ChapterTwelve
Mark
“So, what’s the objective here, Mark?” Jack asked as he looked around us with his hands on his hips. “What are you looking for?”
I checked out the occupants of each cage as we passed them.
“Naomi’s brother runs this practice. He bought the extra land and set up a pet rescue sanctuary after he took over.”
“I can see that,” he said dryly.
When Jeremy had bought the practice from the vet who was years past retirement, he’d decided to build the rescue near it. I think it’d started as an idea for cats and dogs, but it’d become so much more than that. From what I’d heard, the only thing he wasn’t prepared to deal with were venomous animals unless they were sick or injured.
“Anyway, when I told him what I was looking for, he said he’d just had a litter of pups abandoned near the lake. They’ve passed all their health checks and have their vaccinations, so we should be good to go.”
“And what exactly constitutes as good to go?”
Stopping near the cage with the number Jeremy had told me to go to, I waited for him to stop staring at a cute but huge Doberman, who was watching him back.
“Layla’s always wanted a dog but decided to get the cat—thinking she was doing a good thing because she knew she’d never let it breed—and then regretted it.”
“It was a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation. If my daughter had ignored her gut instinct, the likelihood of someone buying it just to breed it was high. People like things that are unusual, and if they’re cute at the same time, they go nuts for them. Others see how much money it brings in, and boom, it all explodes, regardless of health issues and complications. At least the little guy was loved from the second she held him.”
My thoughts exactly.
“Exactly. So, I was talking to Jeremy about what she wanted and the fact she had a Continental Giant rabbit that’s used to animals of different sizes and species, and he told me about this litter.”
From where he was standing, Jack couldn’t see what I was currently looking at—another of Layla's dreams.
“And what is it that she wanted, because when she was little, she wanted a dragon, and I tried my hardest to find the closest thing I could.”
The closest thing had been a Labrador puppy with a set of wings from a Halloween costume on him. She’d loved the little guy and called him Mordor, and I still remember how hard she cried when he died from cancer when she was sixteen.
“Layla loves German Shepherds, but she loved Mordor. She always said her ideal dog would be a Sheprador or a Labherd.”
He looked at me like I was nuts. “A what?”
I chuckled, not wanting to be too loud in case I scared the wriggling bodies jumping on each other in front of me. “Exactly what my response was. Her explanation was ‘a love child of a Labrador and Shepherd.’”
He moved forward until he was standing next to me and sighed when he saw the puppies. “Of course she did. How do you know that’s what these are?”
“Jeremy tested them, and that’s what their DNA says.”
“Shit,” he mumbled under his breath.
“Afraid you’re going to want one, too?” I teased.
“Something like that.”
“Hey, guys,” Jeremy greeted as he joined us in front of the cage. “Y’all ready to meet some puppies?”
Before I could shake his hand or even say yes, Jack had nudged me out of the way and was pointing expectantly at the cage door. “Yeah, great to see you. Now open it.”
Jeremy didn’t take offense, he just grinned and did as requested.
“You’ll have to excuse him. Jack didn’t know why I’d brought him here until just before you arrived.”
I looked pointedly down at the man already lying on the ground with the puppies climbing all over him, looking happier than I’d ever seen him.