“Sorry?”
“I’ve noticed that you always start off asking me about my books before you go on a long trip. It’s as if you’re reminding me you’re not the only one who travels.”
Taylor sighed. “Looks like probably two weeks. The systems are less compatible than we thought. A lot of legacy code has to be rewritten. My team’s good, but they need me there.”
“Whatever that means, I’m hearing two weeks, which usually means four.”
“I’ll miss you,” Taylor said.
They stopped under a tree and hugged each other. Dutch and I, confused, walked around them until our leashes drew us up nose-to-nose.
A few days later I was introduced to the term “suitcase,” which was a box with a handle and Taylor’s clothes in it. Dutch and I sniffed it when it lay open on the floor, and I could tell he was trying to decide if he should lift his leg on it since it clearly had outdoor aromas on it. He finally decided to leave a very faint mark, a tiny squirt that neither men noticed.
Gavin and Taylor left together and then Gavin came back alone and some of the rules changed. We were allowed to sleep on the bed! I slept next to Gavin. Dutch would climb on the bed if Gavin insisted, but it made him restless and he always jumped down during the night.
Dutch was sad. He spent a lot of time with his nose to the crack under the door, sniffing and sighing. He did not want to play with me much. Sometimes Gavin would get on the floor with Dutch and put his arms around him. “Are you okay, big guy? You going to be okay?” Gavin would ask softly. When he did this I could feel the knot of pain inside Dutch loosen its hold a little. Gavin was giving Dutch comfort.
He also gave us toys—toys that squeaked and soft toys and bone toys and balls. Everything, from the chicken treats Gavin handed us to the soft toys Dutch and I ripped apart, reminded me of Lucas. Gavin was a kind man, but he wasn’t my person.
Then Taylor came home, and he brought treats! “Wow, Bella, you’ve really gained weight!” he said happily as he gave me a chewy piece of meat. “You look great. Dutch, you’re still a little … rotund.”
“I can’t give Bella food and not Dutch. It wouldn’t be fair,” Gavin said defensively.
With the two men back together we went on more walks. “You know what, I think we should go up to the cabin one last time before we head to China,” Taylor said on one walk.
“Still snowy up there. I really prefer the summer,” Gavin replied.
“You’ll get the hang of cross-country skiing, you just need practice.”
“I don’t want to get the hang of it.”
“What’s eating you?” Taylor asked.
“When were you going to tell me you’ve been in contact with mountain rescue about their owner? There was a message on our voice mail.”
The two men were quiet. Dutch and I both looked in the direction of a barking dog, off in the distance. Dutch responded by lifting his leg on a post.
“Did they leave the name?” Taylor finally asked.
“No, just said she understood you wanted his contact information and she needs to know why. And I, Taylor, also would like to know why.”
“Because they aren’t our dogs! We have to give them back.”
“If he wanted them back, wouldn’t he have called by now?” Gavin demanded.
“I don’t know why he hasn’t called. That’s what I want to ask him. You’re in denial about this whole thing. We can’t keep the dogs.”
Gavin turned abruptly and Dutch trotted to keep up, looking back in confusion at Taylor and me. We were stopped. I sat, unsure what was going on. “Gavin!” Taylor called.
Gavin kept walking.
*
Not long after that the men put things in the car and drove to the “cabin.” I knew instantly where we were—the same small place where we were taken for our first meal after we dug the man out of the snow. When we arrived Dutch was so excited he was quivering, but after racing around in the yard, he abruptly stopped running. He marked a few places, of course, but he did so without much enthusiasm. He knew his person was not here.
Here at the cabin we were much closer to Lucas; I could feel it. I sniffed around the fence, looking for a slide, but there was none, and the fence itself was too high for me to jump.
The first night we spent at the cabin, Dutch and I were let out in the backyard to Do Your Business right before the men went to bed. Dutch lifted his leg several times, but after I squatted once I went to the corner of the fence and lifted my nose, excited by a familiar scent.
Big Kitten was nearby.
I waited expectantly, but she came no closer. Eventually I remembered how Mother Cat always approached Lucas, but never allowed herself to be touched. I realized she would not be coming to see me, not with humans so close. Even a cat as enormous as Big Kitten could be frightened of people; it was just how some cats were.
We were back at the house when something happened that caused Gavin’s anxiety to rise sharply—Dutch and I both felt it. Dutch went to Gavin, concerned, and Gavin stroked his ears. “It’s okay, Dutch,” he murmured softly. “Taylor’s talking to your owner.”
Taylor was holding the phone. When he finished, he came out and handed Gavin a glass of sharp-smelling liquid. “So?” Gavin asked.
“Kurch couldn’t come to the phone. I talked to his sister,” Taylor replied.
“Wait. Kurch?”
“I guess that’s his name.”
“Rhymes with church?”
“Yes.”
“Is that how he spells it?” Gavin demanded. “C-H-U-R-C-H?”
“Okay, I can feel your English major rage rising but it’s not my fault, that’s his name. And no, he spells it with a K.”
“Kurch.”
“I know, Gavin.”
“I can’t believe we’re going to give our dogs to a guy named Kurch.”
“Our dogs? But yeah, it’s got to be the stupidest name in history.”
“So what did Kurch’s sister say? Oh, and what’s her name, Muck? Corpuscle?”
“No, you ready? Susan.”
“They named their son Kurch and the girl Susan?”
“The guy is pretty banged up, still,” Taylor continued. “I guess he broke about every bone in his body. So he’s on painkillers. She was surprised to hear why I was calling. She didn’t even know he had dogs.”
“Close family.”
“I do get the sense she sees Kurch as less of a blessing than a burden.”
“Maybe he spells it K-I-R-S-C-H,” Gavin observed hopefully.
“No, she spelled it for me when I expressed my … doubts.”
“Maybe she can’t spell.”
“I would believe that,” Taylor replied agreeably.
“So when are we taking them?”
“I told her we’d drop them by next week.”
“I’m going to miss them, Taylor. This is going to be the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
“I know. But they are not our dogs.”
“Maybe he’d sell them to us.”