“We can bring them back this afternoon,” I said to Gina. “Ruby has a session with Arizona today, and we need Claude’s help with something special this morning.”
“Like what?” Claude asked. Her wide eyes narrowed. “You ain’t takin’ me to school, are ya?”
I laughed. “Nope. Not today. I have to work this afternoon, so we only have a few hours.”
Kira looked at me questioningly, but didn’t say anything until we’d left Gina’s with promises to return this afternoon. We drove back to the FC first, and it was clear that I was more excited about finding these guys somewhere to sleep than they were. It was understandable they were apprehensive, but it was a huge relief for me at least that they’d be off the streets at night.
When we pulled up at the front of the FC, I told Ruby we wouldn’t go in. We had somewhere else to be. We waited for him to walk inside, and I could feel Kira’s stare on the side of my head.
“Do I even want to know where we’re going?” he asked.
I looked at him, then Claude in the back seat and grinned. “We’re going to get a dog!”
Chapter Thirteen
“For real?” Claude said. “A real dog?”
“Yep,” I said.
Kira sighed, almost sagging into the driver’s seat. “We’re getting a dog.”
I laughed. “Come on, it’ll be fun!”
“And where exactly are we getting a dog from?”
“The animal rescue shelter,” I told him. “On Bridge Street.” I turned in my seat so I could talk to Claude. “I thought you might like to come with us. It’ll be fun. We’ll have a look anyway. There might not be the right one.”
Kira ran his hand through his hair. He looked kind of worried. “Uh, Matt. Promise me, it’s just one. We’re getting
one
dog.”
“Yes, one,” I said. “I said
a
dog.”
“It’s just I know what you’re like,” he said. “You’ll walk into the shelter and want to take them all.”
I looked back at Claude and rolled my eyes, making her giggle.
“And we’ll have to get a collar, and a leash. And a vet,” Kira said. “Jesus, Matt. Maybe this is something we should have discussed.”
“We did discuss it,” I reminded him. “It was your idea!”
Kira shook his head at me. “I think you misunderstood.”
“I’m pretty sure I didn’t,” I said, settling in my seat, rather happy with myself. “And you have this afternoon off work, so it will be a good time to for the dog to get used to a new house.”
Kira rolled his eyes this time, but he smiled as he drove us to the rescue centre. We pulled up in the parking lot, then as we walked towards the front door, Kira said, “One, Matt. One dog.”
Grinning, I opened the door and waited for him and Claude to walk in first. There was a lady behind the counter, who smiled at us as we walked in. “Can I help you?”
“Yes,” I answered. “We want to get a dog.”
“Just one,” Kira added. “Please don’t let us leave here with more than one.”
The woman laughed. “Sure. Come this way.”
We walked through a doorway, down a short hallway that opened up to a longer corridor lined with caged partitions. It was loud, even for me, and it smelt like wet concrete, wet dog and dog pee. Each cage had a few dogs in it, of a range of shapes, sizes and colours and they all bounced and barked at the mesh.
Claude put her hands to her ears, but she was giggling as we slowly walked down the corridor. The lady explained a few of the breeds as we went along, giving a brief history on a few of the dogs. Some were new, some were at their end of their stay.
“Where do they go when they leave?” Claude asked.
The woman shot me a quick look, then smiled at Claude, but before she could answer, Kira said, “They go to a new shelter somewhere else, to see if anyone there wants them.”
Claude nodded, quickly distracted by the barking dogs on either side of us. The lady smiled again and kept walking. She might have thought we were sparing a child the harsh fact that the animals were put to sleep if no one wanted them, but it was more than that. How could I explain to an abandoned, homeless child that an animal was put down because it too was abandoned?
I put my hand on Kira’s arm, silently saying thanks for saving Claude from that realisation.
As we got to the last cages, we turned back to look at the way we’d come. There were happy little short dogs and proud big dogs, any of which would have made an excellent choice.
But there was one dog, in the very last cage. He was in a cage all by himself, lying down, just watching us. He looked like a German shepherd cross, maybe about two years old. He looked…sad. He looked at us for a while, and put his head back down on his paws.
I pointed to him. “What’s the story with that one? Why’s he by himself?”
The lady sighed. “Well, he came in two weeks ago. He’s actually in this yard because he’s scheduled to be…” She looked at Claude and corrected herself, “he’s at the end of his stay.”
“Why?” I asked quietly.
“No one wants him.”
I crouched down near the wire and called the dog over. “Come here, boy,” I called. He put his head up, but didn’t come over to me. “What’s his name?” I asked the lady.
“He doesn’t have one,” she said with a shrug. “Doesn’t matter anyway.”
I looked up at her, from where I was still crouching down. How could it not matter? “What do you mean it doesn’t matter? Because he’s being…sent away?”
“It doesn’t matter what you call him, he can’t hear you. He’s stone deaf.”
I stared at her for a long moment then I looked at Kira. He raised an eyebrow at me and smiled. I looked back to the lady. “We’ll take him.”
She blinked. “You want
him
?”
Ignoring her, I looked at Kira and signed, “We want him, yes?”
Kira smiled and signed back, “Would you take any other dog?”
I shook my head and signed a very determined, “No.”
Kira turned to the stunned lady. “Yes, we want him.”
“Um,” she said, looking from us to the dog. “Normally people have a few sessions with a prospective pet, just to make sure they’re making the right decision…” She unclipped a set of keys from her waistband then took the lock on the gate in her hand. “Having a deaf dog comes with certain responsibilities.”
“I’m sure it does,” I told her. “But being disregarded because he’s deaf isn’t fair either.” Then I turned to Kira and signed, “We can’t let him be put to sleep just because he’s deaf.”
The lady watched our signed conversation, and without another word, she opened the door. The dog sat up, excited now that the door was being opened. “Spend some time with him. I’ll be back in five to check on you.”
I crouched down at the door, and, patting my leg, called the dog to come over. He stepped towards me, unsure but excited all the same. I gently rubbed his forehead and gave him a good pat, getting a body-wiggle, a wagging tail and a lick to the face as thanks.
Claude laughed, and Kira shook his head, but he was smiling. I stood up and told Claude to pet him. Kira, who was still smiling, slid his arm around my waist. “You’re gonna need to wash your face before I’ll even think about kissing you.”
I laughed. “Dog slobber never hurt anyone.”
By this time, Claude had her arms around the dog’s neck, giving him a hug. “Just be careful, Claude,” I warned. “We don’t know if he’s inclined to bite or if he’s been wormed or anything.”
“He won’t bite me,” she said. “He’s a nice dog.”
“He needs a proper name,” Kira said. Then he sighed. “And a visit to a vet, and a collar and a leash, and a bed, and a bowl.
Two
bowls, actually, one for water—”
I laughed. “Don’t worry about all that. I can get all that stuff.”
“Aren’t I allowed?” he asked. “I mean, if he’s ours, then
we
should.” Then Kira knelt on the other side of the dog. “He
does
have a happy face.”
“He needs a name,” I said. “What do you reckon, Claude?”
“Me?” she said. “I’ve never named anything before.”
“Well, now’s your chance,” I told her.
She blinked a few times and stared at the dog. He was still wiggling excitedly and if dogs could smile, this one was grinning.
The lady that worked there came up behind me and said, “I see things are going well.” She startled me. With all the noise of the other dogs, I hadn’t heard her come back.
I spun to face her, and luckily for her, I took a step back rather than getting on the defence and putting my fists up. It was moments like this that reminded me of what my instincts were. Kira stood up quickly, but it was fine. As soon as I realised who it was, I gave her a smile. “I think we’ve found our dog.”
She ran through some paperwork, explained some training tips for deaf dogs, some general dos and don’ts and after we’d paid for him, and spent a small fortune on a car harness, collar and leash, and special dog wash and a brush, we were on our way.
In the car, I kept turning around and looking at Claude and the dog, both sitting up and smiling. “Thought of a name yet, squirt?”
“O. He looks like an O.”
“An O?” I asked. “What is that?”
“Any name starting with a O,” she said, like I’d missed the obvious.
“Oh.”
“Exactly,” she said.
Kira laughed. “An O name. Right. Any suggestions?”
“Oscar, Otis, Oliver,” I started.
“That’s not an ex-boyfriend list, is it?” Kira asked quietly.
It made me laugh. “Uh, no.
That
list starts and ends with K.”
Kira smiled as he drove, and I turned back to Claude. She was looking at the dog. “I think he’s an Oscar,” she said, not taking her eyes off him.
“Oscar?” I asked.
“You know, Sesame Street. Oscar the Grouch. I used to watch it when I was a kid,” she said.
When she was a kid
. I almost corrected her, but then realised even though she was only nine years old, she probably hadn’t been a kid for a long time.
“He doesn’t look Oscar the Grouch, though,” I said.
“Yeah, he does,” Claude said. She waved her hand in front of her face. “He has the same eyebrows.”
Kira laughed, but covered it with a cough. He took his eyes off the road for a second “He kind of does.”
I found myself laughing as well. “Oscar it is.”
When we got home, we hooked the leash onto Oscar’s collar and walked him into the yard. It was all so new to him, and he kept running back over to us, all excited, like he somehow knew he had been given a second chance with us. We let him sniff around the gardens then we took him inside. He was a little apprehensive in the strange house so I took some cut ham from the fridge and sneaked him some slices.
“Matt,” Kira chided.
“Just so he knows this is a happy place,” I said. “That he’s safe here, and we won’t hurt him.”
Oscar all but inhaled the meat and licked his lips expectantly.
“You’ll create a monster by spoiling him.”
I looked at Claude and rolled my eyes. She giggled and took some ham to give to Oscar. “How will you talk to him?” she asked.
“Um…” I hesitated and looked to Kira.
He shrugged. “We’ll work out some signals for him. He’ll catch on, I’m sure.”
“Can you teach me some of your sign language?” Claude asked. “Maybe then I could teach him. If that’s okay?”
“I think that’s a great idea,” I agreed. “Come on, we’ll take him out the back yard and work on some basics.”
For the next hour, that’s what we did. I think the poor dog was more confused than educated, but Claude picked up a few words. She was a quick learner. Kira called his mom and told her about the new addition to our house, and it wasn’t long until they arrived.
Yumi and Sal brought lunch with them, and sat a few bags of deli food on the dining table. “Where is this dog?” Yumi asked. “Why you get a dog?”
“We saved him,” I told them. “His name is Oscar. Claude named him.”
“What you save him from?” Yumi asked.
“He was out of time at the rescue centre,” Kira said.
“Oh.” Yumi petted the dog. Then she spoke to the dog, “You are cute, yes?”
“Um, he’s deaf,” I said.
Yumi stood up straight and sighed. “Of course he is,” she deadpanned.
Sal laughed, and Kira explained that as soon as the lady at the centre had told us the dog was deaf, that I wouldn’t consider another dog. “We need to get him a few things—a bed, some bowls. But he’s ours. He’ll be our new running buddy every morning, and can suffer through Matt’s cooking with me at dinner time.”
“Hey!” I said. I leaned over and ruffled Oscar’s forehead. “You’ll love my cooking. It’s really not that bad.”
“We’re teaching him sign language,” Claude announced. “Well, we tried. I don’t think he gets it.”
Yumi smiled at the little girl. “Might take some practice,” she said.
After we’d eaten lunch, Claude took Oscar to the backyard again and tried running through the basics of training. Words like sit, stay, lie down, followed by the actions and some treats as rewards. I don’t know if he learned anything, but he seemed happy to spend time with her.
Sal signed to Kira, “She’s here again?”
Kira nodded and signed back, “Just for the day. We picked her up this morning.”
“We found her a place,” I signed. “For her and her brother.”
“We hope it will work,” Kira added, signing fluidly.
“I’ll take her back this afternoon. I just thought she might like to come along and look at dogs.”
Yumi looked out into the yard at Claude, who was still trying to get Oscar to sit on cue.
“She’s a good kid, yes?” she asked quietly.
“She is,” I answered. “Her brother is a worry, but we’re working on him.”
“You two are good boys,” Yumi said. “Kira, you not work this afternoon?”
“No,” he said out loud. “I have all of today off. I’ll go and get a few things for Oscar and make sure he’s okay, then I’ll head down to the FC to pick up Matt. Dinner later, that’s my entire day. Why?”
“Oh, no reason. I just ask to be polite.”
Sal laughed. “She has folders of wedding stuff she wants to show you,” he signed.
“Oh, I’m not going through that by myself,” Kira said quickly. He looked a little scared. “Matt has to be there.”
Sal laughed again, and Yumi scowled. “It not bite you.”