Tainted Gold (Providence Gold 3)

“Not really. No more than it would be buying a puppy or kitten while you’re…” I broke off and looked back at the door to check it, “you know. So looking after Foxy Loxy here at the sanctuary and taking the other two home with me should be ok.”

“Foxy Loxy?” Tate asked sounding disgusted. “Hell, no. We’re calling it Schwarzenegger or something hard ass like that, not Foxy freaking Loxy.”

What a dick! What was wrong with Foxy Loxy?

“He’s got a point,” Levi backed his brother up. “You gotta go with a masculine name for a fox.”

Two men against one pregnant lady. Fucking awesome.

“For foxe sake,” I sighed, realizing I wasn’t going to win the argument just now. I needed time to regroup and find the best angle before I went in for the win and to do that, I had to make them think they were the ones winning, hence the cute sigh.

Grinning over at his brother, Tate nodded and looked back at me. “You’re so not naming our son.”

Whispering as I heard Barb’s footsteps coming back toward us, I replied smugly, “It could be a girl, Felullah Consuela Trixibelle.”

I’d expected disgust, but all I got back was a triumphant grin and shake of the head. Well, that was disappointing!

I never got the chance to ask why he was looking so smug because the door opened, and in came the waggiest tailed Labrador I’d ever seen in my life. I’d always overlooked the Labrador breed for some reason, never considering them when I’d decided at some point I’d get a dog, and now as I watched its body moving from left to right with the force of its wagging tail, I was kicking myself.

Labradors were good with babies too, weren’t they?

I knew I was taking it home with me, but that was confirmed when Barb put a gray puppy down on the floor with it, and the Labrador started licking it like a mama with her baby. In return, the puppy jumped up to try and lick it back and then ran around it in circles. The two of them played like that for a couple of minutes, until they focused both their attentions on me and came over. With a big slobbery lick over my ear from the Lab, and excited puppy snuffles at my hand from the wiry-haired baby, I was a goner.

“I’ll take them!” It was unnecessary to confirm it, but I yelled the words into the room just in case the pet stealer in the corner tried to get there first, making everyone jump. Well, aside from the dog and the fox who both started yowling.

After a couple minutes, Barb took the baby fox out to be fed while Levi ran to get the stuff we’d bought for it from the vehicle, leaving me and Tate behind with the dogs.

I really wanted to take the cub home with me too, and the fact I couldn’t pissed me off. At the same time, I knew he was in the best hands here and that I’d get to see him as often as I wanted to and that he had to be here if he stood a chance of being returned to the wild. I also knew already that there was no way in hell I’d be giving these two dogs up, even not knowing what the puppy’s breed was.

I was a mama bear on a mission now. I had the protective hormones running through me, I could mother anything and everything – so long as it wasn’t a cockatoo – and that was now my vocation in life… I was so screwed!

TateAfter another trip to the pet store, during which Levi had stayed at Lily’s to keep an eye on the dogs, we’d brought all the new pet shit into her house and laid it out.

“I love your chickens,” Levi snorted as he lay on the floor under the two new dogs, sounding like he was struggling to breathe.

“What happened here?” I questioned as I walked around him to get to the couch.

“Well, we played for a while and then I figured that they’d need a potty break, so I opened the door and checked the garden was properly fenced in. It is, just in case you’re wondering. No holes or gaps found. They ran out and found the chickens – and just sayin’, that one chicken is a freak of clucking nature. Then, we walked around and played for a while until Dougal here,” he rubbed the sleeping Labrador’s head, “found the other enclosure. Fergus,” he pointed at the puppy, “was the only one of us who liked that shit flinging little bastard.”

Grinning, I made a mental note to get my brother back out into the garden and close to the cage again so I could see it happening for myself. “Gross isn’t it?”