Leashed to Love Read online

  “Bo is depressed. I think she misses the puppies. Do you think they could come visit?”

  “Of course!” Talia said.

  “I get off work at five,” I told her, “Maybe could you pop by for just a few minutes a little after 5:30? I will need to walk Bo first when I get home.”

  I considered briefly asking her to dinner, but a quick mental inventory of what I had to offer quashed that notion. Cheerios were fine for me but not exactly company fare.

  “I could,” she said, “Just for a few minutes. I am meeting a mom for dinner tonight.”

  “A mom?”

  “A woman who chose life today. She decided not to do it after talking with me.”

  “What did you say to convince her?”

  “I told her about Sarah…and what you said to her to change her mind. She is in a bit of the same situation as Sarah was. Young. Afraid of what her parents will say. A boyfriend pushing her to abort.”

  Sarah was the lady that Bo and I had talked out of abortion. We met her when Bo dragged me to the abortion center on one of our walks. It was like she knew we needed to be there. Sarah was 16-weeks pregnant. I told her the baby had vocal cords and could cry in the womb. That broke Sarah’s heart. Mine too. That story had a really happy ending. Sarah returned to her parent’s home and adopted Bo’s other two puppies. It could not have worked out better if I had made it up! Sarah lived two hours away or I would have asked her to bring the pups to visit. I really liked Sarah and felt a special bond to her since I had helped her decide to keep her baby.

  “She changed her mind because of what I told Sarah?” I asked.

  “Yep. The blessings from you being there that day continue to grow.”

  Wow.

  “Maybe,” Talia said, “You would consider standing with me on the sidewalk some Saturday.”

  I didn’t answer. No offense to Talia, but that is not exactly how I wanted to spend my weekend off from work. I loved my job, but like any full-time work, it was tiring.

  “Maybe one day,” I hedged.

  Bo looked at me with a scowl. I know most other dogs don’t scowl, but I can tell when she is not pleased with me.

  I ended the call with Talia and told Bo, “Cut me some slack. I arranged for your puppies to visit tonight. You could show a little gratitude.”

  She wagged her tail. Bo was a very forgiving sort.

  No time to analyze the little stabs of guilt I felt putting Talia off on the invitation to stand on the sidewalk begging women to stop cussing us out long enough to hear what we had to offer. I glanced at my watch. Time to trot home and slam down some lunch before returning to work.

  Chapter Two

  D r. Harried informed me that she had called the hospital. Dr. Thanatos was out of surgery and expected to be ok. He had a few broken ribs, a broken collar bone, a broken arm, and a smashed knee. It didn’t sound like he would be able to care for Lucy for a while. Lucy was in much better shape than her owner. She had a hairline fracture of her leg and had only needed it casted. She could have gone home today, except her owner was in traction and covered head to toe in wrappings with tubes in every orifice. He would not be going home any time soon.

  “Does he have family?” Dr. Harried asked me.

  “I don’t know.” I was NOT at all comfortable talking about Dr. Thanatos. Like I said before, Dr. Harried knew I had worked at the clinic, but she never discussed my past with me and I was glad to leave it that way.

  “Do you have any friends at the clinic that could get in touch with his family?”

  Just to end this line of questioning, I told her I did. She returned to the back room filled with patients. I wracked my brain trying to think of someone I could call at the clinic. No one was my friend. A few were less despicable than others, but in general, there was a lot of back biting and bickering and no one I could say I wanted to be close to. There was one lady who worked in the procedure room who I overheard tell a patient once, “If you don’t want to do this, you don’t have to, you know. Go home and think about it.” She would have been fired if the admins had heard her say that.

  Her name was Sally. I called the center and asked to speak to her. When the receptionist asked who was calling I told her I was Sally’s friend. That is what you call a white lie, which Talia once told me was enough to label me a ‘liar’ before God. That was another reason God and I were not on speaking terms. I was clearly not in His league and did not see any future potential for being drafted.

  The lie worked, and Sally got on the phone.

  “Sally…this is Ruth.”

  “Ruth! I was so surprised you left!”

  “Yeh. Me too. Listen, Dr. Thanatos was in an accident right near where I work. Does he have any family? I thought it might be good to let them know.”

  “He’s divorced,” she said. “I honestly don’t know if there are any kids. He never talked about them.”

  I wondered if he had aborted them…

  “Do you have any idea how to contact his ex?” I asked.

  “No…I don’t think she lives in the area. We knew he’d been injured. The hospital called trying to locate next of kin.”

  Great. Well I tried. Of course, it made sense someone would be trying to track down his loved ones…if any existed. I couldn’t picture Dr. Thanatos loving anyone but himself.

  I got off the phone as fast as possible but not before Sally asked, “What made you leave?”

  It would be quicker to ask what made me stay as long as I had. But I didn’t bother answering either question. I told her I was at work and had to go.

  As soon as I hung up, I felt another flicker of shame. I knew there were people willing to help Sally if she wanted out. I had called them, and they had offered help that, in the end, I didn’t need. Abortionworker.com. I should have mentioned that to Sally. She didn’t really say she wanted out, but since she seemed to have at least enough of a conscience to tell a conflicted woman to rethink the whole abortion thing, she had to have questioned working there. I did…for years…and I was about as despicable and soulless a person there could be.

  Dr. Harried now wandered back out.

  She looked perplexed.

  “Here is what I don’t understand,” she said.

  I looked up from my computer screen.

  “Dr. Thanatos was clearly turning into our parking lot with a dog in his car…but we don’t have any client record of him, nor did he have an appointment.”

  That gave me chills. For the past two months, I felt like Dr. Thanatos was stalking me. Could he have discovered where I worked? I had not told anyone from the clinic about my new job, and certainly never shared it with him.

  “Maybe he was just using our driveway to turn around…”

  “Maybe.”

  But he did have Lucy in the car with him. Last month, he showed up at the Maple Festival where my new friend Timothy took me on our first date. (I am not sure it was really a date. More like an informal get together. We weren’t really dating. We were just friends, I guess. I had never had friends, so I would not swear on a stack of Bibles that is what we were. Not that I would swear on a stack of Bibles over any issue, because I wouldn’t. It would be like swearing on a stack of the Sunday Comics for me.)

  Back to Thanatos. He had also stopped me on a corner halfway to work a few times. I’d wondered then if he’d been waiting for me. So maybe he was just using our driveway to turn around…but my gut told me not likely. What did he want with me?

  The barking door jolted us both back to our afternoon tasks and we were soon awash in furry creatures. It was busy till closing, and I wasn’t jogging home again until 5:30.

  Bo was standing at the door. “Browww rworw woooorrrrgh.” This was definitely a dressing down over my late arrival, and it might even have been canine cussing. I couldn’t quite make out the exact words. I snapped her leash on her collar and we hightailed it to her patch. Then I remembered I had asked Talia to come at 5:30. Bo was even more miffed when I only walked her do
wn the street for five minutes and turned around.

  “Grrooowwwowo wo….” That was not a happy word.

  “It will be worth it,” I told her. We returned home just as Talia was stepping out of her car with the two little pups on leash. Bo saw them and yipped with joy. She ripped the leash right out of my hand and was soon all tangled in the puppies’ leashes.

  What a happy reunion! Flim and Flam had doubled in size in the two weeks since I had last seen them. They pounced and tumbled with Bo, snatching at her tail and ears with their sharp little puppy teeth. She didn’t mind at all. She for sure remembered them. I had wondered if she would. I didn’t know much about dogs, but I could tell this much: she missed her pups and was happy to see them.

  Talia snagged the two little ones, untangled the leashes and we hurried up the stairs to my apartment. We let the three of them loose as soon as we walked in. They went crazy, chasing each other and tumbling head over tail as they pounced on Bo. She didn’t mind at all.

  “This is what motherhood should look like,” Talia said. She sounded weary. That was not like Talia at all.

  “Is everything all right?” I asked.

  “Well, no.” She plopped down at the kitchen table watching the happy dogs with a lopsided grin. Her eyes were sad.

  “The woman I was supposed to meet for dinner…she stopped responding to my texts. I was verifying the time. No answer. I am concerned that she has changed her mind again to abort.”

  “Does that happen?”

  Talia nodded, frowning. “More often than I hope.”

  The pups were nipping at Bo’s tail and ears. She rolled over on her back, pawing at them. She did not reprimand them at all though I felt certain that had to hurt.

  “I will still try to make it to the restaurant. I told her I would meet her at 6. I don’t hold much hope that she will be there, but I have to try. So sorry, but I will need to cut this visit with the pups short.”

  “I am happy to keep the pups while you go to dinner,” I offered.

  “Really? Are you sure? They are a handful.”

  “I don’t mind at all. Bo looks as happy as she has been in a long time.”

  “Well that would simplify things. I can head over to the restaurant now. I will be a little early but that is fine. I can read my Bible and pray.”

  I squelched laughter. Who sits around in their extra time reading a Bible and praying? Not me. If you do, sorry for mocking.

  She did not try to hug me, thank goodness. Sometimes she did try to sneak in a hug, but I think she knew I was not crazy about hugs. This time, she was distracted, and I suspect she didn’t even notice she had not hugged me. I closed the door behind her and poured myself a bowl of Cheerios. It was a cheery dinner too. The pups were like little bouncing torpedoes, zeroing in on their target, and then pouncing with full impact on Bo’s tummy. She batted at them and barked, sounding like a dog rather than a toddler learning English like she usually did with me.

  They grabbed mouthfuls of fur, or tail, tugged and then scrambled away before she could catch them. They were a pile of frothy spit and damp fur within seconds.

  I finished my cheerios and wondered if I should feed Bo. This was her dinner time as well, but she was completely enmeshed in puppy play, so I decided to wait. I glanced at my watch.

  6:15.

  Would the woman come or was Talia still sitting there alone, reading her Bible and praying? While watching the little canine family, I did something I had NEVER done. I bowed my head and prayed. It was not a long fancy prayer, and I didn’t preface it with exactly who I was speaking to, since I wasn’t entirely sure myself. I just asked that the woman would show up and would not kill her baby. I was done with my first prayer by 6:16, tops.

  Bo’s babies were now doing everything in their power to sever Bo’s tail from her bottom. She yipped at them and leaped to her feet. That sent them flying. Next thing, the three dogs were chasing each other all over the apartment. I pulled my feet up as they bounced against the table leg and skittered in the opposite direction like furry billiard balls.

  Bo shot me a look.

  “WRORRREEEEE.”

  “It’s ok,” I told her. She dashed after them.

  I don’t know where they got their energy, but I would not have minded having it mixed up into a little pill I could take each day. They didn’t slow down for an hour. It was nearing 7:30 when there was a knock on my door.

  Talia stood there, looking a thousand times happier than when she left.

  “You will never believe it! She showed up! I was sitting there for twenty minutes feeling more and more depressed. I ordered food to go for you, by the way.” She handed me a bag of luscious smelling delicacies. I opened the bag. Crunchy French fries and a big fat juicy burger. All the dogs swirled around me, noses lifted in the air.

  “I was just getting ready to leave and in walked Tameka.”

  “What time did she finally show up?”

  “6:30,” Talia said. She shook her head. “She told me she had decided not to come because just as I had feared, she had made up her mind that tomorrow she would abort. And then she said right at 6:15, her whole body felt like it was on fire and she knew she needed to at least come and see me.”

  6:15?

  “And after we talked, she said she was willing to give this a shot. She told me she will let me take her for an ultrasound tomorrow at the Pregnancy Resource center. We will go from there.”

  I chopped off three small pieces of burger to feed to each of the drooling dogs at my feet. Talia gathered her now tired puppies.

  “Thank you,” she said. “I don’t usually lose all hope…but for some reason I had on this one. And then when 6:15 arrived and she still wasn’t there, I gave up. I wasn’t going to wait anymore but then I felt…I don’t know…a flicker of hope. I don’t know where it came from. I decided I would give her fifteen more minutes...and she waltzed in.”

  6:15. What a strange coincidence.

  “You would think after all these years living for God, I would recognize a pattern.”

  “What pattern?” I asked.

  The pups had both nestled in Talia’s arms, and their little eyes were closed.

  “Right when defeat is certain and hope seems to be lost, God turns it all around. I mean the perfect example of that is the Cross. Satan was dancing, and the demons were rejoicing. Jesus was dead, and Satan was sure he had won. He had killed God. Except Jesus rose from the grave three days later and secured the greatest victory of all time.”

  Bo watched me with unblinking dark eyes. Or maybe she was watching the hamburger. I desperately wanted to take a bite, but it seemed rude with Talia standing there.

  “You eat,” she said, cuddling the sleeping pups against her chest, “And if you think of it, pray for me and Tameka’s ultrasound tomorrow!”

  As she closed the door behind her, I lit into that burger like it might vanish right out of my grasp if I waited another second.

  “Mrrrreeeeeee!” Bo said.

  That reminded me that she had not had dinner, and technically, this was my second meal in an hour. I broke it in half and dropped her portion in her bowl. She looked up at me, waiting. She was the most polite dog I had ever seen.

  “Grrrrrraaaaaaffff.”

  She was clearly asking permission but using a word I didn’t recognize. She said it again, and dropped her snout, briefly closing her eyes.

  No way. The dog did NOT just ask me to say grace over her hamburger.

  However, there was no denying that Bo was waiting on something despite the tantalizing smell of all that juicy meat under her nose. So, I complied just in case.

  “Thank you for this food.”

  Again, I didn’t know who I was thanking nor why, but it satisfied Bo. In two gulps, the burger was gone. Mine lasted for three.

  Chapter Three

  I was just getting ready to meet Mr. Sandman when my cellphone rang. It was Timothy.

  “I have a deal for you,” he said.
r />   “A deal?”

  “Yeah. So, I signed Dumbo up for the dog obedience class at The Dog Barn Canine Crash Course.”

  Dumbo was a big black dog Timothy inherited when his deadbeat roommate skipped town, leaving unpaid rent and the untrained dog. Surprisingly, Timothy ended up bonding with the big crazy Dumbo which even a $2000 vet bill from running into a car didn’t sever. Dr. Harried had recommended the training class after she put Dumbo back together again.

  “That’s good,” I said.

  “They told me a second dog I referred would make my fee half price. You want to sign Bo up? It’s already cheap. I think they are hurting for business. We can split the cost for the two dogs evenly and both get a deal.”

  “How much?” I asked.

  “$30 each for an 8-week class.”

  “When?”

  “Saturday at 9.”

  I was not super cash flush, but I could afford that. Someone had paid my rent last month. I had my suspicions it was either Timothy, or more likely Talia, but the landlord said he was under strict orders not to divulge the Good Samaritan. Anyway, I was grateful since it let me put a tiny amount away this past month.

  “OK,” I agreed.

  Bo, who was sleeping beside me at that moment as I had been just about to pop open a book for a few moments before nodding off. She opened one eye. I know what she was thinking.

  Honestly, she was a very well-behaved dog already, but I had never learned to train a dog. It seemed like a good idea in case my lack of experience was deceiving me into thinking I had a good dog when I really didn’t. She did tug on the leash more than my shoulder joint wanted her to. And I had never asked her to do anything like sit, stay, or come. Those were probably useful tricks.

  “Great,” Timothy said. He gave me all the info I needed to sign up and offered to pick us up on Saturday for the class.

  By the time I hung up, I was too tired to open my book. I snuggled under the covers and Bo flopped a paw on my chest.

  “Grrrroooood-wwwwrrrriiiiii.”

  “Good night,” I mumbled.