The Dogs of Christmas (11 page)

“No! Oh my God, I’m so sorry. When did this happen?”

“Like, um, April.”

“April? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I don’t know.”
Because telling you makes it seem more real.

“Does Mom know?”

“No. I don’t think so.”
Same reason.

“Are you doing okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. It was friendly. We’re still friends.”
Except that we haven’t spoken since.

“I’m really sorry. What happened?”

Josh sighed and closed his eyes. This was why he didn’t want to talk about it.

“There’s this guy,” he began haltingly.

“Oh, Josh, I’m so, so sorry,” his sister murmured softly.

“Yeah.”

“Then … why don’t you come out by yourself? The boys would love to see you.”

“See, that’s sort of why I called, I mean, I can’t leave the puppies.”

“Of course. What am I thinking?”

They talked for a few minutes before Janice had to hang up, begging a busy schedule. They promised to talk again soon and it felt like they really meant it.

The Amanda museum.

He found a sturdy plastic crate and went around gathering up her photographs. It was a little unfair to call it a
museum
—there weren’t that many pictures, no more than fifteen or so. Twenty, tops. He put the crate on the floor of the closet in his parents’ room.

The mantel seemed really bare when he was finished, so he decided it was time to break out the Christmas decorations, knowing his mother would approve. A miniature Christmas village soon came to life, tiny carolers standing in front of a small church, houses glowing with real lights, a cute Christmas train pulled up to the station. All of it lived among the wispy cotton snow that Josh arranged, in just the right way, so that the lights reflected off of it realistically.

What the heck. He put on the Christmas music and strung the lights over the fireplace, sipping the Good Earth spice tea his mother always had ready when the little village went up. He even brought the step stool over to the corner of the hearth, the one his little sister, Janice, needed to climb to get a good look at the display. It didn’t seem right to have the village there without the stool nearby.

A few days later he drove into town to pick up some groceries. He took a route that led him past the animal shelter, but he didn’t stop.

The Thanksgiving displays reminded him that the big day was practically here. He went to the freezer case and picked a turkey dinner that had mashed potatoes and gravy and a cranberry-apple dessert. It looked pretty good on the box.

He drove past the shelter on his way home.

Kerri came out the next day. Lucy woofed when Kerri’s tires crunched into his driveway. Josh looked out the window and there she was, wearing a blue coat with a red and white scarf. She reached into the backseat and pulled out a large gray cat. Lucy moaned, as if saying,
Oh, no, not a cat
.

Josh opened the door with one hand while holding Lucy’s collar with the other. “Lucy’s not happy,” he advised. Then he remembered the last time she’d come out. “Oh, hi, Kerri. It’s great to see you.”

She laughed at him, squeezing into the house as he backed up, pulling Lucy with him. “It’s great to see you, too. Lucy, this is Waldo.”

Kerri lowered her arms and Waldo poured languidly out of them and onto the floor, regarding Lucy with an utterly unperturbed expression. Josh released the collar and Lucy stepped forward, her tail rigid, her ears up, the fur a ridge on her back. Waldo sniffed Lucy’s nose in obvious disgust.

“Lucy’s been around cats, you can tell.”

Lucy was most interested in sniffing Waldo below the base of his tail, which the cat put up with for about five seconds before whipping his head around and hissing. Lucy jumped back in alarm, looking at Josh accusingly.

“What did I tell you, Waldo doesn’t take crap from anybody,” Kerri chuckled. “Can we put Lucy in a bedroom? I want the puppies to meet their first cat on their own.”

Josh shut Lucy in his parents’ bedroom. When he returned, Kerri was standing in the living room with her hands on her hips, pointedly glancing at the Christmas village on the mantel.

“I see you’ve been doing some redecorating,” she observed.

“Huh? Oh.” Josh flushed.

“I like it. What will you put up when you take down the Christmas decorations?”

“Oh, uh, I’ve got some wooden ducks, and this wooden welcome sign I made in grade school.”

“I like that even better. Can’t wait to see it.” She smiled at him and he grinned back, a full-on, helpless grin that employed all of his face and maybe even some of his shoulder muscles.

“Let’s let the puppies out,” Kerri suggested. They went down the hall together. “Wow, they’re getting so big!” she exclaimed. The puppies sent up a chorus of squeals when they saw her. She and Josh lifted them out onto the floor, and when they turned and walked back down the hall, the puppies followed in a flood, bumping into the walls and jumping on each other’s backs. Josh and Kerri stood in the living room and watched as they came skittering around the corner.

And then, as one, they spotted the cat.

ELEVEN

For a moment it was as if all the puppies had come down with a case of rigor mortis.

They froze in utter shock, staring at Waldo with wide eyes. When they twitched out of their paralysis they bunched up, massing together where the hallway joined the living room. Waldo stood in the center of the room as if in charge of the whole area. Heads bobbing, sniffing at the air, the dogs seemed completely flummoxed as to their next move. Oliver, out in front of the pack as usual, finally lowered his head and crept into the living room, his little tail wagging furiously. Waldo regarded his approach with unwinking eyes, totally bored. The other puppies began to follow their brother.

Waldo took two cat steps forward and that’s all it took for the puppies to scramble back in absolute panic. They skittered down the hallway, virtually running over poor Cody, who had apparently not understood what was going on. Waldo settled at the near end of the hallway, blocking access to the living room, and stared coldly at the puppies, who were agitatedly milling around at the far end, jerking their heads up and down, wagging their tails, and crashing into each other. They instinctively hugged one wall, piling up like a traffic accident.

Kerri started giggling. Josh glanced at her and felt his heart go into mild fibrillation over that smile.

Oliver, still wagging his tail, decided there had been some sort of misunderstanding between himself and this strange, not-a-dog creature. There was no reason why they couldn’t be friends, right? He stepped forward and his sisters Sophie and little Lola were right on his heels to lend moral support, albeit from a safe distance. He play bowed.
So far so good!
He took another few steps and bowed again. Waldo was still as a statue. The other puppies decided it was all going to turn out well after all and surged forward, Rufus stepping on Sophie’s head in the process.

Waldo hissed.

Oliver threw himself into reverse, his eyes huge, colliding with the rest of his siblings in his mad dash to the rear. The puppies retreated en masse in wild terror. Halfway down the hall they skidded to a halt and regrouped in an anxious huddle.

“Something tells me we don’t have to worry about them hurting Waldo,” Josh noted dryly. What he really wanted, of course, was reassurance Waldo wouldn’t hurt
them.
Kerri wasn’t worried, though, so he tried to take comfort from her confidence.

Cody seemed to be getting bored—sniffing the walls, he was headed away from the action, back to the bedroom with their box in it. Rufus actually barked at him, as if saying, “Cody, get back here!” Cody ignored him.

Okay, new approach.
Apparently elected ambassador because she was the smallest, Lola inched forward, her belly on the floor. Sophie, wagging her little tail like crazy, followed. Oliver, excited to see other dogs risking their lives, climbed on top of Rufus to get a better view.

Waldo observed the puppy delegation with a look of utter disinterest. The two girl puppies sniffed each other for reassurance, Waldo watching, unblinking. Encouraged by the lack of hostility, the puppies crawled forward on their stomachs like marine recruits going under barbed wire. Rufus and Oliver decided it must be safe after all and brought up the rear.

Waldo drew his lips back and that’s all it took; the puppies fled as if running from a fire.

“Lesson one: kitties have teeth,” Kerri pronounced dryly.

“Lucy doesn’t seem to want to nurse anymore. She gets up in the middle of it and walks away, and sometimes she cries,” Josh said.

Kerri nodded, absorbing this.

The puppies had reached the consensus that there was no cat. They were now trying to sneak past Waldo and into the living room by inching along the wall, deliberately not looking at the feline. Waldo’s tail twitched.
No cat. No cat.

Waldo suddenly sprang forward, leaping right up to the puppies, and they broke formation and tore down the hall all the way to the back bedroom.
Oh my God, there was a cat!

Satisfied with a job well done, Waldo licked his paw.

“How are you coming with the solid food?” Kerri asked.

“I put the food out and they’re eating it, but they still want to nurse,” Josh replied. “I let them suck it off my fingers like you said to do.”

“Usually the mom decides when nursing’s over. Don’t freak out if Lucy growls at them.”

Josh frowned. “Freak out.”

“What?”

“I’m not going to freak
out.
”

“No, I…” Kerri laughed. “Sorry, I’m just remembering when you thought Lucy was going to kill the puppies because they weren’t hers.”

“Sure, but in my defense, I didn’t have Internet to look it up.”

“Your defense, so we’re in court now? Am I the judge?” Kerri’s eyes sparkled at him.

She was so beautiful at that moment that Josh found himself holding his breath. He wondered if the dismantling of the Amanda museum meant he could start kissing Kerri at will, because that seemed like a really good idea.

She was smiling at him as if she knew exactly what was on his mind, holding his eyes for a moment. “So anyway, they’ll be weaned soon,” she continued, filling the pause. “We like to wait until they’re eight weeks to adopt them out, which sort of puts us in the middle of the holiday so we’ll wait until after Thanksgiving. We’ll put them on the website a few days before then, anyway. Puppies go pretty fast, especially cute guys like these.”

Josh looked down the hallway where the puppies were assembled in the doorway as if seeking permission to come out. He decided that even if the puppies were weaned, they still needed their mother. And, just like that, he decided that he needed her, too. When and if Ryan showed up, he would fight him in court if he had to. He wasn’t giving up his dog to anyone. “Can we let Lucy out now?”

“Why don’t we shut the puppies in the back bedroom first?” Kerri suggested. “I don’t know how Mommy would react if she caught Waldo terrorizing the babies.”

They stepped around Waldo and went down the hall for the puppies. Cody and Rufus were off playing somewhere in the bedroom.
There is no cat.
Josh scooped up Oliver, who wriggled with joy, wagging and licking the air. “Where are your brothers, Oliver?” Josh asked the little dog.

“So, what are your plans for Thanksgiving?” Kerri asked as she hoisted the two girls off the floor. Lola wagged in pleasure, and Sophie’s ears drooped—Kerri gave Sophie a kiss on the nose. “It’s okay, little girl.”

Josh was wrestling with her question. He didn’t want to sound like some loser. What was he going to say, that he was going to celebrate the holiday using a microwave and maybe a couple cans of beer? “I’m cooking,” he replied, which wasn’t a lie.

“Really? Thanksgiving dinner?”

“Yeah, it’s not hard.”

“I’m impressed.”

He shrugged, enjoying that he was impressing her.

“Like for friends? Any family coming?”

“No family. I invited my sister but they can’t make it this year.”

“Oh, that’s too bad. So you have room for one more?”

“Sorry?”

“Want me to come?”

His pulse accelerated. Josh swallowed. “Yeah, that’s … yes.”

“You sure?”

“No, of course, I was pretty much thinking I would ask you but you probably already had plans.”

“Nothing I can’t change, it was pretty casual. I’d like to meet your friends. Want me to bring my pumpkin pie?”

“Yes! I actually was wondering what I was going to do about making a pie.”
Also everything else.

What was he thinking?

Answer: he was thinking he’d get to see Kerri. He’d do whatever reckless thing he needed to do to accomplish that.

They placed the puppies in their box. Rufus trotted out of the closet to greet them, emerging from the half that wasn’t blocked by the sliding door. “Little Rufus with the spot on your eye, where is Cody, the other little guy?” Kerri sang spontaneously as she lifted him into the air.

It was silly and tuneless and she charmed Josh with her utter lack of self-consciousness. “Cody?” he called.

There was a rustling sound in the closet. The sliding door rocked as the little dog apparently bumped into it. Why didn’t Cody just come out of the open side like his brother, instead of assaulting the door that was closed? Kerri put Rufus into the box, her beautiful long hair sweeping forward, and the puppy’s siblings rushed him and climbed on him as if he’d been missing for a month.

Cody barked, a sharp, frustrated little sound. Rufus put his paws on the side of the box and barked back.

Josh went to the closet and looked inside. Cody was sitting next to a box, facing the slatted sliding door. “Cody? What are you doing?”

Cody turned at the sound of his voice, then banged into the box as he made his way over to Josh, who reached down and picked him up.

“What is it?” Kerri asked as he came out holding Cody.

“It’s weird.” Josh peered closely at Cody’s tiny little eyes, which were black against his brown face. He set the puppy down on the floor. “Call him.”