She put Alexander on speaker while he droned on about losing his morning tennis match due to his elbow, and she told him he needed to see an orthopedist to get it checked out, all the while texting Magda, the Greenwich housekeeper, of her plans to stay in the city and asking to have her dogs driven down sometime tomorrow. Anna treated her two giant beasts like they were lapdogs and rarely traveled anywhere without them. This luxury was only available to her because her family had drivers and a private plane. And because her father doted on his only daughter. Anna’s love of all animals was something they had always shared.

It was her father who had given her her first Newfoundland puppy when she was only five years old. She had seen one in a painting at a museum in London and couldn’t believe it when her father said the giant creature she was pointing to was a dog. “He looks like the biggest stuffed animal in the store!” she cried with glee, which was a private joke between her and her father. He had told her whenever they went into a toy store she always managed to pick out the biggest and most expensive stuffed animal she could find saying, “I want that one.” And because her father indulged her every want, her bedroom in Greenwich now contained a dozen or more massive stuffed animals lined up along a side wall to guard her when she slept.

The Newfie pup was a very special belated birthday present that was given to her when her father missed her fifth birthday party because he was traveling in Asia on business. On his way back home, he had pit-stopped in Vermont at a Newfoundland breeder and picked out a ten-week-old puppy with a champion bloodline named Doozy. The giant black dog became her constant companion, even accompanying her to the stables, content to sleep in the hay during Anna’s daily riding lessons after school.

Doozy died two years ago, which was Anna’s first experience with heartbreak. And even though she now had two other Newfies, she still wasn’t over the pain of losing her first dog, which was probably why she had such a strong reaction to the dog’s death earlier this evening.

“Anna? Anna, are you still there?” Her boyfriend’s impatient voice snapped her back to reality.

“Yes, I’m here,” she dutifully replied. “Are you on Adderall? You know it makes you cranky when you take too much.”