“I’ve been around pets all my life,” he said. “Nothing in Shambhala’s body language says she’s dangerous.”
“I know,” she said, “but how quickly will Shambhala switch from this to a guard dog?”
He looked at her and smiled. “Well, if she switches to a guard dog, you’d be blessed,” he said, “because she would protect Sari with her life.”
She looked at him, surprised, then looked down at Sari and Shambhala. “Well, good. It’s perfect timing.”
“What’s that?”
She let out her breath and slowly tried to get calm. “Because Angel contacted me today. Via email. And if there’s one thing I don’t trust, it’s that woman.” She hadn’t meant to say it that way, and, after his look, she shrugged and nodded. “I was going to tell you earlier, but I forgot, what with all the things you had on your mind.”
“We did have a lot of other stuff to talk about.” He glanced again at Sari and frowned. “Do you have legal documents giving you custody of Sari?”
“I do,” she said, “but you also know that, in some cases, particularly something like this, one where it didn’t go through a government agency, the judges do tend to favor the birth parents.”
“Ah,” he said, “so you really are worried Angel is after Sari now?”
“You would be too if you saw the email she sent.” She pulled out her phone, found Angel’s email and handed it to him.
“Do you really think, if you say no, she’ll come and steal her away?”
“I think it’s a strong possibility. I don’t know what to say, other than that, because it’s obviously my … my biggest fear.”
He nodded. “I can see that.” He crossed his arms, tapping his finger on his forearm.
“What do you think?”
“I’m thinking Shambhala would quite likely protect Sari, if that were the case. But I’m not sure you’re prepared to handle the cost and the commitment required to deal with a dog like this.”
“It sounds like a huge responsibility,” she said. “And that would be very difficult for me. Money aside, the dog will need training, I presume.”
He looked at her, and the corner of his mouth tilted upward. “Not quite. You’d be the one who needs training.”
She looked at him, startled for a moment, then glanced back at the dog lying there, completely happy as Sari lay on top of her, happily chattering away, telling her some story. Sari’s head was against Shambhala’s ear, which twitched with every breath.
“Shambhala looks so gentle right now,” Daniela murmured. “It’s hard to believe she’d be anything other than this.”
“I do know from her training,” Weston said, “that she can be a whole lot more than this experience, but she is retired. I don’t know what her last six weeks were like. I don’t even know what her last six months were like. But the training she would have gone through originally would have been rigorous, intensive and ongoing.”
“I need to learn more than basic commands,” she said, “but right now she looks like nothing but a teddy bear.”
Privately he had to agree. He stepped back to see if Shambhala would react differently. But she appeared to be happy. He took several more steps back.
Daniela looked at him sharply. “Are you trying to do that?”
He nodded. “Take several steps back too, please.” She hesitated. He looked at her with a smile. “I would never endanger Sari.”
She took several more steps back, so they were both about eight feet away from the dog. Shambhala didn’t even open her eyes.
“So, is this a good thing or a bad thing?” Daniela asked with a laugh, as she joined Weston farther away from the dog.
“It looks like her focus is on Sari,” he said quietly. “I don’t know what would happen if somebody came up and disturbed them.”
“And I don’t want to find out.”
He smiled. “How long do you want to leave Sari out here?”
“I hate to take her away,” she admitted. “She doesn’t have a lot of playmates around here. Plus I think she just adopted Shambhala.”
“That may be,” he said, “but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right decision to keep the dog. If we even were to get that cleared.”
Daniela walked toward her daughter. “Come on, Sari. Do you want to play in the sandbox?”
Sari turned to look at her and asked, “Doggy come?”
Daniela hesitated.
Weston asked, “Where’s the sandbox?”
“At the park around the corner. It’s got a pretty decent-size sandbox.”
“Why don’t we all go,” he said. “It will give me a chance to see what Shambhala’s training is like.”
“That’s a good idea.” Daniela smiled down at Sari. “Yes. We’ll take Shambhala to the park.”
Sari squeezed Shambhala and scrambled to her feet, toddling unsteadily toward her mother.
“Doggy, come,” she ordered in a strict tone, directed at the dog. It was so funny to see her voice change as she tried to be an adult, as she tried to mimic Weston’s command.
Weston walked closer to Sari, crouched and said, “When you want the doggy to do something, you look at her in her good eye, reach out with your arm and make this motion, and then you give her the order to come.”
Sari stared at him with her huge eyes, looked back at Shambhala and moved her hand the way she was supposed to and said, “Doggy, come.”
Shambhala looked at Weston and looked at the little girl. Then, with her tongue lolling to the side, she hopped to her feet and went over to Sari. As she arrived, she gave Sari another lick on the face.
Sari laughed, hanging on to the dog for support, as they walked back toward the stairs. Daniela watched closely, completely flabbergasted that the dog would follow the little girl’s commands, but Shambhala seemed to realize she was needed for steadiness. As they went up the steps, she took them at the exact same pace as Sari.
“She’s so good with Sari,” she said in wonder.
“I see that. So let’s take this chance to put Shambhala through her paces, see what else she
