We ran together to a fire truck, where Maya, much to my disgust, talked one of the firefighters into giving me a bath! Well, it was more of a rinsing, cold water flowing down my face and bringing some relief to the burn on my nose.
Maya and I took another chopper ride that day, and then a plane ride, and then we went to the man in the cool room, the vet, who carefully looked at my nose and put some cream on it that smelled awful but felt wonderful.
“What was it, some kind of acid?” the vet asked Maya.
“I don’t know. Is she going to be okay?” I felt Maya’s love and concern, and closed my eyes when she stroked my neck. I wished there were some way I could let her know that the pain wasn’t all that bad.
“We’ll want to watch for any signs of infection, but I don’t see any reason why she shouldn’t heal up just fine,” he told Maya.
For the next two weeks or so, Maya would gently rub the cream into my nose. Emmet and Stella seemed to find this pretty amusing, and would sit on the counter and watch. Tinkerbell, though,
It was almost more than I could stand.
I was relieved to get away from the cats and go back to work. When Maya and I got to the park, I bounded up to Wally and Belinda, who were excited to see me.
“I hear you are the hero dog, Ellie! Good dog!”
I wagged, excited to be a good dog. Wally then ran off while Belinda and Maya sat at a picnic table.
“So how are you and Wally doing?” Maya said. I sat impatiently—if we went after him now, we could Find Wally right away!
“He’s taking me to meet his parents over the Fourth, so . . . ,” Belinda replied.
“That’s good.”
I groaned at all this conversation. Humans were capable of so many amazing things, but too often they just sat making words, not doing anything. “Down, Ellie,” Maya said. I reluctantly lay down, pointedly looking off in the direction Wally had taken.
After what seemed ages, Maya and I were finally allowed to Find. I joyously took off, not having to slow down, because she was able to keep pace with me.
Wally had done an excellent job of disguising his scent! I lifted my nose, searching for any trace of him. There were few odors on the air today to distract me, but I couldn’t Find Wally. I coursed back and forth, returning to Maya for direction. Carefully she worked the area, and when I didn’t pick up a scent she moved me to a new place and I tried there.
“What’s the matter, girl? You okay, Ellie?”
Oddly, though the wind was coming from behind him, I actually heard Wally before I smelled him. He was walking straight toward us. I rocketed forward until my nose told me it was him, and then returned to Maya, who had already started talking to Wally, her voice a shout.
“We’re having sort of an off day!” she said.
“I guess so. I’ve never seen her fail before. Hey, Ellie, how are you doing?” Wally said to me. We played a little with a stick.
“Tell you what, Maya. You focus her attention away from me. I’m going to go over that ridge, there, and double back a little. Give me about ten minutes,” Wally said.
“You sure?”
“She’s been out of action for a couple of weeks; let’s allow her to have an easy one.”
I was conscious of Wally leaving, even though Maya had handed me the rubber bone and was now trying to get it away from me. I could hear him and knew he was hiding again, which made me happy. When Maya finally shouted, “Find!” I took off eagerly, heading in the direction I’d heard him go.
I ran up a small hill and stopped, uncertain. I didn’t know how he was doing it, but somehow Wally was keeping his scent out of the air. I ran back to Maya for direction, and she sent me off to my right. I snaked back and forth, searching.
No Wally.
Then she directed me to the left. Again, no sign of Wally. This time, she had me return left and walked with me, leading me around the base of the hill. I was virtually upon Wally when I found him—he moved, and I alerted. There was no need to run back, because Maya was standing there.
“This isn’t good, is it?” Maya asked. “The vet said she should be fully recovered by now.”
“Well . . . let’s give it another week, see if she gets any better,” Wally said. He felt sad, for some reason, so I nuzzled his hand.
Maya and I didn’t work very much over the next couple of weeks, and when we did, Wally continued to fool me, disguising his scent so that I could only pick it up when he was right there in front of me.
“What does it mean that Ellie is decertified? Does it mean you will lose your job?” Al asked one night. I’m not a big fan of feet, but I allowed Al to take off his shoes and rub my tummy with his toes because they didn’t smell as bad as usual.
“No, but I’ll be reassigned. I’ve been on a desk for the past several weeks, but I’m not really cut out for that. I’ll probably request a transfer to go back out on patrol,” Maya replied.
Stealthily Al dropped a tiny piece of meat on the carpet in front of me. It was the main reason why I liked to lie in front of him at dinner. I silently licked it up while Stella gave me dirty looks from the couch.
