Bending over, she scratched behind the dog’s ears and she would swear to anyone who asked that he smiled at her. Her heart swelled. She continued to scratch his ears and stroke his face. “What I make for doggies like you isn’t just pretty,” she told him tenderly. “It has lots of good nutrients for doggies baked inside. Yes, it does. Yes, sweetheart, it does.”
His big brown eyes focused on her face as if he understood her every word.
She couldn’t just walk away and leave him. The city’s dogcatcher prowled the alleys and would surely pick him up. And he would be euthanized like so many other unfortunate animals left to stray. But she couldn’t take him into her shop either. He was filthy and she had no way of knowing how he would behave indoors. He had to be fed and cleaned up.
“You stay right here,” she said and started across the alley to her back door. He followed. She stepped into her shop and picked a leash off a hook where she kept several. They came in handy in her animal-friendly enterprise. She clipped the leash to his collar without a problem and led him to her SUV that she always parked in the alley. When she opened the back gate, he jumped in without coaxing.
She walked back inside her shop, locked the front door and hung up the CLOSED sign. She hated locking the store during business hours, but with no one to watch it, she had to. One of her two employees, Betty Ann, had already been in early to help make Atomic Energizer, the homemade raw dog food LaBarkery sold in bulk, but Betty Ann was long-gone by mid-morning.
Like Sandi, Betty Ann loved animals. And like Sandi, she had gotten sucked in by Juanita Harper at We Love Animals, the no-kill animal shelter. Betty Ann now foster-cared for her own small menagerie.
Back in the alley, Sandi scooted behind the steering wheel. “We’re going for a short ride.” As she eased along the alleyway, her passenger sat calmly, so he was used to riding in an automobile.
A dog-grooming parlor, the Pampered Pooch, was located at the end of the strip mall. Sandi had become friends with the owner, Prissy Porter, and they referred customers back and forth. The new dog continued to behave well as Sandi drove toward the grooming parlor. She rounded the end of the strip and parked in front of Pampered Pooch, opened the SUV’s back gate and reached for his leash. “Come on, boy. Let’s go get a bath. Then you can have a nice lunch.”
The dog hopped to the ground, his long tail swishing a steady beat.
As Sandi walked him into the grooming parlor, Prissy came from the back room. “Hey, Sandi. Whatcha got there?”
“This is my new best friend.”
Prissy’s brow tented. “Oh, no. Look how pitiful he is. Oh, bless his heart. I can’t stand to see any animal like this. Where’d you get him?”
“In the alley, when I was taking out the trash. Isn’t he sad? The way he acts, he must’ve belonged to someone and just gotten lost. He’s very friendly and he seems to be trained. He jumped right into the back of my SUV and rode down here with no hassle.”
Prissy squatted in front of the dog and began an inspection. “Oh, he’s no stray. But he’s been homeless a while.”
“I’m going to try to find his owner, but first I need you to feed him and clean him up. Clip, shave, whatever you have to do. Just put it all on my bill.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. We keep plenty to eat around here for our boarders.” Prissy took the leash from Sandi’s hand. “We’ll be okay. You go on and do what you need to. This baby and I will be just fine.”
The dog smiled up at her.
“Look at that,” Sandi said. “I swear he smiles.”
“Lord, he is full of personality, isn’t he?”
“Any idea what breed he is?”
“He’s kind of long-haired, so Collie and something maybe.”
“I sure hope I can find his owner.”
“I hope you can, too, because if this one stays around long, it’ll be easy to fall in love with him.”
Prissy led the dog to her back room and Sandi went outside to her SUV. Taking one last look at the grooming shop, she drove away feeling happy about the good deed she had done, but a little sad at recognizing herself in a lost dog. Alone and out of options weren’t new emotions to her. A few years ago, she had been as lost as that dog and in some ways, she still was.
Well, fate had given her a break. What else could she do but pay it forward? She would see that the lost dog got a break, too.
***
Back at her own shop, a regular customer waited at her front door. She turned over the CLOSED sign, then unlocked and opened the door. “Hi, Mrs. Arnold. Hope you haven’t been waiting long.”
“Oh, I just got here, honey.” The customer stepped through the doorway. “I’m so glad you aren’t really closed. I was scared for a minute. Where’s your helper today?”
“She came in at five to help me make LaBarkery’s Atomic Engergizer. We usually finish up by eleven and she goes home.”
“Oh, that’s your raw superfood, isn’t it? Well, I’m just glad you’re here. My darlings would be so upset if I didn’t have a fresh LaBarkery treat for them every day.”
Mrs. Arnold was married to a prominent personal injury attorney who made more money than both he and Mrs. Arnold could count, add up or spend on diamond rings. They lived large and Mrs. Arnold spared no expense in pampering their dogs and cats.
“I had to lock up for a minute,” Sandi told her. “I found a stray dog in the alley. I took him down to the grooming parlor to be cleaned up.”
Mrs. Arnold’s brow tented.
