Groomed For Love

Maybe.

He lets out a bark so loud we all jump and his new girl yelps with excitement, clawing at her own cage to get closer to Moose.

So, we three are four now and I implore the vet to let me know what needs to be done to make things right so we can all just go home.

“Moose still has a serious injury,” he cautions me. “He needs round the clock care, medications, and dressing changes,” he emphasizes with a serious frown.

“We can handle it,” I insist, with Naomi backing me up by going over to the cages and reaching in to stroke both dogs who lick both her hands like they’re pork chops.

The look Naomi gives me coupled with the same from Moose tells me everything I need to know.

Seeing her bent down with both her hands out, her smile, and that fine body of hers.

I know she’s got the natural mothering instinct like nobody else on earth.

“They’ll be quite a handful,” The vet reminds me, still frowning.

I hold out both my hands in front of his face, showing him how big they are.

“And we have Naomi’s to match these,” I tell him, smiling.

“Moose is retired as of today,” I add. “And so am I. We’ve got nothing but time, space, and a beautiful home for these guys to get to know each other in and recover.”

“This other dog, she’s had some problems,” the vet continues to warn me, but I hold my hand up.

“We all do.” I correct him.

“We’ve all been somewhere we don’t like. Our job now is to get all of us somewhere we do want to be.” I tell him as well as Naomi.

Reminding myself.

My past, along with hers is just that.

Passed.

No need to keep hanging on, waiting for something to correct it that never will. We make our own future from here on in.

“If you’re sure, then I’m sure,” he concedes, relieved that he has two free cages in his surgical recovery unit and one less guy arguing about who makes it and doesn’t for one day.

I settle the bill at the front desk, overturning any responsibility from the police. Moose is mine now and so is anyone he wants as his friend.

None of us can agree what breed she is, but there’s a little bit of everything and more love from Moose than anything which is all that really counts.

“I’ll cite her as ‘domesticated’,” The vet says, grinning with pride like he’s pronouncing man and wife as he signs over Moose’s new best friend to us both.

“And thank you,” he adds. “I studied a lot for days like this… Don’t get to see ‘em much,” he smiles as we finally leave with our new and instant family.

Moose is sore and still, in a large carrier, his new queen isn’t, but butts right up against him once they’re in the back seat of my truck.

“You really need anything from that old place of yours?” I ask Naomi as I pull away, heading for home.

Naomi thinks.

Long and hard, I can tell. I’m not asking her to leave everything behind but I’m hoping and willing she decides to do just that.

Me too.

I’m done with the excuse of a life I’ve led for half my life before I met her.

Prepared now, willing and able to spend the rest of it with Naomi and our new family.

She shakes her head firmly, deciding once and for all that this right now is all she needs.

“I got everything that mattered when we left there,” she tells me.

I quiz her about things we all need, paperwork and ID. Things a cop would ask.

Her hand reaches over to mine and squeezes it as she smiles in the affirmative. “I got you didn’t I? That’s all that really matters. But yeah, I have everything I need from now on,” she adds.

“You and me both,” I tell her.

“You and me both.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Naomi

It feels like I can breathe again once we get Parker and his boy home. The latest addition hasn’t come with a name, and Parker wastes no time is making suggestions as we bundle both dogs inside.

The thought flashes across my mind not to let Parker be in charge of naming anything.

His suggestions are pretty bad, to say the least.

I still don’t even know his first name for god’s sake and I won’t go on another minute until we get a few things out in the open.

“I don’t even know your name, Parker,” I finally shout over him as he reels off a series of exotic-sounding, feminine names for dogs.

There. I finally said it.

We’ve connected on every other level and for whatever reason, he still hasn’t even told me his first name.

“Just Parker won’t cut it if we’re going to do this,” I tell him, trying to calm down Moose who only wants out of his carrier.