They were supposed to go over to Oceanside Animal
Hospital at ten-thirty to meet Zack's real owner, who was apparently a man named Mr. McGuire. With every minute that passed, Emily got more and more upset. If it had been her dogâand he
was
her dog!âshe would have gotten her parents to drive her over the night before, as soon as she heard that someone had found him. She would never have wanted to wait until the next
day
to see him.
It wasn't fair.
And if Zack had come to her for a
reason
, why was he going to be taken away like this? That wasn't fair, either.
Crying so much was upsetting him, though, and she tried to be brave, for his sake. Maybe he loved her
and
his old owners, and she shouldn't do anything to make him feel unhappy. She should just pat him and hug him and feed him like this was a
normal day, so that he wouldn't feel as terrible as she did.
She couldn't stand the thought of eating anything, even though her mother had cooked French toast, topped with strawberries and whipped creamâwhich would normally have been one of Emily's very favorite breakfasts. Right now, though, the thought of eating made her feel sick.
Zack seemed nervousâprobably because he sensed how upset she wasâand at about nine-fifteen, he got up and began pacing nervously around the den. He walked back and forth, barely limping, and kept pausing by the windows to sniff outside. Then, he would whine and pace some more.
Emily couldn't bear the thought of taking him on what would be their final walk togetherâbut, if he needed to go out, he needed to go out.
“Okay,” she said, and rubbed her sleeve across her eyes, to wipe away the tears that were still falling, as often as not.
Then, out of nowhere, she had the image of an old blue pickup truck rattling along the roadâand as she did, Zack began to whine nervously. Then, he stood up on his hind legs with his paws on the windowsill.
His owners. Dogs have amazing senses of smell, and he probably knew, somehow, that his owners were coming to get him.
Zack came over to nudge her leg pointedly, and then ran back to paw at the window screen. He barkedâloudly, and then raked his paws across the screen, as though he was going to leap right through it.
Inside, Emily's heart sank. Okay, he did sense his owner. He
recognized
the scentâwhich meant that he really did belong to someone else.
And that she was about to lose him.
She caught a jolting image of the pickup truck stopping, and then flashes of some men, andâthe animal hospital? Yes, she was definitely picturing the animal hospital, and Zack was obviously desperate to get over there, and be reunited with the McGuires, the
real
owners. People he obviously lovedâand must have missed so much more than she had ever realized.
“Okay,” Emily said, and picked up the bag of food, medicine, toys, and dishes she and her mother had packed earlier, both of them crying the whole time. “It's okay. I understand. Come on, let's go get Mom and Dad.”
He was in such a hurry that he beat her out to
the kitchen, and stood at the back door, barking frantically.
Her parents, who had both been sitting unhappily at the table, looked startled.
“What's going on?” her father asked.
“I, umâ” Emily swallowed. “I think he wants to leave. I guessâmaybe his owners got there early. Andâhe must love them a lot. So, can we go now?”
Her parents exchanged glances, but quickly agreed, and her father went out to start the car. Zack was urgent and restless during the entire ride over, and Emily wasn't sure why, instead of seeming eager, he seemedâ
upset
. Was it because he had missed his owners so much? Or because maybe he was going to miss her, too, and he felt confused?
Maybe he knew how sad
she
was, and so he couldn't relax and enjoy the excitement of seeing his owners again. So it was probably really selfish of her to sit and cry the whole time.
“It's okay if you want to go back with them,” she whispered in his ear, since she didn't even want her parents to hear her. “I understand. I just want you to be happy.”
Zack leaned back against her for a minute, but then twisted free, and sniffed anxiously at the partially open car window.
It didn't make sense, but she was sensingâanger. Was Zack angry? She found herself picturing Dr. K. andâwas
he
angry?
Someone
was definitely angry, but she wasn't sure who it was.
Except, okay, maybe
she
was angry, about having to give him back. Butâno, that wasn't it, either.
Emily closed her eyes, feeling such a jumble of images and emotions that she couldn't sort them out. It probably wasn't helping that she was so tiredâand sadâbut, it was still really confusing.
When they got to the animal hospital, she saw the beat-up blue pickup truck she had pictured. It was parked crookedly near the front door, taking up at least two spots. The cargo bed was full of old fishing gear, and it looked as though the truck hadn't been washed or polished in many, many years.
She didn't want to give Zack back. She didn't want to get out of the
car
. She just wanted to go homeâand let Bobby take Zack and hide him for as long as possible.
“Well,” her mother said, and let out her breath. “I'm so sorry about all of this, Emily.”
She didn't want to walk into the vet's office sobbing, so Emily nodded and wiped her sleeve across her eyes. As she started to open the door, Zack pushed past her with unexpected strength and burst
out of the car. Since Emily had been hanging on to his leash, she was pulled right along behind him, and could barely keep up.
Zack ran across the parking lotâcast and allâand banged his paws against the main door. Emily opened it for himâand was shocked when she saw two large men inside, yelling at Dr. Kasanofsky. One of the men even had a baseball bat, and had just broken the screen on one of the computers with it!
Emily stood there, not sure what was going onâor what to say or do.
Dr. Kasanofsky's shirt was ripped, and it looked like his glasses might be broken, too. “Go back outside, Emily!” he said sharply.
The two men turned around, and Emily saw that they looked remarkably alike in baseball caps, faded t-shirts, torn jeans, and work boots. They were probably in their thirties, and neither of them seemed to have shaved recently.
“There he is,” one of the men said grimly, and shook his fist at Dr. Kasanofsky. “You
were
trying to hide him from us. I oughta knock your block off!”
“Yup, that's him,” the other man said. “Come here, Rocky.”
Rocky?
Zack didn't exactly growl, but his lip curled up, and he took several stiff and aggressive steps towards the men.
Dr. Kasanofsky moved quickly, guiding Emily towards the door. “Go outside, please.
Right now
.”
And leave Zack and Dr. K. in here aloneâwith mean men?
“Are they robbers?” she asked.
“
Now
,” Dr. Kasanofsky said again, trying to push her outsideâjust as her parents were on their way in.
“Hey!” her father said, once he got a look at what was happening, his voice sounding deeper than usual. In fact, it was a New York “Don't
mess
with me!” voice. “What's going on here?”
“We've had a little misunderstanding,” Dr. Kasanofsky said. “These men thought we might have found their dog. However, I think we can all agree that they were mistaken.”
Emily blinked in confusion. What was he talking about?
Everyone stared at everyone else, and Emily's mother broke the silence.
“Emily, go wait in the car,” she said.
While the rest of them were in danger, and might get hurt? Emily shook her head firmly. “No way.”
“Emily!” her father said.
She ignored him, holding Zack's leash protectively.
“Hey, folks, calm down,” one of the strangers said. “We're not about to bother some little girl. I'm Butch, and this here's my brother, Jim.” He indicated the man with the baseball bat. “Just give us our dog, that the vet here
stole
from us, and everything'll be okay. Me and my brother'll take him, and go away.”
“Okay,” Dr. Kasanofsky said pleasantly. “I'm going to need the four thousand dollars for his medical bills, first.”
The two men stared at Dr. Kasanofskyâand Emily stared at her parents. Had they really spent
that
much money to help Zack get well?
Jim recovered first. “We're not paying you anything, man. He's our dog, and we're
taking
him.”
Zack was supposed to live with people like
that
? If they were really his owners, no wonder he had gotten lost and hurt!
“Oh, I don't think so,” Emily's father said, very grim. “No, I don't think so at all.”
“Oh, yeah?” Jim took a threatening step towards him. “And who's going to stop us?”
“Well,
I
am, for one,” Emily's father said, folding his arms across his chest.
“And so am I,” Dr. Kasanofsky said.
Emily's mother nodded. “That makes three of us.”
In the meantime, Zack narrowed his eyes and took another stiff-legged step towards the men.
Butch and Jim looked at each other uneasily.
“Yo, we're not looking for any trouble,” Butch said. “Just picking up our dog. Come on, Rocky! Time to go home.”
The dog promptly turned around, and went to stand directlyâand fiercelyâin front of Emily, blocking them from being able to get anywhere near her.
The other man, Jim, laughed. “Been spoiling him, haven't you?” he said to Emily's parents. “Rocky, let's go!”
Zack didn't love them. In fact, it was obvious that he didn't even
like
them.
And that they were very, very bad ownersâand not nice people, either.
“Oh, and here.” Butch dug into his pocket, and
tried to hand her father a crumpled ten-dollar bill. “Take this, for your trouble.”
“That doesn't even
begin
to cover the medical bills,” Emily's father said, with a very tight smile on his face.
Butch looked uncomfortable, and reached back into his pocket. “Okay. Let's make it twenty.”
“Get over here, Rock,” Jim said impatiently.
The dog stubbornly stayed right where he was, still not looking at either of the McGuires.
Jim scowled at Emily. “What'd you do to him? That's
our
dog.”
Her mother moved her jaw, and then took out her cell phone and punched in three numbers. “Yes, hello,” she said into the phone. “Could you please send some officers over to Oceanside Animal Hospital right away? Some people are over here making threats and causing a disturbance.” She listened. “Yes, thank you. We'll be right here waiting.” Then, she snapped the phone shut. “I think you two had better think about leavingâand
never
coming back.”
The McGuires stared pugnaciously at her parents and Dr. Kasanofskyâwho stared right back at them.
Then, Jim backed away a few steps, holding up
his hands. “All right, all right, no cops. We were just
talkin'
, man. But we
want
our dog back, got it?”
“Yeah, it's not our fault he got lost,” Butch said.
Just then, Emily got a strong image of a storm-tossed boat, and running around frantically, and being caught in something. Something that
hurt
.
“How did he fall off the boat?” she asked.
They all turned as though they had completely forgotten she was still in the room.
“He, um, he just fell,” Butch said, unconvincingly.
Except she was sure that
wasn't
what happened. It had been something else. Something bad.
There was a long, tense silence.
“We don't know what happened, okay?” Jim said, sounding defensive now. “We were riding out a storm, and in the morning, when we went out on the deck, he was gone. I think he got caught in the line, or sumpthin'.”
So they had left him out alone on the deck all night in the middle of a terrible stormâand Zack had nearly died because of it.
“And now you want him back,” Emily's mother said.
Butch scowled at her. “This here's a hunting dog. We use him on the boat, too. You think that's
easy to replace?
Of course
we want him back.” He coughed. “We're, um, you know, just glad you folks found him. And right thankful.”