Kona was silent but on high alert. The tension in her body was obvious. Her ears were up, and her teeth were bared. I wished I could bare my teeth and look even half as scary. The other dogs let out occasional yips but didn’t quite understand the situation. Once they all got started barking, it could be a little overwhelming.
Another window was broken. Several cheers and shouts of celebration could be heard. My heart was in my throat. I was hot and cold at the same time. I had never felt so helpless and useless in my life. I was cowering instead of fighting. Unfortunately, I wasn’t really accustomed to fighting. I wasn’t foolish enough to believe I could take on three men, assuming it was the same group that attacked Reese.
Lucas pushed himself up the wall. “We have to call the cops,” he whispered.
“I know,” I said. “I know.”
We could hear the men laughing but couldn’t quite make out the words. I heard a door slam against the wall. They were checking the many rooms we used to work in, to introduce dogs to potential adopters, and as storage areas.
“They’re trashing the place,” Lucas said. “Why?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know.”
It killed me to know they were destroying the place I worked so hard to put together. I knew in the grand scheme of things some ruined furniture and shattered windows weren’t the worst thing ever, but it sucked. It was going to cost money to repair. Depending on how bad this got, we might have to close for a while. The animals would suffer the most.
We sat helplessly and listened to them breaking things. I sent up a silent prayer hoping the men would stay out of the dog kennel. We heard them laughing. “Dude, there are cats in here!”
“No!” I gasped. “No, no, no!”
“I hate cats!”
“What will they do to them?” Lucas asked.
I was going to vomit. “I don’t know.”
“We need a weapon,” Lucas said. “We have to be able to protect ourselves.”
“Lucas, we don’t have weapons,” I said.
He pointed to the dog bowls in the empty kennel next to him. “We can whack them with bowls.”
I smiled and tried to remember he was scared. “That’s a good idea. Let’s just wait and see if they leave. I’m going to hide over here. Stay down. Stay quiet. If they come in here, the dogs are going to go crazy. That will scare them off.”
He didn’t look convinced. I didn’t blame him. I wasn’t convincing myself. I was terrified they were hurting the cats. Wasn’t that the first act of a psychopath? They messed with the animals. People couldn’t truly be that evil, could they?