Through it all, Waffle had looked at them with sad eyes and cooperated as best he could. He was sorry for causing so much trouble. Sandi believed that and it made her love him all the more. How could she ever give him up?
Adolph, for the first time since Sandi had owned him, had stopped yapping, retreated to his bed and covered his face with his paws. Pablo looked on from afar, continuing to snarl and growl.
“I give up.” Fiona poured herself another cup of coffee and collapsed onto a dining room chair. Her pajamas and white pom-poms were soaking wet and stained red. Her long hair hung in thick wet clumps with pink tips. “I think that’s the best we can do without scrubbing their skin off. But they still stink. There must be a better solution, but I don’t know what it is.”
Sandi sighed. “Maybe it just has to wear off, but at least they don’t seem to be suffering anymore. I’ll call the vet as soon as his office opens and see what he says.”
Sipping her coffee, Fiona nodded.
“Listen, thank you again for helping me,” Sandi said. “I owe you some new pajamas and a new pair of house shoes.”
Her neighbor waved the offer away. “Forget it. You’d do the same for me.”
“I would, but I still owe you. If you hadn’t helped me, I would’ve been at this until daylight.”
“Hey, we’re neighbors, right? But I’d better get going. It’s after two o’clock. I need some sleep so I’ll be bright-eyed in court tomorrow.”
Sandi walked with her neighbor to the front door. “You don’t have to be there. You’ve done enough.”
“Hey, I’ll be there to support you, girlfriend.”
Prissy, too, had already said she would be there as well as Betty Ann. That her friends might take the time out of their busy days to be present at the hearing that meant nothing to them had touched Sandi’s heart.
“Besides,” Fiona continued, “it’s worth it to me just to get a look at that Nick Conway. Sylvia says he’s plumb larruping when he’s all dressed up.” She giggled wickedly. “I could do larruping, if you know what I mean. I’m probably as good at it as Sylvia.” She bobbed her eyebrows.
Good grief! All Fiona thought about was sex. Sandi was too exhausted to be shocked by what her neighbor had said.
As soon as Fiona cleared the front porch, Sandi returned Ricky and Fred to their pen in the back yard. Waffle was already in his bed. She had spent weeks getting rid of the smell Jake had left in her house. Now skunk odor filled the air around her. Tomorrow, when she had a few free seconds, she would think about what to do about it.
Only after she fell into bed did she realize just how much she, too, still smelled like a skunk.
***
Dawn came. Sandy barely dragged herself out of bed. The repulsive odor still lingered, but not nearly as potent as it had been a few hours earlier. After scrubbing herself with tomato juice and showering with cucumber-melon gel, Sandi didn’t feel a need for another bath, but she had to try to get rid of the smell. She drew herself a bath and loaded it with lavender bubble bath.
Prissy had volunteered to bathe and groom Waffle and have him looking his golden best, but he, too, had already been washed in tomato juice and scrubbed with doggie shampoo. Surely he was clean enough, although skunk odor still hung on and his coat was slightly red-tinted.
She called Prissy early and told her what had happened and that she didn’t think taking him into the Pampered Pooch for grooming was necessary.
“Did you trim his hair?” Prissy asked.
“I didn’t have time.”
“Did you clean his teeth?”
“Well, no—”
“Did you do his nails?”
“Prissy, I don’t think he needs a manicure.”
“Were you able to get rid of the smell?”
“It’s still there a little bit, but it isn’t as strong as it was. I have no more energy to give to the problem, Prissy. I guess this is the best I can do.”
“Nope. Bring that doggie in here. I’ll bathe him with a tried and true formula for getting rid of that skunky odor.”
“Okay, I guess. I hope he doesn’t get a rash from all the scrubbing and washing.”
At the Pampered Pooch, Prissy bathed Waffle in her recipe—peroxide, baking soda and dishwashing soap. Afterward, he did smell better, but the skunk odor still wasn’t gone entirely. As promised, Prissy cleaned his teeth and gave him a dog biscuit guaranteed to give him sweet breath. She manicured his nails and Sandi chose a new collar from her store display.
At home again, she donned a dark green business suit she had worn when she worked as a bank vice-president, a pale green silk tank underneath it, a pair of stockings for the first time in months and nude-colored pumps. She wrangled her long, thick hair into a sleek chignon and hung gold hoops in her ears. For someone who had been awake most of the night and burdened with an anvil of stress, she looked reasonably well. “Bring it on,” she growled into the vanity mirror.
She spritzed herself with a heavy dose of Juicy Couture perfume and for good measure, she heavily sprayed Waffle with the same potion.
At the courthouse, she saw her dear sweet Aunt Ed and her partner Debbie Sue standing on the sidewalk out front. She was wearing a fire-engine-red sheath and pounds of gold jewelry on her skinny body. Debbie Sue had on a green dress and cowboy boots. Sandi hadn’t expected them. Tears misted her eyes as she and Waffle hurried to meet them.
“Aunt Ed. Debbie Sue. What are you two doing here?”
“Why wouldn’t we be here?” Debbie Sue asked. “Ed’s a witness.”
“I wouldn’t let my favorite niece go through this without me being here, hon,” Aunt Ed said.
“Yeah,” Debbie Sue added. “After
