to play with me?

  Yes, she was! There wasn’t much room on the mattress for Chase Me, though I was certainly willing. But instead of running away so I could run after her, she leaped and landed with both front paws around one of mine. She wrestled with my foot and gnawed on it, but her jaws were too weak to really hurt. I picked up my paw and shook it. She tumbled off.

  Sitting on the squishy mattress with three paws down and one paw up made me wobble. If I fell, I’d be lying down, and the kittens could climb over me just the way my brothers used to. They might like that. My brothers certainly had. I flopped over, wagging, my tail tapping the bed.

  A yellowish kitten and the gray one came to sniff at my face. The gray one batted at my ear.

  The other yellowish one leaped nimbly up and walked along my side. Her tiny claws pricked and tickled.

  The white kitten sprang at me to seize my paw again and wrestle with it more.

  “Good dog, Lily!” my girl praised. “They’re not scared anymore!”

  I could tell now that these kittens were even younger than Stripes and Blotchy. That meant I had to be gentle with them. My brothers had never been gentle with me when they wanted to play, but my mother had been. When she wrapped her body around mine or picked me up by the skin on the back of my neck, she’d always been careful not to hurt me.

  I could be like that. I could be careful with the kittens.

  The door opened. I glanced over and saw the man who smelled like two different dogs. “What in the world is going on here?” he demanded.

  Maggie Rose straightened her posture with a jerk and a small gasp. I jumped up, concerned. Kittens rolled in every direction, mewing.

  What was the matter with my girl? Did she need me?