The Dogs of Christmas Page 9

  Kerri started giggling. Josh glanced at her and felt his heart go into mild fibrillation over that smile.

  Oliver, still wagging his tail, decided there had been some sort of misunderstanding between himself and this strange, not-a-dog creature. There was no reason why they couldn’t be friends, right? He stepped forward and his sisters Sophie and little Lola were right on his heels to lend moral support, albeit from a safe distance. He play bowed. So far so good! He took another few steps and bowed again. Waldo was still as a statue. The other puppies decided it was all going to turn out well after all and surged forward, Rufus stepping on Sophie’s head in the process.

  Waldo hissed.

  Oliver threw himself into reverse, his eyes huge, colliding with the rest of his siblings in his mad dash to the rear. The puppies retreated en masse in wild terror. Halfway down the hall they skidded to a halt and regrouped in an anxious huddle.

  “Something tells me we don’t have to worry about them hurting Waldo,” Josh noted dryly. What he really wanted, of course, was reassurance Waldo wouldn’t hurt them. Kerri wasn’t worried, though, so he tried to take comfort from her confidence.

  Cody seemed to be getting bored—sniffing the walls, he was headed away from the action, back to the bedroom with their box in it. Rufus actually barked at him, as if saying, “Cody, get back here!” Cody ignored him.

  Okay, new approach. Apparently elected ambassador because she was the smallest, Lola inched forward, her belly on the floor. Sophie, wagging her little tail like crazy, followed. Oliver, excited to see other dogs risking their lives, climbed on top of Rufus to get a better view.

  Waldo observed the puppy delegation with a look of utter disinterest. The two girl puppies sniffed each other for reassurance, Waldo watching, unblinking. Encouraged by the lack of hostility, the puppies crawled forward on their stomachs like marine recruits going under barbed wire. Rufus and Oliver decided it must be safe after all and brought up the rear.

  Waldo drew his lips back and that’s all it took; the puppies fled as if running from a fire.

  “Lesson one: kitties have teeth,” Kerri pronounced dryly.

  “Lucy doesn’t seem to want to nurse anymore. She gets up in the middle of it and walks away, and sometimes she cries,” Josh said.

  Kerri nodded, absorbing this.

  The puppies had reached the consensus that there was no cat. They were now trying to sneak past Waldo and into the living room by inching along the wall, deliberately not looking at the feline. Waldo’s tail twitched. No cat. No cat.

  Waldo suddenly sprang forward, leaping right up to the puppies, and they broke formation and tore down the hall all the way to the back bedroom. Oh my God, there was a cat!

  Satisfied with a job well done, Waldo licked his paw.

  “How are you coming with the solid food?” Kerri asked.

  “I put the food out and they’re eating it, but they still want to nurse,” Josh replied. “I let them suck it off my fingers like you said to do.”

  “Usually the mom decides when nursing’s over. Don’t freak out if Lucy growls at them.”

  Josh frowned. “Freak out.”

  “What?”

  “I’m not going to freak out.”

  “No, I…” Kerri laughed. “Sorry, I’m just remembering when you thought Lucy was going to kill the puppies because they weren’t hers.”

  “Sure, but in my defense, I didn’t have Internet to look it up.”

  “Your defense, so we’re in court now? Am I the judge?” Kerri’s eyes sparkled at him.

  She was so beautiful at that moment that Josh found himself holding his breath. He wondered if the dismantling of the Amanda museum meant he could start kissing Kerri at will, because that seemed like a really good idea.

  She was smiling at him as if she knew exactly what was on his mind, holding his eyes for a moment. “So anyway, they’ll be weaned soon,” she continued, filling the pause. “We like to wait until they’re eight weeks to adopt them out, which sort of puts us in the middle of the holiday so we’ll wait until after Thanksgiving. We’ll put them on the website a few days before then, anyway. Puppies go pretty fast, especially cute guys like these.”

  Josh looked down the hallway where the puppies were assembled in the doorway as if seeking permission to come out. He decided that even if the puppies were weaned, they still needed their mother. And, just like that, he decided that he needed her, too. When and if Ryan showed up, he would fight him in court if he had to. He wasn’t giving up his dog to anyone. “Can we let Lucy out now?”

  “Why don’t we shut the puppies in the back bedroom first?” Kerri suggested. “I don’t know how Mommy would react if she caught Waldo terrorizing the babies.”

  They stepped around Waldo and went down the hall for the puppies. Cody and Rufus were off playing somewhere in the bedroom. There is no cat. Josh scooped up Oliver, who wriggled with joy, wagging and licking the air. “Where are your brothers, Oliver?” Josh asked the little dog.

  “So, what are your plans for Thanksgiving?” Kerri asked as she hoisted the two girls off the floor. Lola wagged in pleasure, and Sophie’s ears drooped—Kerri gave Sophie a kiss on the nose. “It’s okay, little girl.”

  Josh was wrestling with her question. He didn’t want to sound like some loser. What was he going to say, that he was going to celebrate the holiday using a microwave and maybe a couple cans of beer? “I’m cooking,” he replied, which wasn’t a lie.

  “Really? Thanksgiving dinner?”

  “Yeah, it’s not hard.”

  “I’m impressed.”

  He shrugged, enjoying that he was impressing her.

  “Like for friends? Any family coming?”

  “No family. I invited my sister but they can’t make it this year.”

  “Oh, that’s too bad. So you have room for one more?”

  “Sorry?”

  “Want me to come?”

  His pulse accelerated. Josh swallowed. “Yeah, that’s … yes.”

  “You sure?”

  “No, of course, I was pretty much thinking I would ask you but you probably already had plans.”

  “Nothing I can’t change, it was pretty casual. I’d like to meet your friends. Want me to bring my pumpkin pie?”

  “Yes! I actually was wondering what I was going to do about making a pie.” Also everything else.

  What was he thinking?

  Answer: he was thinking he’d get to see Kerri. He’d do whatever reckless thing he needed to do to accomplish that.

  They placed the puppies in their box. Rufus trotted out of the closet to greet them, emerging from the half that wasn’t blocked by the sliding door. “Little Rufus with the spot on your eye, where is Cody, the other little guy?” Kerri sang spontaneously as she lifted him into the air.

  It was silly and tuneless and she charmed Josh with her utter lack of self-consciousness. “Cody?” he called.

  There was a rustling sound in the closet. The sliding door rocked as the little dog apparently bumped into it. Why didn’t Cody just come out of the open side like his brother, instead of assaulting the door that was closed? Kerri put Rufus into the box, her beautiful long hair sweeping forward, and the puppy’s siblings rushed him and climbed on him as if he’d been missing for a month.

  Cody barked, a sharp, frustrated little sound. Rufus put his paws on the side of the box and barked back.

  Josh went to the closet and looked inside. Cody was sitting next to a box, facing the slatted sliding door. “Cody? What are you doing?”

  Cody turned at the sound of his voice, then banged into the box as he made his way over to Josh, who reached down and picked him up.

  “What is it?” Kerri asked as he came out holding Cody.

  “It’s weird.” Josh peered closely at Cody’s tiny little eyes, which were black against his brown face. He set the puppy down on the floor. “Call him.”

  “Cody! Come here, baby!” Kerri got down on her knees on the rug, clapping her hands.
The puppies in their box squealed, trying to climb out to get to her, stepping on each other’s heads in the process.

  Cody took a few hesitant steps in Kerri’s general direction, but not in a straight line. She reached her hand out, but Cody didn’t react to it. Kerri leaned forward, waving her hand. “Cody?”

  Cody, sniffing, touched his nose to her hand. Instantly he was wagging his tail, going down on his belly and licking her fingers.

  “He can’t see,” Josh proclaimed.

  “Oh, poor little guy,” Kerri murmured. She swept Cody up into her arms. “We should get him to the vet to make sure, though. Maybe there’s something that can be done.”

  “Okay, but there’s no rule or anything, right? I mean, you can keep a dog even if he’s blind.”

  “Right, no, of course. They’re harder to place, but we’ll find someone.”

  “Or I’ll keep him,” Josh volunteered spontaneously.

  Kerri lifted her eyebrows.

  “What?” Josh responded a little defensively.

  “You’ve never had a dog before. Seems like having a sightless one would be a lot harder.”

  But I’ll have you around to help, he almost said. “I’m sure I could manage.”

  “Let’s talk about it after the vet. I mean, just so you know, I hate it when people get a dog on impulse. It’s a huge commitment. One of the reasons there are so many homeless animals is that people buy a cute puppy and then when it gets to be big and too much to handle they just dump it.”

  “Okay, but I would never do that.”

  She smiled at him. “I know.” She held him in place with that smile for a long moment, his pulse bounding around like the puppies reacting to the cat.

  They let Lucy out of the bedroom and she came out with her fur raised, obviously well aware that Waldo had been distressing the puppies. The cat just looked at the big dog, totally unafraid. Eventually Lucy decided to be magnanimous and forgive the trespass, though she shot Josh a surly look, clearly understanding that he’d been complicit in the insulting intrusion.

  He walked with Kerri to her car. She put Waldo in the collapsing crate and then gave him her best knee-weakening smile, so that he had to lean on the vehicle for support. He was wondering if it would be okay to kiss her now, since they were right there at her getaway vehicle, but she surprised him by stepping forward for a hug. He pressed his cheek against hers and briefly smelled her hair before they broke apart. “Thanksgiving,” he finally managed to murmur.

  “Oh,” she corrected lightly, “I’ll see you before then, I’m sure.”

  Yes!

  “We’ve got a new Jack Russell named Radar who just runs and runs. I want to bring him out—he’s about the same size as your puppies, though he’s maybe two years old.”

  “Okay.” So that was it, he was going to see her because of the dog socialization program, not because he was wearing his best sweater and pressed pants. She was smiling at him. “What?” he asked her.

  “Oh, nothing.” What was she thinking? What was he missing?

  After she left, it was a nice enough day for the puppies to play outside, Josh decided. It wouldn’t be too long before winter socked the area with a big dump of snow and then the little guys would be confined to the indoors. He let Lucy out of the bedroom and picked up the puppies and carried them out to be with her.

  “You’re a good dog, Lucy,” he told her. She gave him a cross look, still unhappy about the cat incident.

  The phone rang and he dashed up the steps to get it. It was not, sorry to say, Kerri, but rather his buddy Wayne.

  “Dude, I left you a voice mail,” Wayne complained.

  “Oh. You know that I don’t really get cell up here.”

  “Can’t believe such a high tech guy and you’re still using a landline like it’s nineteen-sixty.”

  “Maybe if you told me what your message was about,” Josh suggested.

  “Look, I know what you’re going to say, but Leigh’s got this friend from her yoga class.”

  “No.”

  “Dude.”

  Lucy started barking, barking in a way Josh had never heard before—there was something like anger in it, a ferocious growl. Wayne was still talking, but Josh was staring at the open door, not listening.

  “Hang … hang on,” Josh interrupted. He dropped the phone and went to the front window.

  He gasped in horror when he saw why Lucy was barking. The dogs were under attack.

  Canis latrans.

  Coyotes.

  TWELVE

  It took Josh only a moment to take in the entire scene as it was unfolding.

  There were two of them, young, lean, and hungry, hunting the puppies together. God, they were cunning. One of them was on the left, out of the trees, taunting Lucy, pacing back and forth just out of reach. Lucy was lunging toward this one, her face fierce, her lips drawn back, her shoulders hunched and her fur up. With every feint Lucy made, the predator would dance back, tantalizing, drawing Lucy farther and farther from her frightened brood, who were huddled together where Josh had left them. Lucy was drooling, her eyes wild, her teeth snapping.

  The coyote who was goading Lucy with its taunts had an evil calculation in its eyes as it drew the dog forward, because the other hunter was in the tree line, circling stealthily to the right, waiting for Lucy to be lured just a few more feet before it darted out to steal a puppy.

  Next to the door was the shotgun with the salt load. Josh grabbed it and racked in a shell as he ran out the door.

  Lucy couldn’t help herself. Enraged, she was charging the coyote on the left and the one on the right was making its move, darting out of the trees, mouth open in anticipation, ready to snatch a baby. “Hey!” Josh yelled. He leaped off his deck and stumbled. The coyote was almost to the puppies.

  Josh fired a round into the air and the loud noise changed everything. The coyote on the right flinched, broke off its attack, and raced for the trees just as the other one fled from Lucy. Lucy went after it.

  “Lucy! Come back!” Josh shouted, standing over the puppies. He racked in another shell. Coyotes were lurkers—they might appear to be in full retreat but they’d soon circle back for another look. “Lucy! Come!” Josh fired into the woods, the salt snapping at the trees.

  Lucy came galloping back, panting. Josh doubted she’d caught up with the coyotes; they were consummate escape artists.

  “Good dog, Lucy. Stay here,” Josh told her. Lucy came to him, her wet nose touching his hand, the puppies squealing at their feet. Josh bent to them and that’s when he noticed that there were only three.

  Lola, Oliver, and Sophie were all swarming Lucy, seeking solace. Rufus and Cody were missing.

  They were gone.

  Josh gave into a heedless rage and plunged into the woods after the coyotes. He ran downhill, his vision clouded with fury and his face hot. He jacked in another shell, holding the gun across his chest like a charging soldier. He wanted to shoot the predators; he wanted to hurt them, beat them, kill them.

  Fifty feet from the house he was in the thick of his lodgepole pine forest, unable to run as fast because he literally needed to dodge trees. Looking down slope he could see well into the woods, though, and wasn’t able to spot any sign of the coyotes or the missing puppies. He halted, panting.

  Then he felt a shock of fear. What was he doing? This was exactly what the coyotes had been trying to do with Lucy; draw off the guardian and leave the family unprotected.

  He turned and ran back uphill, his heart pounding, gasping for breath. When he burst out of the trees he saw that Lucy had Oliver in her mouth, carrying the puppy by the loose flap of skin behind his neck. Oliver looked cowed; his ears drooped and his little tail was curved up between his legs.

  There was no sign of the other pups.

  “Lucy! What happened?” Josh shouted in anguish. No. Had the coyotes returned and made off with Lola and Sophie, too?

  The run back up the hill had exhausted Josh but he kept moving, up the
steps and through the open door to his house. Lucy was just vanishing down the hallway and Josh pursued. The three puppies were all in the box; Lucy had taken them to the safest place she knew.

  Josh shuddered to think about the puppies waiting out in the open, totally exposed, as Lucy carried them one at a time back into the house, but they were okay. Probably the gunshots had frightened the coyotes too much for them to circle back.

  “You stay with the puppies, Lucy,” Josh instructed her between pants. Oliver, Lola, and Sophie were all pressing anxiously against Lucy’s side, maybe seeking solace as much as a meal. Josh shut the bedroom door.

  He strode over to the gun rack and reloaded his shotgun, wishing he had something besides salt to shoot at the predators. Then he went back out into the front yard, stopping where the puppies had been huddled at Lucy’s feet.

  He couldn’t believe he had done that—left the dogs out here by themselves, where besides coyotes there were foxes and even cougars, so that he could take Wayne’s phone call. What had he been thinking?

  He thought of little Rufus, the brown spot over his one eye, and Cody, blind and terrified, as the two little dogs were carried off by the vicious coyotes. The pain was almost more than he could bear. He sank to his knees, setting his gun aside, and put his hands to his face and choked out his grief in anguished sobs. It was his fault, all his fault. He was stupid, stupid, stupid.

  He didn’t track how long he wallowed in his agony. When he finally brought himself under control he wiped his wet hands on his pants. He knew something now. He wasn’t going to give up the puppies for adoption—they were his dogs, and he would never abandon them again. It hurt too much to lose them. He just couldn’t bear it.