Part 4 (1/2)
Erin laughed. ”He's too adorable.” Holding the sheet in place, she sat up to pet the dog, and her smile faded.
Gary stood there watching her, basking in his newfound good fortune. She'd agreed to marry him. She'd said she loved him.
Life couldn't get any better than this.
”Poor little thing is exhausted, but I think he's scared and afraid of being left alone again. After al he's been through, it's no wonder he started crying.” Erin peeked up at him.
”Do you think it'd be okay if we just let him stay in here with us?”
With us. d.a.m.n that sounded good.
”Are you kidding?” Smiling, Gary got into bed beside her.
”Cupid brought you back to me.” He lay down and pul ed her into his arms, and they both heard the little dog sigh in his sleep. ”As far as I'm concerned, he can sleep anywhere he wants to.”
A KNOTTY TAIL.
Stel a Cameron For Mango, Millie, Jordan, s.h.i.+loh and Little Star And with special thanks to Clawdia for her collaboration!
”Listen up, d.i.c.kens,” Madeleine said. ”Looks like we're on our last chance. Blow this and we could be history.”
d.i.c.kens lay on his back timing his next snap at a circling fly.
”Close your mouth,” Madeleine told him, exasperated.
”Flies are bad for you.”
”Why?”
”Germs. Didn't mother teach you anything?”
”I never met mother,” d.i.c.kens said.
”Oh, my.” Madeleine sat with a thump on a wad of tartan fleece and scratched her ears, one at a time. ”Of course you met her.”
”How's that?”
”You were born, d.i.c.kens. That's when you met mother.
So did I.”
”Only in pa.s.sing,” d.i.c.kens said. He snapped at the fly again. ”I don't remember a thing about her.”
”Don't feel bad,” Madeleine said. ”She probably doesn't remember us either.”
She looked d.i.c.kens over. Like her, he was in good shape for a five-year-old dog, but that was probably because of the Jack Russel bits of them. They did a lot of jumping around to stay fit.
When she and d.i.c.kens got adopted this time, Madeleine had heard the man at the adoption place say, ”These terrier mixes are hardy. And they're loyal, too. Never any trouble.
They don't bark or bite or get fleas . . .” Wel , maybe he hadn't said the part about the fleas, but he had gone on and on about how perfect they were. Madeleine and d.i.c.kens were afraid the woman deciding if she could take a brother and sister go together would figure there must be something really wrong with them and look at another dog.
But the woman visited with them in the petting area and said, ”Yes.”
Madeleine stil trembled just thinking about how relieved she had felt.
”You think she's gonna keep us?” d.i.c.kens said.
Madeleine sighed. He talked a good story, but inside he was as scared as she was that this second adoption wouldn't work out, just like the first one. Where they'd been before their people moved and had decided, ”It's too expensive to s.h.i.+p a couple of mutts.” Madeleine had heard that. She was always hearing stuff because, unlike d.i.c.kens, she listened and faced up to things.
”Do you?” d.i.c.kens pressed, sounding worried now.
”She'l keep us if we're what she wants,” Madeleine told him. ”We gotta be good. We only gotta bark at strangers and then we gotta look terrifying if she needs us to. No whining, begging, scratching, chewing, or peeing and p.o.o.ping where we're not supposed to pee and p.o.o.p. Got that?”
”Sheesh,” d.i.c.kens said. ”Life's hardly worth living.”
”d.i.c.kens.”
”Yeah, yeah, keep your hair on. We've been here a week and I haven't messed up yet, have I?”
”Nope.”
”Do you think we'l get to go in the house in winter?”
d.i.c.kens asked.
Their new person, name of Rose Gibb, kept them in a big run at the side of her house. It got pretty warm since it was summer and even though the lot was on a hil , this part of Georgia was having a long, humid spel . Fortunately Rose had made sure there was a roof over part of the pen so it was easy to get out of the sun.
”If you don't forget to go where you're supposed to,”
Madeleine said, looking at a corner of the pen where Rose Gibb scattered fresh shavings each night. ”She's got to trust us not to do what she doesn't want us to do where we're not supposed to do it. Then I think she might let us in.”
d.i.c.kens settled his mouth together in a wavy line al the way around. It was his grumpy look.
”What?” Madeleine said.
”I want her to like us. That's dumb, but I do. She looks like she does sometimes but . . . it would be okay if she scratched my head.”
Madeleine blinked. ”Me, too.” Bright sun could make her eyes sting. She perked up her ears. ”Hush. Someone's coming.”
Those two canines didn't know it yet, but they were going to help Clawdia accomplish something important. She stood behind a big clump of orange flowers, put al four of her feet together and sat down.
With her beautiful, sleek tail curled around just so, she knew what a stunning picture of feline perfection she made.
From there she could see the ugly dogs through the flower stems. Dogs were not known for intel igence, so they wouldn't notice her if she didn't want them to.
At first she had been furious about the arrival of the two white, black, brown, whiskery, and who-knew-what-else creatures. This was her hil . Hers and Simon's. Simon was her person and it was one thing to have Rose Gibb living up here-after al , she had been there first-but dogs?
Clawdia's skin quivered over her wel -toned muscles.
Never mind, she was a pragmatist. Opportunity took many forms, even the form of dogs and she would use them.