“She’s just having trouble getting used to parting with our animals,” Mom said.
My girl lifted her face from my fur. “Not animals, Mom. Lily. Lily is the only dog I have ever wanted in my whole life.”
The man went very still. Then he turned and looked at Mom. “I guess I didn’t understand.”
Mom shook her head. “No. It’s okay.” She tried to put an arm around Maggie Rose, but my girl didn’t hug back. “Maggie Rose is just coming to terms with something that all people in our job have to learn—that animal rescue is a constant flow,” she told Furry Face. “New animals arrive at shelters every day. They get placed with foster families until we find them permanent homes. But when a foster family can’t bear to give up the animal they’ve been taking care of and adopts it, they usually stop fostering new animals. It’s a huge problem for us, because our shelter is small and we need our foster homes or we have to turn away new arrivals. So we can’t keep the animals ourselves, no matter how much we love them. We have to set the right example for all the volunteers who work for us.”
My girl pressed her face into my fur again.
“I understand, I guess,” the man replied. “But I feel bad. Tell you what. I sort of have my heart set on this little girl, but that doesn’t mean I can’t share. You could come visit her any time you want. Would you like that? And maybe I could take her to see you, too. If I needed a dog sitter, I would drop her off with you, if your parents said it was okay.”
Feeling Maggie Rose’s pain made me want to whimper. I squirmed up so I could lick her wet face. When were we going to go home?
19
I thought my girl couldn’t possibly feel sadder, but now what came off her was such a suffocating grief I could not help but whimper. Things were even worse than before! I couldn’t help my girl feel better, and I seemed to be making things worse!
My girl’s hands were trembling when, all of a sudden, she thrust me away from her. Now Furry Face was cradling me. He felt sad, too. What was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I be a good puppy for all these people? And why was Maggie Rose giving me to this person when she obviously needed her dog more than ever?
Maggie Rose reached into her pocket and pulled something out. It was not a treat or anything that smelled good—it was a piece of paper.
“This is a picture I drew of Lily,” she said to Furry Face. Her voice went up and down in a strange, sad way. I could tell she was using all her strength to keep from taking me back and holding me as tightly as she could.
“I wrote a poem for her under the picture,” she went on. “Please, could you put it up somewhere where Lily can see it?”
Furry Face shifted me to one hand and reached out the other for Maggie Rose’s paper.
“I will definitely do that,” he said solemnly.
“And on the back there’s something even more important,” Maggie Rose told him. “There’s a list of all the animals Lily has rescued.”
Furry Face turned the paper over and looked at the back.
“Missy, Freddie, deer,” he read out. “Five kittens. Lily’s really helped all these animals?”
He looked from Mom to Maggie Rose. Mom looked confused. Maggie Rose nodded.
“When she saves more animals, please add them to the list,” she said. On the last word, her voice went very thin and high and wobbly, and all of a sudden she turned and ran straight to the van. She climbed in and slammed the door behind her.
Mom turned to Furry Face and sighed. “I’m sorry. I thought it would be good for her to come here and see Lily’s new home, to meet you and know Lily will be loved. But that may not have been the right call.”
“Oh, I’ll give this little puppy all the love she can handle. But I guess I’m feeling torn. Are you sure about this?” Furry Face replied.
Mom shook her head. “Honestly, no, I’m not sure, not sure at all. Maggie Rose is tenderhearted and loves all the animals in the shelter. She’s always been happy to help us find new homes for a puppy or a kitten or whatever. I thought it would be the same with Lily. I can’t tell why this is different. Her brothers have been teasing her a lot lately. Maybe that’s all it is.”
“I get it,” the man answered. “Well, thank you. I promise I will give Lily the best home possible, and I meant what I said. Your daughter can come here any time for a visit.”
“Thank you,” Mom said.
I was trying to worm my way into a position in Furry Face’s arms so that I could see my girl in the van, but the way he was holding me blocked my view. Then Mom walked away, going around the back of the van. Now I couldn’t see her, either.
“You’ll be all right, Lily,” Furry Face told me.
I was absolutely bewildered when, with a lurch, the van slid backward out into the street. Finally, I could see Maggie Rose! Even from a distance, I could tell that her face was flushed and wet with tears. I wriggled to force Furry Face to put me down so I could run to her, but he just clutched me to him. “Good dog,” he murmured. He carried me up some steps and through a door, closing it behind him.
Good dog? How could I be a good dog when I wasn’t with my girl?
He set me down on the floor. I went to the door, put my nose to the crack underneath it, and inhaled with deep gusts. I could barely pick up my girl’s scent, but it was fading. Maggie Rose was leaving without me!
I scratched at the door so that it would open, but it didn’t.
“Hey, Lily, want a ball?” the man called softly. I barely glanced down as a white ball rolled past my vision. I needed to be with Maggie Rose!
Furry Face sighed. “Hey,” he said. “I know you don’t get it, but you’re going to be my dog now, okay? Maggie Rose can come visit you any time she likes, I promise.”
I heard Maggie Rose and felt pretty sure he was telling me my girl would be back soon. She always came back in the mornings, didn’t she? When I had to spend the night by myself, I could bear my loneliness because I knew that she would be coming back to see me in the day. She was my girl, and I was her dog.
I circled a few times and then lay down right in front of the door so that I would know the moment the van came back up the driveway.
The man went into his kitchen. Soon I could smell something delicious cooking, but I didn’t budge from my post. I couldn’t risk even a moment away from that door because I wanted to be sure to be there to greet my girl.
I heard Furry Face talk a little, rattle things a little, and chew a lot.
I didn’t move.
“Hey, Lily. I put some food in your bowl,” Furry Face said quietly.
I breathed in, searching for my girl’s scent. I couldn’t find it.
When the crack under the door was no longer glowing with daylight, Furry Face moved around the house. He snapped switches on the walls, and the rooms were suddenly full of brightness. It was then that a terrible thought struck me.
What if Maggie Rose wasn’t coming back?
This idea was so terrible that it made me whimper. I breathed out a great gust of air at the crack between the door and the floor so that my nose could pull in a deep breath. Surely, somewhere there would be a sign of my girl. I needed Maggie Rose!
“Lily,” the man said. He put his hands on my fur, and I quit crying. “I’m so sorry, girl.”
I slept right there by that door that night, waking up often. I heard something drive by. Was it the van? A faint voice came to me. Was it my girl? More than once a human smell drifted in through the crack. Maggie Rose?
In the morning, Furry Face put a leash on my collar—no treat—and led me Outside. I squatted, and he forgot to give me a treat for that as well, but that was fine. I was too busy for treats. I was searching for my girl. Her scent was painted on the grass. I breathed in deeply. My girl, it was the smell of my girl.
Back in the house, I took up my position in front of the door.
“It’s the weekend. What do you want to do?” the man asked me. “Go for a walk? Lily? Go for a walk? Play with the ball? Want
to play with the ball, Lily?”
He was saying my name and tossing out a lot of words that I loved to hear, words like ball and walk, but I wasn’t really paying attention. Any time now, I knew, Maggie Rose would be back.
He knelt by me and put his hand on my back. “Don’t you believe I love you, girl? Don’t you believe you’ll be happy here?”
I turned my head away from him and sighed. I could tell that he was kind, but he wasn’t my girl.
After a little while, Furry Face got up with a sigh of his own. He opened the door. I picked my head up alertly. Maggie Rose was coming?
No. She was not there. Furry Face went out quickly and shut the door behind him. He was back in a minute, with a newspaper under his arm. This time, when he shut the door, it bounced back a little so that it was open a crack. Probably he did that so I could more easily sniff for my girl. I did sniff, but there was still nothing of her on the air.
I dropped my head back to my legs and let it lie there heavily. Furry Face stepped over me. “It’ll take time, Lily,” he said softly. “You’ll get used to being here.”
He walked into the kitchen and began to make interesting noises there. My ears twitched. But I couldn’t go investigate because I didn’t want to leave the door in case Maggie Rose came back.
I pushed my nose into the crack between the door and the floor once more to check if my girl was nearby. When I did that, the door moved into the house, widening the crack.
I pushed again. The door moved a little more.
I jumped to my feet. Furry Face was opening and shutting cupboards and putting things in bowls. Normally, this was activity that I would have been very interested in, but not now. Now I was focused on pushing at the door with all the strength in my body.
It opened! I squeezed through the crack.
Maggie Rose had not come back. Obviously, it was up to me.
I had to find my girl.
To get to her, I realized, I would have to go through a whole new Outside. I was not in the Outside that I was used to back home, the small yard where Maggie Rose and I played Bring It Here. I was not in the much bigger Outside where we’d played the same game with Sammy.
This Outside was very busy. It had sidewalks set into the grass that I could walk on, and many houses like the ones where Furry Face lived. Cars and vans went past along a wide street.
I hurried down one of the sidewalks with my nose up in the air, searching for a hint of Maggie Rose.
I could not smell her anywhere! But there were so many other smells, it made my head swim. Dirt. Grass. Trees. Flowers. Bushes with damp earth underneath that would be good for digging. Trees—some of them with broad, soft leaves and some with spiky needles and that same sharp, dreadful tang I remembered from my time playing Bring It Here with Sammy.
Other animals! I could smell them! There were dogs and cats inside some of the houses I passed. Squirrels like Sammy chittered at me from trees. Animals I had never met had walked across the grass in the night. Some of them had peed on it! I crisscrossed the grass of several lawns, my nose down to the dirt, sniffing hard. This was so interesting!
I wandered for what seemed like a long time, across many lawns and past many houses, but I couldn’t find a trace of Maggie Rose. Surely, she must be somewhere—but where?
I was crossing yet another lawn when the track of a strange new animal caught my attention. It smelled wild like Sammy, and big and rather fierce. I couldn’t help myself—I followed it.
The track led me behind the house and to some tall plastic bins that smelled very good indeed. Food was inside them! Delicious food, lots of kinds, all mixed together! I could even smell peanut butter in there! I scrabbled at the sides of the bin with my paws, but it didn’t open up. I barked at it. That didn’t work, either.
My barking did, however, attract the attention of a dog inside the house, who barked back loudly, telling me that this was his house and not mine.
Fine. I did not want to be in his house, anyway. Maggie Rose was not in there.
I crossed the lawn in back of the house, squirmed beneath a row of bushes, and trotted across a new lawn and a brick patio. I could hear something now, a familiar voice calling, “Lily! Lily!”
It was Furry Face, saying my name. I paused and sniffed the wind. I could smell him not far away.
I was supposed to go to people who said my name. But Furry Face was not Maggie Rose. My pull toward my girl was stronger than the tug that told me I should go to Furry Face when he called me.
If only I could figure out where in this enormous Outside my girl had gotten to!
20
I headed away from Furry Face and found myself up against a fence. I sniffed along it and found a hole where the not-dog I’d been tracking had clearly wiggled through. I did the same and came out on the other side of the fence into a wider, wilder Outside.
The grass was longer. There were more bushes and trees and even a stream not too far away; I could smell the clean wetness of the water. To my right and left, I could see more homes and backyards, but ahead of me was a dense, deep wildness.
So many animals lived here. I could hardly believe what my nose was telling me. There were not-dogs everywhere! Some were tiny insects burrowing through the soil at my feet or dug into the bark of trees. Some were birds flitting overhead or scolding from branches. One was like a twist of shiny rope, and it uncoiled itself and slithered away beneath a stone when I came close.
I had my nose to the thick grass, sniffing hard. My girl had not walked here. Maybe I should go back under the fence and search for her some more? But it was hard to stop sniffing. There was a brand-new smell right at my feet—a new not-dog, one I had never smelled before, had hurried across this grass not long ago.
My feet followed my nose along the trail this creature had left, and I wound up against a fallen log, sniffing hard.
Something was hidden under there. Something small and frightened and alone.
It wasn’t another kitten; I could tell. It was a new kind of animal. I sniffed hard and barked once. Maybe it needed to come out and play? Maybe then it would feel better?
It did not come out.
I took my nose away from the log and looked around. Did this small, frightened, furry animal have a mother nearby? Should I try to find it? Should I bring the animal to its mother, just as I’d carried the little black kitten to Maggie Rose?
Something rustled in a nearby bush. My head jerked around. Was this a mother?
No. It wasn’t.
The animal that had been hiding in the bush came out slowly. It looked a little like a dog, with a black, twitching nose and alert whiskers. It looked a little like a cat, because its head was round and its ears stood straight up from its head.
But it was not a dog or a cat. It smelled wild and hungry. And I could tell that no human hand had ever petted its fur.
I knew this smell. I had smelled it in the backyard with the plastic bins and followed it through the hole in the fence. And I had smelled it before that, too—long ago, on Missy’s fur.
This not-dog was not friendly. It did not want to play. It had black eyes that glittered at me inside black fur that made a mask across its face. It had a puffy tail with stripes that quivered behind it as it stalked slowly closer to me.
It wanted to get at the small, frightened creature beneath the log. I did not think that should happen. This fierce not-dog would certainly not make that small hidden thing feel better.
I felt the fur on the back of my neck bristle. I felt my lips pulling back from my teeth.
I barked as loudly as I could. I would scare off this not-dog! I would make it go away!
The not-dog paused. It shook its head as if it felt a little confused. Then it lowered that head closer to the ground. It made a grunting noise at me. Now it was my turn to shake my head. Was the thing trying to bark back?
The not-dog bunched its back legs underneath it, and suddenly it rushed at me. Startled, I leaped away. But it stopped before
it got too close, and I realized that it had only been trying to scare me away from the log.
I raced back and barked more, bracing my feet wide on the earth, lowering my head. I sent a message with my barking: Don’t come any closer! Stay back!
Far off, I heard a familiar voice calling, “Lily! Lily!” but I was too busy to answer Furry Face right now.
The not-dog backed away one or two steps, but it did not leave. Instead, it began edging to one side. It was moving in a circle, and I had to turn with it to keep facing it and barking.
It was bigger than I was. Its teeth looked very sharp, too. If it rushed at me again and did not back off, I would not be able to fight it.
But maybe it didn’t know that.
I doubled my barking and added some growls. I showed all my teeth. The hair all the way along my spine was standing up, and I had not even told it to do that! It made me look bigger and tougher. But it was too bad I could not bristle all over the way kittens did. Then I could really scare this intruder away.
Over my barking, I heard a new voice calling my name. It was not Furry Face this time. “Lily! Lily! Do you hear that barking? Lily!”
It was my girl!
I was so surprised that I quit barking. My head whipped around in my girl’s direction, so fast that my ears swatted the sides of my head. Maggie Rose! I should run to her!
I took one leap in her direction, and then I whirled back to the log.
If I ran away, the not-dog would be able to get at the frightened animal under the log.
But if I didn’t run to Maggie Rose, I might not be able to find her again. She might even think I did not want to be with her!
The thought made my whole body ache with my longing to be in my girl’s arms. I needed to be with her. I needed to comfort her. I needed to take care of her and let her take care of me.
But if I ran away, I would be leaving the small frightened creature all alone. That couldn’t be the right thing to do.
Puppy Tales 07 - Lily's Story Page 11
