A Dog's Courage--A Dog's Way Home Novel

by W. Bruce Cameron

  I felt the tug of the kittens I’d left behind. I had tied myself to them with an invisible leash. But they had food and water and a defensible den—they would be safe for a time. So I dashed straight toward the source of that wonderful canine bouquet.

  Before long, other familiar smells were calling to me. I had been on this trail before! Soon, I lunged across a small stream I remembered wading with Dutch. Now I was panting as much from excitement as exertion. If I was tracking Dutch, I was also tracking Gavin and Taylor. When dogs live with people who love them it makes for a bond never broken. Dogs never stop loving the humans who have taken care of them, even if they wind up living with someone else.

  Next came a gravel road running in a crooked line across the landscape. I had walked this road, leashed to Gavin and Taylor. I sniffed the air, then followed a sharp smell. Dutch had recently lifted his leg on a rock, which I stopped and examined carefully. I could tell he frequently marked this rock, though to me there was nothing special about it. My trot became a headlong sprint, ignoring all protests from my tired muscles.

  This whole area was marvelously unburned. Leaves were out and lush, grasses hummed with small bugs, and an occasional larger-animal scent reached out to me from the woods. I turned confidently up a rutted driveway, crested a small rise, and there it stood before me: one of the two houses in which Gavin and Taylor lived with Dutch.

  Their other house was far away, down a lengthy stretch of pavement that had hummed under our tires. Gavin and Taylor called that place “home” and this place “the cabin.” As I approached, I could tell that the wooden fence had been freshly rebuilt in the backyard, its scent strong with the tang of new lumber. I could also tell that the two men and my old friend Dutch were all inside the cabin.

  I joyfully mounted the front steps, clawed at the front door, and barked impatiently for someone to open it.

  My summons was immediately answered by a reply bark from Dutch. He did not know who it was, but he recognized another dog when he heard one, and was letting everyone in the house know there was a trespasser on the front porch.

  I could sense him on the other side of the door. His nose was pressed to the crack at the bottom, and he was inhaling in great, shuddering gusts. When he whined, I knew he’d recognized me.

  “Okay, hang on,” grumbled a familiar voice.

  Gavin opened the door and I wanted to greet him joyously, but Dutch lunged out, whining, and immediately tried to climb on my back. He was as huge as I remembered, so much heavier and stronger than I that he knocked me over. I leapt up and spun around, play-bowed, and then managed to dodge his affections long enough to get to Gavin.

  Gavin’s eyes were wide and his mouth open. He was staring at me as I went to him and rose up and put my paws up on his chest. I wagged and licked and ignored Dutch, who was prancing around, crashing into me, wanting to play.

  “Bella?” Gavin blurted in disbelief. “Bella? Bella! You came home?” He turned and looked into the house. “It’s Bella! Oh my God, Taylor, she’s here. Bella came back home!”

  Because I was on my hind legs, Dutch joined me and Gavin staggered under the combined weight of our front paws, falling back into the house and landing on his butt. I smelled and then saw Taylor stepping calmly around the corner. He held a cloth in one hand and a glass in the other. “Are you sure?”

  “Am I sure?” Gavin answered, a burbling laugh in his voice. “Am I sure? Look at her! It’s Bella!”

  Gavin remained sprawled on the floor. I tried to reach his widespread arms, longing for his embrace, but Dutch muscled me out of the way to take the hug for his own.

  Dutch was always Gavin’s dog.

  I turned and trotted over to Taylor, who squatted and reached out a hand for me to sniff. Taylor’s hands were dark and his hair was gone from the top of his head. He had a bright smile and a friendly, deep voice. Taylor’s unflappable approach to things had always struck me as being more like my boy Lucas than Gavin, but for some unknown reason, Lucas and Taylor were not yet friends.

  “Are you Bella?” he whispered to me.

  I wagged and licked that hand. I was so happy to see him again, and to hear him say my name.

  “How do we know this is the same dog?”

  “Bella!” Gavin called sharply. “Come to your daddy!”

  I knew “Come” and went over to Gavin.

  Taylor’s knees produced a snapping sound as he stood back up. He cocked an eye at Gavin. “Daddy?” he repeated.

  “Can’t you see? She got lost but made her way back to us,” he gushed. “Oh Dutch, you are so happy to see your sister. The family’s back together!”

  Taylor nodded. “Sure. The family.”

  “This is the happiest day of my life. Bella, want a treat?” Still sitting on the floor, Gavin reached into his pocket. Dutch and I both snapped to attention. He brought out a chicken morsel and fed one to each of us. Dutch swallowed his without seeming to chew, but the wonderful flavor of that chicken deserved some crunching, in my opinion, and I took my time.

  “What’s it say on her collar?” Taylor asked after a moment. “On the tag.”

  Gavin reached out and snagged my collar. “It says Bella, of course,” he responded triumphantly.

  Taylor nodded. “Mm-hmm. Does it say anything else?”

  Gavin fumbled with my collar some more. Something happened then, a settling of his shoulders and a slight whiff of sadness. Dutch leaned forward and gave a comforting lick to Gavin’s face. “It’s got a name and a phone number here. Lucas Ray,” he admitted reluctantly. “Denver area code.”

  “Ah,” Taylor replied knowingly.

  “We’re pretty far from Denver.” Gavin struggled to his feet, pushing Dutch away.

  I am bigger than most dogs, but Dutch is broader and has huge forelimbs and a lot of bushy fur. His nose doesn’t stick out as far as mine, but his muzzle is far thicker below his black eyes. I speculated momentarily that if Dutch wanted to keep Gavin pinned to the floor, Taylor would have to come over to help him up.

  “Far from Denver,” Taylor prompted. “And?”

  “You know what, Taylor? Our dog finally returned home. Remember how heartbroken we were when we lost her? How hard we searched? Before you start looking for the dark cloud, can’t we just take a moment to be happy?”

  Taylor threw up his hands. “I’m not saying we can’t be happy. I’m glad to see her, too. But she belongs to this Ray guy. Probably belonged to him when she first met us.”

  Gavin shook his head. “She was starving when she met us. Remember? She looked worse than she does now, even. If she was living with the Ray family, they weren’t feeding her. Someone like that doesn’t deserve a dog. You said so yourself.”

  “I didn’t say that,” Taylor responded. “When did I ever say that?”

  “What matters is that Bella is home and we need to feed her dinner.”

  Dutch and I looked up sharply and with approval at that word.

  “Okay,” Taylor agreed. “Then what?”

  “Then we should celebrate. Open a bottle of champagne.”

  Taylor grinned. “I’m okay with the champagne part. But then we should call the phone number on her collar and see what the story is. Right? You’re not saying we shouldn’t call.”

  “Well, first, let’s feed her,” Gavin said stubbornly. “She’s almost as skinny as she was when we first found her. Because obviously this Ray guy isn’t taking good care of her.”

  “I do get that’s your point, Gavin.”

  Dutch and I were each given bowls of food. I could tell by the less-than-frantic way Dutch went after his meal that he had been fed recently, but for me, this was the first real dog meal in a long time. Somehow, a bowl of food laid down by a person’s loving hands tastes better than even a wild deer that has been cooked in fire.

  After we had eaten, Gavin let us go out in the fenced-in yard. Dutch marked, lifting first one back leg and then the other, and I sniffed carefully at his distinctive smell. I needed t
o squat as well, and then we both turned and trotted back to the sliding glass doors, just as we had done many times before.

  Though it was wonderful to be out in the yard with Dutch, the excitement and agitation of the men compelled us to run back inside and be with them.

  “All right,” Taylor declared. “Let’s call Lucas Ray.”

  Twenty-three

  Dutch and I enthusiastically tagged behind Gavin and Taylor as they made their way to their table and eased into chairs. We did Sit, anticipating that plates of people food would appear, but the only thing between the two men was a phone. Dutch glanced at me to see if I understood what was happening, then snapped his attention to Gavin, sensing the same tension from him that I was. As usual, Taylor seemed calmer. Gavin touched his phone, and then an odd noise filled the air.

  I heard what sounded a little like a human voice. “Hello?”

  Taylor and Gavin looked at each other and Taylor leaned forward and cleared his throat. “Hi. We’re looking for Lucas Ray. Is he there?”

  More than once, they had said the name “Lucas,” which puzzled me because there was no sign of Lucas anywhere. Not painted into the dusty smells in the corners, not embedded in the rug or the furniture, and certainly not on the air.

  “I’m Dr. Ray, may I ask who’s calling, please?”

  “My name is Taylor,” Taylor replied hesitantly. “Taylor Patrone.”

  Gavin leaned forward. “And I’m Gavin Williams. We have you on speaker.”

  “Okay.…”

  There was a short silence. Taylor nodded at Gavin, who nodded back and leaned forward again. “We’re wondering, Dr. Ray. Do you have a dog named Bella?”

  “Yes! She got lost in the mountains. We were separated by the fire. Did you find her? I mean, do you have my dog or did you, God, did you just find her collar?”

  “Uh…,” Gavin started. He looked up helplessly at Taylor.

  “So, perhaps you could tell us a little bit of how Bella came to be in your possession,” Taylor suggested.

  There was a pause. “My possession. I guess I don’t see how that’s even relevant.”

  “Humor us?”

  “Okay.… Sure, if that helps. I adopted Bella when she was a puppy. She lived across the street from us under an abandoned house with a bunch of feral cats. When she was not very old, I sent her to friends outside of Durango, down south. Do you know the area?”

  Both men said, “Mm-hmm.”

  Dutch was still doing an admirable Sit, but I was growing less optimistic. Sometimes people will gather at a table, but that doesn’t always mean they’re planning to eat.

  “Pretty place,” Taylor observed. “Right on that river, there.”

  “Fort Lewis College,” Gavin added.

  “Sure, right. I guess my point is that it’s practically New Mexico. It’s a long way. But I had no choice. Bella was banned from living in Denver for being a pit bull. They had breed-discriminatory legislation, even though everyone hated it. The city council overturned it, but the mayor vetoed it. He’s not a real bright guy. So the people petitioned to put the measure on the ballot and overwhelmingly overturned the pit bull ban.”

  Gavin reacted instantly. “Oh!” He grinned at Taylor. “Okay, then. See, this is not a pit bull. She has brown and tan markings. And the most beautiful brown eyes. You look at them, you just melt.”

  Taylor smiled and shook his head.

  “Right, that’s the thing. In Denver, a dog didn’t used to have to be a pit bull to be classified as one. It’s really strange, but it just took like, a vote by Animal Control and then no matter what breed your dog actually was, it was condemned. They’d pick it up and declare it a pit bull, you’d pay a fine and they’d let you have your dog back. If they caught her a second time, they’d euthanize her. It was insane. That’s why my wife and I moved to Golden, where they’ve never had a breed ban. Before we did, though, we sent Bella away, and one day she jumped the fence to make her way back to us.”

  Dutch glanced at me, finally realizing that even this pair of masterful Sits wasn’t getting us any treats. I flopped down on the floor, giving up.

  I sleepily thought about the kittens. Should I lead them here, to be with Gavin and Taylor and Dutch? No, I decided, I would have one more dinner in this house and then return to the den and continue to do Go Home to Lucas.

  “From Durango? On foot?” Taylor asked dubiously.

  “I know. When she showed up … you can imagine what that was like. It was a miraculous day. So … I think you can understand why I am pretty tense here. It sounds like you’ve found Bella. Do you have her?”

  The phone was making sounds that were a lot like my name. I still was uninterested in whatever that was about. Dutch agreed and joined me, sprawling on the floor.

  Taylor was regarding Gavin with a sad smile. Gavin nodded reluctantly. “I guess so. It sure sounds like your dog, anyway.”

  “Oh my God! That’s great! This is the best news I’ve ever had. You have no idea what we’ve been going through. I missed a lot of work because of the fire, so I’ve had to pull double shifts, but every single chance we’ve had, I’ve gone up with my wife looking for her. We’ve put up all these posters. Did you see them? Olivia says there’s not a telephone pole in Colorado without Bella’s picture on it.”

  “Hang on a sec,” Taylor said. He picked up the phone and turned toward us.

  Dutch and I both raised our heads, but then dropped them when he swiveled back to continue to sit pointlessly at the table. “I’m sending you a picture of the dog right now.”

  “Okay, let me look. That’s her! Man, you have no idea how happy this makes me. I’m so glad you found Bella.”

  Taylor nodded. “So, my husband is a novelist and I think he wants to tell you a story. He has this look that he gets.”

  “Right, sure, of course.”

  Gavin cleared his throat. “We found Bella in the mountains. This was, gosh, four years ago? She was trying to dig a guy out of the snow. He’d been buried in an avalanche. There were two dogs, one named Dutch and yours. Bella didn’t have a collar back then, so we didn’t know her name. Dutch was easy, it was on his tag.”

  Dutch perked up at his name, then put his head back down with a weary sigh.

  “So, we helped the guy who was trapped in the avalanche. We figured because, you know, both dogs were there digging, that they must belong to him. He had some kind of crazy name.”

  “Kurch,” Taylor supplied helpfully.

  “Yeah, Kurch. Like ‘church’ with a hard K. He was a real … let’s just say he was not a nice person.”

  “Putting it mildly,” Taylor observed.

  “Did he hurt the dogs or something?”

  Gavin shook his head. “No. Well, kind of. He obviously didn’t know who Bella was, but he didn’t want Dutch. I mean here we are with his dog, in his bedroom, and he’s lying there in a cast, and all he’s doing is swearing at Dutch, who was just so happy to see his person. You know? Dutch didn’t understand what was going on, but the guy wouldn’t take his own dog back. It was … it was one of the most awful things I’ve ever seen.”

  Now Dutch and I were both staring at Gavin because his voice had become tight with sadness. Taylor reached his hand across the table and put it on Gavin’s.

  Gavin tremulously smiled at Taylor. “Anyway. So then we had Dutch, who’s this gigantic Bernese, and your dog, who isn’t exactly tiny.”

  “I wanted a cat,” Taylor observed dryly. “We guessed she was called Bella because it was the only name she reacted positively to. We tried everything, even ‘Blanche.’”

  “Blanche was my mother’s dog’s name,” Gavin explained, “and Taylor seems to think that’s the most offensive thing that has ever been uttered by a human being before.”

  Taylor chuckled. “You need to meet Gavin’s mother.”

  “Anyway,” Gavin continued, “Bella stayed with us that winter, but in the spring, when we came back up to the cabin, we let the dogs run off leash
, and that was the last time we saw her.”

  “By ‘her’ he means Bella,” Taylor elaborated. “Not Gavin’s mother. We’ve seen plenty of Gavin’s mother.”

  Gavin rolled his eyes. “Anyway, we did the same thing you’re talking about. Put up posters and posted to social media. We assumed the worst had happened to her, got attacked by a mountain lion or something, until today, when Bella just shows up out of nowhere. She’s lying here now as if she never left.”

  Dutch cut his eyes in my direction to check my reaction to hearing my name spoken so much, but I was drowsy and didn’t feel like moving.

  “Well that’s it, then. Bella was missing for a few years. She ran off from that family all the way down by Durango, and I don’t know how she did it, but she found her way back to me. By then I’d moved to Golden, but I still worked in Denver. It must have been with the help of people like you that she survived. I am so grateful. Bella is the most important thing in my life, except for my wife, Olivia.”

  There was a short silence. Dutch rolled onto his side, and it took no effort at all for me to slide over and put my head on his chest, where I had laid it so many times in the past.

  Gavin sighed. “Well, I guess that means that you should come get your dog.”

  “Okay, yes, of course. Could I ask if maybe you could watch her for a couple of days? I’ve got to arrange my schedule to get a day off. Where are you, anyway?”

  “Well,” Taylor answered, “we’re at our cabin in the mountains right now, near Elk Knob Peak outside of Buford.”

  “What? Buford? I’ve always wanted to go Jeeping up around Elk Knob. Bella’s there? She made her way on foot?”

  “I guess. She just showed up,” Gavin replied.

  “Wow. That’s amazing. We were in Summit County camping, and then the fire came, and we fled as far as Paraiso. That was the last time I saw her. You had any fires there in Buford?”

  Dutch and I glanced up because Taylor and Gavin were exchanging tense looks.

  “Uh,” Gavin answered, “not yet. But that’s one of the reasons we’re here, to grab anything we’d hate to lose. They’re saying the fire’s not contained enough to know for sure if it’s coming this way or not.”