Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts (14 page)

She tried not to look back at the other dogs as she, Gem and Lulu made their way back down the corridor.

Megan was standing at the door, talking urgently into the phone.

‘Sure, I can send our homechecker round in the morning,’ she said. ‘About eleven? Great. Where did you see the poster? In the post office? Oh, good on you.’ She gave Rachel a thumbs up, and then turned her smile down to Lulu and did a happy double take. ‘OK, I’ll call you first thing. Bye now!’

Megan hung the phone back on the wall and dropped to her knees. ‘Hey, Lulu!’ Lulu nuzzled into her outstretched hands as she fondled her woolly black ears. ‘Aren’t you glad you had your haircut now, eh? Looking good!’

Rachel bit her lips. ‘You think I’ve picked the right one?’

‘Well, there’s only one surefire way to find out.’ Megan bounced to her feet and led the way back towards the office.

Bill and Johnny were joking with each other about something
at the table, while by the window Natalie checked messages on her phone, but when Rachel walked in with Lulu on the lead, their attention snapped back to her, and then down to Lulu, who had hesitated at the door, confronted by three new faces.

‘Is that a poodle?’ said Johnny and laughed out loud. ‘Mate, your ideal dog’s a poodle!’

‘Don’t laugh,’ said Natalie at once. ‘Don’t hurt her feelings.’ She looked up to Rachel. ‘Is it a her?’

Rachel nodded, touched that Natalie, who seemed quite brisk in her business suit, would think of the dog’s feelings first. She tried to trot out what she’d gleaned from Dot’s reference books. ‘Lulu’s quite a big miniature poodle – they come in three sizes, standard, miniature and toy, and we think she’s the middle size. Her dad might have been a standard.’

‘You think she’s woolly now,’ Megan added. ‘I had to shave off knots like you wouldn’t believe, just to see that snooty nose. Poor Lulu had a bit of a rough time on the streets before she found her way here.’

‘Aren’t poodles supposed to have pompoms?’ asked Johnny, squinting critically. ‘This one’s all dreadlocked. Looks more like Slash from Guns N’ Roses than a poodle!’

‘Don’t be daft. They’re not born like that, it’s
shaving
,’ said Natalie. ‘It’s like saying, don’t all men come with moustaches?’

She crouched down carefully in her tight skirt, and Lulu took a few steps towards her, lowering her tail as she sniffed Natalie’s extended fingers. ‘Hello, little lady,’ she said. ‘Those are clever eyes! Aren’t you a smart girl? Yes!’

Rachel noted the neat pink nails and the shiny engagement and wedding rings with a pang of envy.

‘Lulu’s brilliant with new people, so friendly, even after everything she’s been through,’ said Megan. ‘Rachel reckoned that’d be good for your surgery, right?’

‘That’d be ideal,’ said Bill. ‘I can’t have a snappy dog. But I’m not sure.’ He scratched his chin. ‘A poodle. I’d never really thought of a poodle as my type.’

‘Hello!’ said Natalie, softly, stroking one long ear with the back of a finger. ‘Aren’t you gorgeous? Bill, come down to her level. You’re scary enough to most normal-sized girls, let alone a wee dog.’

Awkwardly, Bill hitched up his trousers and squatted down, holding out a hand. At once, Lulu swerved away from Natalie and trotted over to Bill, flirtatiously raising her bobbly head against his leg for a pat.

‘Hello!’ he said.

Lulu stared up at Bill with her bright eyes, and pushed her long nose into his hand. He reared back for a second in surprise, nearly toppling over, but he recovered himself, then smiled and rubbed her head. Lulu arched into his hand.

‘Oh, she likes a handsome man, does Lulu,’ giggled Megan.

‘OK, so that’s dog number one. Does Bill get to see any more?’ asked Johnny.

‘I don’t know if we
need
to bring out any more,’ said Natalie. ‘Just look at the two of them. It’s like love at first sight!’

Lulu had put her two elegant front paws up onto Bill’s trousers and was sniffing around his collar, as he tried not to rear back too obviously. A crooked smile twitched on his lips as he struggled not to laugh in the dog’s face, and he patted her as she wriggled to take in all his smell at once.

‘Lulu! Have some dignity, will ya?’ laughed Megan. ‘I have seriously never seen her like this with anyone else. She’s been so quiet up until now!’

‘Bill?’ said Johnny. ‘Do you want to see any more?’

Bill didn’t answer.

‘I think . . .’ Rachel started, but the rest of her sentence was drowned out by a deep baying noise from the direction of the kennels. It sounded as if the Hound of the Baskervilles had woken from a deep sleep, with a bad headache and possibly indigestion too.

‘What the hell’s that?’ marvelled Johnny, sticking a finger in his ear and wriggling it around.

There was another howl, an echoing ‘arrrroooo’ that set off a volley of answering yaps, none as deep or sonorous as the original.

‘Oh, it’s just Bertie,’ said Megan, pushing herself off the wall. ‘He’ll be thinking there’s some supper going on in here.’

‘Bertie? What’s Bertie? A Great Dane or something?’ Johnny had perked up. ‘He sounds enormous.’

‘He’s not that enormous,’ said Rachel. ‘Although you’d think his stomach was the size of a St Bernard’s the way he carries on.’

‘Can we see him too?’

‘I don’t think we need to.’ Rachel turned to Bill, who was now sitting back on his chair, with Lulu settled in his lap as if she’d been there since she was a puppy.

‘I’ll go and get him,’ said Megan with a half-smile. ‘Just so you know what trouble looks like, OK? You’ll be begging us not to show you any more dogs.’

They could hear Megan and Bertie coming long before the door opened.

‘Steady, steady,
heel
!’ Megan was yelling, and Rachel knew how she’d be hanging determinedly onto the lead. It was Megan’s mission to get Bertie walking to heel but he had a habit of slipping out of his collar when something really stinky was in range.

Bertie burst into the room, in a flurry of brown ears and wrinkly legs and wildly sniffing nose, with Megan clinging on for dear life. He stopped for a second to inspect everyone, and then plunged his nose back to the floor, like a canine vacuum cleaner, and carried on scenting whatever it was that was so interesting.

‘Oh, my God, he is adorable,’ breathed Natalie, unconsciously clasping her hands together with delight. ‘Look at his face! And his stumpy legs!’

Safe on Bill’s knee, Lulu barely turned her head, giving Bertie the faintest of superior looks before returning her attention to her new hero.

‘How old is he? Where did he come from?’ Natalie’s words were tumbling over each other as she pushed her hair out of her face, and she bent down to stroke Bertie’s velvety head. ‘Hello! Hello there, Big Ears! Hello!’

To Rachel’s horror, Bertie responded by sticking his nose into her designer handbag, followed by his entire head. But Natalie only laughed and pulled him out by his collar. ‘You won’t find anything in there unless you can unwrap Polos!’

‘He can unwrap Polos,’ said Megan. ‘And sausages, and KitKats.’

‘Oh, Jon, just look at these beautiful eyes!’ Natalie nearly had her head buried in Bertie’s neck. ‘How did something so cute end up here?’

Megan gave Rachel a swift glance. ‘Ah, Bertie’s a sad story. I won’t tell you because you’ll want to take him straight home, and you didn’t come here for your own dog, did you?’

Natalie looked up at Johnny, who was still sitting at the table. He had been smiling down at the clownish Basset hound, but something in his wife’s face made his expression turn sad.

‘No, we didn’t come for a dog,’ he said. He was speaking to Megan, but Rachel got the sense that his words were actually directed at Natalie. ‘We both work full time and there’s no way we could take him to work with us. I’m a teacher, you see, and Natalie’s a marketing executive.’

‘Does he need someone around all the time?’ asked Natalie. ‘Wouldn’t he be OK if we popped back at lunch?’

Megan shook her head. ‘Not a dog like this. Bertie’s a hound and they can’t stand being alone. He’d be howling like that all day,  and he’s not really house-trained properly, so he needs someone to show him the ropes. Put him in a routine.’ She raised her eyebrows. ‘That’s probably why he ended up here in the first place, owners didn’t have enough time for him.’

‘Oh.’ Natalie looked crestfallen. ‘I suppose so.’

‘It’s for your sake as well as his.’ Rachel felt bad, for treading on Natalie’s enthusiasm. ‘He’d be unhappy and you’d have your neighbours up in arms.’

‘And your house trashed,’ added Megan, pragmatically. ‘Slobber up the walls, everything chewed.’

‘I thought you were trying to rehome these dogs!’ joked Johnny, but his voice was slightly strained.

‘We are!’ Rachel turned her attention to the successful rehoming of the night. ‘And it looks like we’ve done OK here?’

Bill dragged his gaze away from Lulu, now curled up on his knee, her ears pricked to the conversation. ‘Yeah, I think you have. I’m not sure I’ve really got much choice in the matter, though!’

‘Come on, Bertie, you’ve had your share of tummy rubs now,’ said Megan, pulling his front paws down from Natalie’s knee. ‘Back to barracks for the night.’

Bertie’s eyes refused to leave Natalie’s as Megan led him firmly towards the door, and he planted his feet so she had to haul him out, his paws dragging on the tiles as he gave a tragic whimper.

‘It’s like he’s crying!’ Natalie’s voice cracked. ‘He doesn’t want to go back to his kennel!’

‘Don’t be fooled by this performance,’ said Rachel. ‘I know he’s making out that we keep him tied up to a post in the pouring rain, but this one has a heated kennel, all the toys he can handle, a warm bed . . .’

‘But it’s not the same as a proper home, is it?’ said Natalie with sudden emotion breaking her voice.

‘Anyway!’ Johnny slapped his hands on his knees. ‘Lulu’s coming home with Bill, I take it?’

‘Tomorrow,’ said Megan firmly. ‘We like you to sleep on it. Make sure you’re sure.’

Natalie was subdued as they drove home, and for once, so was Johnny.

Neither of them said much until she parked the car in the drive and pulled the keys out of the ignition. Johnny didn’t leap out to get the door open and the kettle on as he usually did. Instead, he sat chewing a hangnail – which Natalie knew was a dead giveaway that he was preoccupied with something he found too hard to talk about.

‘Are you thinking about that dog?’ he asked eventually, as the cooling engine ticked in the silence.

‘Yes,’ said Natalie.

‘Me too. But he’ll find a good home. Didn’t Megan say that pedigree dogs usually get rescued by the breed clubs? Someone’ll come for him.’

‘What if they don’t?’ She stared at the neat brick garage in front of them, and her eyes filled up with hormonal tears. All she could see was rows and rows of hopeful little faces, and wagging tails, begging for love. This was exactly the wrong time of the month to go looking in bloody rescue homes, she thought crossly, trying to regain some control over her lurching emotions.

‘We can’t have a dog, Nat,’ said Johnny. ‘You know we can’t. We haven’t got the time to give it.’

‘Well, have we got time to have a baby?’ Natalie knew she sounded irrational. ‘I’ll have to find time then!’

‘That’s not the same thing, and you know it,’ said Johnny, and opened his car door. It was a full stop but a kind one. ‘I’ll make the tea tonight, shall I?’ he added, trying to make up for it.

She knew he was right, but she still followed him in with a weight on her shoulders.

8

After three nerve-destroying days with Toffee, in which she’d barely left the house for fear of bumping into someone from work, Zoe thought she’d finally got the knack of watching him out of the back of her head. He was still far from toilet trained, but she was formulating a plan that would let her convince Marion the salon owner to bring him to work, until she got the phone call from her solicitor, and her carefully nurtured confidence was kicked down again.

Allen Howard had news about David’s maintenance payments that made her forget everything, including puppy puddles.

‘Sorry, can you say that again slowly?’ she said, sinking to the kitchen chair. Her knees had given way. ‘I thought he’d agreed to pay a lump sum – for the child support he didn’t give me over the summer?’

‘He wants the court to reassess his income in light of the recession. I know, it’s ridiculous.’ Allen Howard sounded embarrassed too. ‘But it’s within his rights.’

Zoe squeezed her forehead, and tried not to think about everything she’d stuck on her credit cards, in the expectation of David’s lump sum. The more patient Allen’s voice got, the more she wanted to cry. He sounded like her dad. Or rather, how her dad would have sounded if he were around to guide her through this horrible process. Part of her was glad he wasn’t.

Zoe felt painfully alone. When had she turned into the adult who was supposed to have the answers? One of the few things she missed about being married to David was having that other person there to ask. No wonder she was talking to a four-month-old Labrador.