Kyron, page 11
“It’s part of the training,” he replied quietly. “She’s likely forgotten some of her training, but she’s not forgotten all of it. And, as much as she wants to remember that people had been good to her in the past, she’s currently dealing with the fact that people haven’t been good to her in the present.”
“Right,” Miranda agreed. “I still feel like just an awful lot of shit is out there in this life, and it’s got to be so hard for a dog to actually learn to trust again.”
“And yet they have hearts as good as gold,” he murmured. “So we’ll give her every chance to have a good life again.” He slowly straightened up and walked several steps. Immediately the dog fell in line and walked with him in the heel position.
“Look at that,” she noted, marveling.
“Generally,” he added, “she should be even better behaved on a leash, but there shouldn’t be any noticeable difference between her behavior on or off a lead. But in this case—”
“Of course.” Miranda’s heart went out to the dog. “I mean, he’s beautiful—she’s beautiful, I mean,” she corrected.
“She is, indeed, and she’s all heart because she’s looking after her friend.”
“Speaking of which,” Miranda stated, “I’ll go in and check on Beth’s friend and see if Dr. Doug needs any help. That is, if you’re okay to stay out here with Beth.”
“Will do. I sure hope that dog makes it.”
“I do too, more for Beth’s sake than anything,” Miranda admitted.
“You know that that just means they’ll have to stay together,” he said, staring at Miranda. “Had you thought of that?”
“I know.” She nodded. “Bonded pairs come up in my work with some regularity. Had you thought of it?” And, with that question, she headed inside. As soon as she saw Doug, he looked up and nodded.
“She’s alive, but she’s been shot in the flank,” he told her. “She’s lost a lot of blood and has a fair amount of tissue damage. I’m just running through the x-rays now,” he explained. “She’ll be here a little while, and I’ll need to keep her overnight.”
“So how bad is the damage? That’s the real question,” she noted.
“I know,” he agreed. “Give me a few minutes to complete the x-rays.” She waited inside, where it was toasty and warm, and wondered what would happen now that Kyron had rescued two dogs.
If she had the room, she would take them. Honestly, it came down to that she would find the room. But this dog was injured, and that would require some separate space to heal. What Miranda really needed was her dream rescue facility, back to that hope for forty acres and a ten-bedroom house.
She shook her head, as she thought about it, trying to figure out some way to make this work. She wasn’t alone this time because Kyron was helping.
When the vet stepped back in with Miranda again, he stated, “We’ll just give it a minute to develop.” He looked over at Miranda. “Kyron seems like an interesting person.”
She nodded. “I just met him today, when he came looking for the War Dog.”
“Well, considering that this dog looks like it’s been living pretty rough for a long time, it was good timing that he actually found both of them.”
“And I had just heard about the three-legged dog from that crazy neighbor of mine about a month ago, and then was hopefully feeding her in the back of my place, while I waited to see if it was her or not. But you know? Sometimes good things happen.”
“I hope so in this case,” Doug replied. “He did offer to pay for any surgery.”
Miranda looked up at him, her eyebrows raised.
Doug shrugged. “You know that I’m not against it. I do an awful lot of helping out for free,” he stated. “But I have bills to pay too.”
“I hear you,” she said. “Sorry that I’m always putting a strain on that.”
He laughed. “No, you do way more work than I have to anyway,” he noted. “So I have no problem with that, but you know, if it was the War Dog that needed medical help, I was hoping the War Dog Department would take care of it, but Kyron said there was no guarantee on that either.”
She frowned. “Oh well, I was hoping he would at least pitch in and help with the food cost at my place, if I took them on.”
“Considering he offered to pay for whatever this costs,” he noted, “I suspect that won’t be a problem.”
“But then again,” she added, “I don’t really need dog food. I just got a huge pallet delivered.” He turned to look at her, his eyebrows raised, and she smiled. “Remember Tom, the sales rep that was in on Saturday?” He nodded. “We were talking, and he offered to send some food over. I figured he’d send some samples or something. Never did I expect a whole pallet.”
“Well, that’s huge,” Doug replied.
“It was sitting in my driveway when Kyron drove by, while he was looking for the War Dog. He stopped to ask me if I had seen or heard anything about the dog and ended up helping me move and stack all that dog food. And it is huge,” she admitted. “I’m finally looking into becoming an actual registered charitable organization, so donations can officially be tax-deductible. I’m hoping that will help with contributions.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Doug agreed. “Particularly if you can find a lawyer to set it up without killing you with the costs.”
“And that’s the trouble.” She nodded. “You know there are just so many costs that you don’t even think about.”
“Absolutely,” he said, with a smile. Then as he started to walk out, he added, “The x-rays should be done by now.” A few minutes later, he returned, a smile on his face.
“So there’s no damage to the bone, and there are no bullet fragments, but it’s done some pretty good muscle damage, and she’s lost a fair bit of blood. I’ve had her on IV fluids, trying to get her more stable. But her needs won’t be as invasive as I’d thought they might be.”
“Another she for sure?”
He nodded. “Yes, it’s a female and fixed. I’ll clean the wound, stitch her up, and keep her overnight, and then we’ll take another look at her in the morning,” he noted.
“Okay then, shall I scrub in and give you a hand?” When he hesitated, she added, “Look. I brought her to you, after working hours and on an emergency basis and everything, so it’s the least I can do.”
He laughed. “Now that’s a good point,” he agreed, “and it will save some time, although I still owe you big-time for taking that diabetic cat, so I didn’t have to euthanize it. What about your buddy?”
“Yeah, I better give him an update,” she noted, “if we have time for that.”
“Just tell him to come on in and sit in the waiting room. He and the dog don’t need to be out in this weather.”
She nodded. “I don’t know if he’ll agree, but, hey, we’ll see.” She walked back outside to the parking lot and looked around. “Kyron?”
“Over here,” he called, and she turned to see him by the woods, walking with the dog.
“Hey,” she said, walking over to meet him. “So Doug got the x-rays done and there’s no bone damage or bullet fragments to remove, which is great. However, she sustained a lot of muscle tissue damage, and she’ll need several layers of stitches. He’s got her on IV fluids. He said she is pretty emaciated, as if the last few months have been pretty rough on her,” Miranda noted. “So, all of that is adding to how badly she looked tonight.”
“Of course,” Kyron agreed. “So will he do the surgery now, the stitches and all?”
“Yes, and I’ll suit up and give him a hand. I feel like it’s the right thing to do, since I got him into this and all. Plus, it will get her finished quicker.”
“Absolutely,” Kyron noted. “We’re fine out here.”
“He also said you could come inside and wait where it’s warm, if you like.”
“I’ll see.” Kyron pointed at Beth. “Right now we’re just getting acquainted.”
Miranda smiled, as she looked down at the War Dog. “And I don’t know what your friend’s name is,” she noted, talking to Beth, “but she’s a very good girl.” At that, Beth wagged her tail enthusiastically. “Wow, she’s come a long way already, hasn’t she?”
“I find most often with dogs like this, if they’ve spent a lot of time with humans, it’s almost a relief to them to get back with one, as long as it’s a decent one, of course,” he murmured.
“I agree.” She nodded. “But how do they weed out the bad from the good? Even then, Beth ran away the first time, only to get caught by my crazy neighbor. It must be hard for them to get away from these people, until they do something like Beth had to do—escaping a second time.”
“Do you think your neighbor had Beth?”
“I assume so.” Miranda frowned, as she looked down at Beth. “I can’t be sure of course as I never saw her up close, but to the best that I could identify her, yes.”
“Well, her back leg is missing. She’s pretty strong regardless, but I can see a bit of a pull on the one side.”
“Maybe have Doug look at her too?”
Kyron nodded. “After he helps her friend, yes.”
“Okay, I’ve got to go help Doug, if you’re okay out here. Otherwise just come on in, when you need to get warm.” She waved as she ran off. Miranda hadn’t mentioned bringing the War Dog inside, but she figured it was a given that Kyron would bring Beth inside if it got too cold out there.
As soon as she headed back inside, the doc looked at her and smiled.
“Good, suit on up, and let’s get this show on the road.” And that’s what she did.
“Well, I don’t know how long we’ll wait out here,” Kyron said in a conversational tone to Beth. “And of course I didn’t bring any treats for you, not that you’re necessarily looking for any.” However, he did note how she definitely kept eyeing the building ahead of her.
“Do you want to go in and wait?”
She barked at him.
“I’ll take that as a yes. So, just how close are you to this friend of yours?” he muttered. That definitely complicated things, or at least it did if he was hoping to keep the two of them together. It was hard enough to get anybody to take one dog, but to take two, especially two midsize dogs and one already potentially dangerous. “But you’re not very dangerous, are you, girl?”
The trouble was, in the wrong hands, these War Dogs were still quite a weapon, and no animal would tolerate being abused for very long, though in her case it seemed maybe more about neglect. At least he hoped so, but it was hard to know, especially since she’d run away from two different places. There was always a chance the asshole of a neighbor had done something more severe, but there was no way to know for sure yet.
When Kyron got up tomorrow morning, he would go talk to the neighbor and see. He would find out where he’d gotten the dog from and verify if it was the one in question. The neighbor had no claim to Beth as far as Kyron was concerned, but that didn’t mean the old man wouldn’t have something to say about it. The fact is, the dog had taken off, and chances are the asshole neighbor had no proof it was his dog anyway.
But it was a conversation Kyron would have to be prepared for.
He quickly sent Badger a text with an update, then sent photos of the dog on her leash. He wasn’t at all surprised when he got a response with a thumbs-up. He sent back a quick explanation about the other dog and added that he would talk to Badger in the morning.
Then realizing that it was already eleven in the evening, Kyron slowly headed toward the vet’s door. Beth followed along right behind him. “Do you want to go in?” The dog barked at the door. Kyron took that as a yes and opened it. The dog came in without a qualm.
“That’s a good sign,” he noted quietly. “Now, if only we can figure out what else you seem to think you need to do here, then we’ll be fine.”
As they sat down on the bench under the lights of the waiting room, he had a chance to take a closer look at Beth and her coat. She obviously had endured some difficult months, as her hair was thick and rough. There was some flesh on her bones but not nearly enough. She’d obviously suffered recently. He frowned at that because he hated to see any animal suffer ever.
When he finally had a chance to calm her down enough that she could relax, she rolled over and showed him her belly. He immediately took several photos of the tattoo. In order to see if she had an ID chip under her skin, he would have to wait until the vet had a moment to check her over and to scan for it. And it was quite possible that she did, providing it had survived whatever rough living she’d endured over the last few months. With Beth calmer now, he finally relaxed himself.
“I don’t know how long we’ll be, Beth, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea if we got a nap.” Of course that wouldn’t happen for him, but, as long as his voice helped calm down the dog, as she continued to stare at the surgery room door, the better. He spied the jar on the counter, filled with puppy treats. He dropped the leash first, so Beth just watched him. He got up and walked over. Seeing where he was headed, Beth seemed to know exactly what was coming, and she hopped up and joined him.
When he gave the dog the treat, Beth took it delicately between her teeth, then walked over to the surgery door and laid down about six feet in front of it, just waiting. She didn’t eat the treat, apparently wanting to give it to the dog on the other side of the door. Shaking his head, with his heart melting, Kyron walked over with several more and put them down in front of her. “Go ahead, Beth. You get to have some too.” The dog looked at him with yearning and then ate the one in her mouth and sat here, with the others in front of her.
“Not quite what I had in mind,” Kyron stated, “but I guess that’s the closest I’ll get right now.” And, with that, he took a picture and sent it to Miranda inside.
By the time she came out, she was clearly tired, but she had a smile on her face. “Hey.” She stopped and looked down at Beth. “Your friend is doing much better, honest.”
The dog just wagged her tail but kept looking at the other room.
“You do realize you can’t separate them, right?” she asked Kyron.
“I know. I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out what to do,” he replied. “I’m not sure she’ll let us out of here without that dog.”
Miranda winced at that. “I know. I was wondering about that myself. Her friend does need to stay overnight though.”
“And that’ll be fun.” Kyron looked around the waiting room. “I don’t suppose Doug would let us sleep on the bench here, would he?”
She stared at him, then looked down at Beth and asked, “Do you think it’s that bad?”
“Well, as far as a way to gain her trust, that would be a huge one,” he admitted. “Beth doesn’t want to be separated from her friend, and she knows her friend is here. If I drag her away, even if I bring her back tomorrow, she’s not likely to rest, and she’ll worry all night.”
“Wow.” Miranda scrubbed her face with both hands. “The things we do for animals.”
“I know,” he said, with a twitch of his lips. “But it is Sunday tomorrow, and I presume the clinic isn’t open, right?”
“No, it isn’t,” she confirmed. “So, in theory, you wouldn’t be disturbing anybody, but I can’t say that Doug will be happy about it.”
At that, the surgical door opened, and Doug walked through. “Happy about what?” Kyron explained what the problem was. Doug looked down at Beth, still waiting at the surgery door, staring, guarding.
“Wow, she really is intent on making sure that dog’s okay. She knows she’s in there. Although the dog is sleeping and will probably smell odd to Beth, if we took her in there, at least she would know that her friend’s okay,” Doug suggested. “So why don’t we do that and see what happens?”
Immediately Kyron picked up the leash, as Doug opened the door, and Kyron walked Beth into the back room. There he walked toward a large cage at the far corner, Beth pulling the way forward, as she sniffed out her friend, and Kyron bent down beside her. “See? This is where she is,” he explained, as she barked and whined gently. But of course the other dog wasn’t moving. “She’s hurt, and she needs a bit of time,” he added. Then he looked over at Doug. “Would you have any objections to me sleeping on the outside bench with this one?”
Doug stared at him. “Do you really think it’s necessary? That is not a comfortable bench,” he noted.
“No, it’s not,” Kyron agreed, with half a smile, “but you can bet I’ve slept on a lot worse.”
“Well, if you were doing anything with dogs like these before, then you sure have,” he agreed thoughtfully. He shrugged. “I guess I don’t mind. We don’t have the clinic open tomorrow. Obviously I’ll be back in to take a look at this girl, but it’s not like you’ll disturb anybody.”
“I promise I won’t break into the back and steal anything,” Kyron teased.
“The place is full of cameras, so if you do,” Doug noted, “we’ll know who was behind it. Just try not to break anything in the process,” he said, with a grin. He looked over at Miranda. “What do you think?”
“I think he’s nuts,” she stated, “but then I need my sleep.”
“I do too,” Kyron agreed, “but I also need this dog to trust me. Right now her entire focus is on that other dog. If I try to drag her away from here, it’s quite possible she’ll put up a fight in a big way. To me, it’s just not worth the risk of that kind of setback.”
With that, Doug nodded. “Be my guest. Make yourself as comfortable as you can, and I’ll see you in the morning. I’ll call it a night.” And he headed out.
Miranda looked over at Kyron, frowning. “You won’t get any sleep.”
He nodded. “I know,” he admitted, “but we’d all be safe, and, considering the events of the evening, that’s not a bad outcome and maybe the best we can hope for right now.”
She nodded. “Fine. Let me grab you a couple blankets. We use them to warm up the dogs when they need it, but they are washed in between.” Pulling out several, she handed them over. “Go grab your backpack from my truck, and here, you might need these.”
