Forte gave her a slight nod and she ruffled the fur around his ears. The big dog’s eyes rolled up and he leaned his head into her hand for more enthusiastic scratches.
Definitely no problems socializing. Then again, in Sophie’s hands, most males turned to Silly Putty.
Or…he needed to stop thinking about what could happen to him in Sophie’s hands.
“Yeah.” Forte cleared his throat. “He’s got a couple of weeks of physical therapy first. Then we need to coordinate with the Air Force on his adoption.”
“Ah.” A world of understanding in the one syllable. Part of why Sophie was one of the few people Forte felt easy around was because she got it. Only needed to explain once. And she listened the first time. Sometimes no explanation was required at all. She had the kind of caring heart to fill in the gaps when something went unsaid. “His handler didn’t make it?”
Forte shook his head. “Same IED that injured Haydn took out his handler. The deceased’s family has been contacted and they’ll have first choice to adopt. We haven’t heard back yet on their decision, but those kinds of things can take some time coming through the communication channels.”
Sophie nodded and looked down at Haydn. “We’ll give you time to figure things out while all the paperwork goes through, huh? It’s nice to meet you, Haydn.”
The black GSD leaned into her, his tongue lolling out in response to the attention and the use of his name. Dog knew when someone was talking to him and apparently, he liked Sophie’s voice.
“Where’s your car?” Forte was not going to stand around long enough to be jealous of a dog. Not at all. “We’ll walk you.”
“Right across the street.” Sophie jerked her head in the direction of the small parking lot.
They headed over, Sophie falling into step next to Forte. She didn’t try to take his hand or tuck her own around his arm. They weren’t like that. Besides, she knew he didn’t like to be all wound up with a person when walking out in the open. And she demonstrated it all the time. It was a regular reassurance. A comfort.
Better than free cupcakes.
“Has Haydn met Atlas?” Sophie asked casually.
The first rehabilitation case at Hope’s Crossing Kennels had been Atlas, a dog suffering from PTSD after his handler had died. One of Forte’s trainers and close friends, David Cruz, had worked with Atlas and still did now that the dog had become a permanent part of the kennels. But Atlas’s challenges had been psychological. With the help of Lyn Jones’s approach to working with dogs, Cruz had successfully brought Atlas back up to speed.
“Briefly.” He glanced at Sophie and caught her making a face. “The dogs don’t need group therapy sessions.”
The psychology aspect of the rehabilitation was something Forte was only willing to entertain so far. Lyn got results with her work, yes, but he was not going to go all the way into the deep end with the dog whisperer approach.
To Sophie, he made a stupid face right back. “You do not need to come over and sit Atlas and Haydn down to compare notes on what they’ve been through.”
Sophie was silent a moment, a sure sign his guess at her thought process was on target. “Well, they do need to play with each other sometimes, right?”
“Dogs are social creatures and, yeah, some playtime is good if they can socialize with other dogs that way.” He’d give her that. Forte made sure the dogs trained at Hope’s Crossing Kennels could socialize well with both human handlers and other working dogs. “Haydn’s the second military working dog to come to us for help after active duty but his challenges are mostly physical. We have to watch him carefully with the prosthetic on until we all know what he can do with it, including him. But, yeah, he’s gone out with Atlas on a couple of group walks without the prosthetic.”
Honestly, Haydn was pretty spry even without the prosthetic. Dog just had better mobility with it.
“Okay.” Sophie let it go. “I just think you and your working dogs could use a little more playtime in your lives. Like a doggie field day or something.”
He snorted.
Sophie’s car was a sensible sedan, the sort to blend into a lot of other normal, everyday cars. What made it easy to spot was the pile of cute stuffed animals across the back. Not just any stuffed animals. A gathering of cute Japanese and Korean plush characters from her favorite Asian cartoons.
As they approached, Sophie juggled her shopping bag to pull her keys out of her purse and triggered the trunk.
“Need help?” Forte came up alongside the car, scanning the area around the parking lot out of habit.
“No worries.” Sophie lifted the trunk door and carefully placed her shopping bag inside the deep space, leaning in to move things around to where she wanted. “I need to make sure this is arranged so stuff doesn’t shift. It’s delicate!”
He was not going to admit to anyone, ever, how much he was willing to stretch his neck to catch sight of her backside while she was leaning over.