I didn’t mind; what was important was that I’d been wrong, the family had not been here to take me away with them. I would wait for my boy. Human motivation is unfathomable to dogs, so I wasn’t sure why the two of us were separated, but I knew that when the time came, Ethan would Find me.
“Good news, boy, you’ve got a new home,” the woman who fed me said as she passed in a bowl of fresh water. “They’ll be back soon, and we’ll get you out of this place for good. I knew it wouldn’t take long.” I wagged and let her scratch my ears, licking her hand, sharing her happy spirits.
“I’m going to call that man who brought you in. He’ll be happy to hear we found you a good family.”
When she left I circled around a few times and settled down for a nap, back to waiting patiently for the boy.
Half an hour later I sat bolt upright out of my sleep. A man’s voice had just come to me, an angry voice.
I barked.
“My dog . . . my property . . . I’ve changed my mind!” he was shouting. I stopped barking and held perfectly still—I could sense him on the other side of the wall, and I stared at the door, willing it to open so I could smell him. And a minute later it did, the woman who had given me water leading the boy down the hallway. I put my paws up on the cage, wagging.
The woman was furious; I could sense it. “Those children are going to be so disappointed,” she said. She opened my cage and I lunged out, crushing myself against the boy, wagging and licking and whimpering. The woman’s anger left her as she watched. “Well then,” she said. “My goodness.”
Ethan stood at the counter for a few minutes, writing something down while I sat patiently at his feet and tried not to paw him. Then we were outside the door and in the front seat of the car for a car ride!
Though it had been a long time since I’d had the wonderful thrill of a car ride with my nose out the window, what I wanted most was to put my head in Ethan’s lap and feel his hand stroke me, so that’s what I did. “You really do forgive me, don’t you, buddy?”
I gave him an alert look.
“I put you in jail, and you don’t care at all.” We drove a bit in comfortable silence. I wondered if we were headed to the Farm. “You are a good dog,” the boy finally said. I wagged with pleasure. “Okay, well, let’s stop and get you some dog food.”
Eventually we did go back to the Farm, and this time when Ethan opened the front door to the house he held it open for me so I could trot right in.
That night, after dinner, I lay at his feet, more content than I could ever remember being.
“Sam,” he said to me. I raised my head expectantly. “Max. No. Winston? Murphy?”
I wanted so much to please him, but I had no idea what he was asking of me. I found myself wishing he would command me to Find; I loved the idea of demonstrating the kind of work I could do.
“Bandit? Tucker?”
Oh, I knew what this was about. I gazed at him expectantly, waiting for him to make up his mind.
“Trooper? Lad? Buddy?”
There! I knew that word. I barked and he started in surprise.
“Whoa, is that your name? Did they used to call you Buddy?”
I wagged.
“Well, okay, Buddy. Buddy, your name is Buddy.”
By the next day I was fully comfortable responding to “Buddy.” It was my new name. “Here, Buddy,” he would call. “Sit, Buddy! Well, hey, somebody trained you pretty well, looks like. Wonder how you came to find yourself here; were you abandoned?”
For the most part, I was afraid to leave Ethan’s side, that first day. I was surprised when he went to Grandpa and Grandma’s room to sleep, but didn’t hesitate when he patted the mattress, jumping up on the soft bed and stretching out in a groan of pure luxury.
Ethan got out of bed several times that night to use the bathroom, and I loyally went with him on each occurrence, standing in the doorway while he did his business. “You don’t have to follow me every time, you know,” he told me. He also didn’t sleep in as late as he used to but was up with the sunrise, fixing both of us a breakfast.
“Well, Buddy, I’m semi-retired now,” Ethan said. “I still have a few clients I consult with, and I’ve got a phone call scheduled with one of them this morning, but after that we’ve got the day free. I was thinking the two of us should work in the garden today. That sound good to you?”
I wagged. I liked the name Buddy, I decided.
After breakfast (I had toast!) the boy talked on the phone, so I explored the house. Upstairs felt little used— the rooms held a musty odor, with barely any evidence of Ethan’s presence. His room was still the same, but Mom’s room had no furniture and was full of boxes.
A downstairs closet was firmly shut, but as I sniffed along the bottom crack a familiar scent wafted out.
The flip.
{ THIRTY-ONE }
There was a sadness in the boy, a deep hurt that was new to him
