At first, everything stayed calm and quiet. Then, out of nowhere, the anxious dog bolted toward one of the crates, yanking Kurt to his knees and snarling at the door. It happened nearly too fast to process, but Kurt was on his feet again in seconds. Somehow, he got the dog to sit at attention. Judging by the giant dog’s tense muscles and gaze that darted back and forth between the crated animal and Kurt, it was begrudgingly.
As soon as the chaotic barking that had erupted throughout the house quieted, Kurt looked her way, his face lined with tension.
“I won’t let him catch me off guard again, but I know a dog who’s going to be a lot of work when I see one. If you’re set on him staying, no one, absolutely no one, handles him until I say so.”
Kelsey nodded. “I’ll make sure of it. Promise.” Beside her, Patrick let out a troubled humph. He drummed his fingers against the pocket on the outer thigh of his cargo pants like he did when he was thinking through something.
Kurt gave a light shake of his head but said nothing further about the dog leaving. Megan used the break in the conversation to excuse herself and leave for the shelter, where a different mountain of work was waiting. While Rob and his guys were polite enough, Kelsey was glad Patrick would be sticking around to keep her company this afternoon. The companionship of her shelter coworkers was immensely comforting in the face of all this upheaval.
Patrick didn’t lose a minute before he dove into cage assembly. Kelsey knew she shouldn’t be surprised when one of his pants pockets held a thin but sturdy pair of wire cutters that snipped through the zip ties securing the unopened cages better than the rusty metal scissors she’d found in a kitchen drawer.
“Nice kennels,” he said, jiggling the snaps in the corner that were meant to hold water bowls snuggly in place. “Some of the dogs may need to adjust to the openness of the wire. The ones who’ve mostly lived in enclosed crates.”
“I thought about that.”
“We can cover them with light blankets if needed.”
“Yeah. We’ll see what they say.” She nodded toward the two guys in the next room, who were deep in conversation about a Rottweiler that Kurt had on a leash.
“You’re in charge of the dogs’ basic care.”
“I guess I am,” Kelsey said, not feeling quite as confident as Patrick sounded. Hearing several of the dogs snap and growl had solidified the knowledge that they’d been trained not to get along with one another. In a ring, at least. Many probably had lived docilely with other dogs in their house.
Kelsey suddenly realized that these dogs had no idea they hadn’t been brought here to fight. This made her want to comfort them all. As she was considering how to do that, Kurt looked directly at her from the adjacent room.
“I think this Rott is pregnant,” he said. “She’s probably not more than three or four weeks along, but I’m betting she is. The vet didn’t catch it, most likely because she’s underweight by fifteen pounds.”
Kelsey stood up from the crate she and Patrick were working on and headed into the next room. With her approval, Rob had brought over a few females who were still due to be spayed. With so many dogs having been confiscated, and some of them in worse shape than others, there was a backup on spaying and neutering. Kelsey had offered that the shelter would pay for the spaying of the few females they were getting who still needed it.
She eyed the dog carefully. She was fairly good at spotting a pregnant dog, but she couldn’t see what Kurt had noticed in the Rottweiler. “How so? She doesn’t look pregnant to me.”
“There isn’t a single male she’s tolerated, and her nipples are a bit pink and swollen.”
Pink, swollen nipples. Of course.
“Want Rob to take her back with him?” he continued, scratching the dog on the back of her neck while she stood obediently alongside him.
“To the warehouse? To go somewhere else?” Kelsey’s shoulders squared defensively.
Kurt let out a soft sigh as if he knew her answer. “That’s what I’d suggest.”
“No way. Who knows where she’d end up. Here we can give her whatever TLC she needs.”
“If you ask me, this op doesn’t need the extra chaos. We have to focus on retraining these dogs. Puppies and pregnant females are a distraction. Added to that, she’s underweight and looks a bit malnourished. Who knows how it could play out.”
“I’ll take care of her. I have a lot of experience getting weight back on dogs.”
“She seems docile enough with people, but if you’re serious, you should know there isn’t a male dog here she likes, and there are twenty-eight of them stuck in crates all around. And most of the female fighters we’ve taken in don’t like other females.”
Kelsey tugged on her earlobe. “Then let’s keep her in a room by herself.”
“We’ve filled all the ones down here, and until the stairs are fixed, the dogs won’t have access to the top floor.”
“There’s the screened-in half of the back porch. It’s September, and the weather’s good. We can keep her out there until we can get her upstairs.”
Kurt pursed his lips and looked at Rob, most likely hoping he’d back him. Rob simply shrugged. “If she’s willing to take on the extra work.”
With a slight shake of his head, Kurt offered the leash in Kelsey’s direction. “Why don’t you take her for a walk around the yard and see how you two get along? And ask your
