SIX

Jillian’s Saturday had been way different. She called Pups of Love at eight in the morning and the woman on the line was a lot nicer than the woman from the Humane Society. This new woman said they had tons of young dogs as well as puppies, too, who needed a home so badly that the price of adoption couldn’t be very high.

“I want one of the mothers,” said Jillian.

“Then you’re in luck,” said the woman.

Jillian and Adam ate breakfast in the car on the way to the rescue place. They got it at the Starbucks drive-through. Jillian got her favorite kind of Starbucks and a scone and Adam got a donut and cocoa. They listened to and sang along with one of Adam’s tapes for the first hour of the drive, then switched to one of Jillian’s tapes. She sang along to it while Adam said he had to pee. So far away, she thought, and tried to visualize herself not getting pulled over, haha, because that would not be a very good thing.

They drove until they came to the address, a ranch house with a big front yard. The gravel sounded under Jillian’s tires and she felt like a tv detective pulling up to the scene. Adam thrashed in his seat and Jillian smiled at him while she unbuckled his seat belt.

What are you thinking about? she wondered. Oh, well.

A woman opened the front door of the house and said, “Are you here for the dogs?”

“Yeah, hi. I think we talked on the phone.”

“You probably talked to our offices. I didn’t talk to anyone on the phone.”

“Ok,” said Jillian, but the woman was smiling so it was fine.

“There are so many dogs in this area that we all take turns fostering some of them. Come on in.”

“Oh, cool,” said Jillian. “I’d love to do something like this.”

She looked around the woman’s living room. It was carpeted and there were nice framed posters on the walls. The cream-colored leather couches were covered with blankets, and two dogs on the floor chewed rawhide bones.

The woman rolled her eyes and said, “Those things get so nasty.”

Jillian laughed and looked closer. The bones were dry and dirty on the bottoms, probably from the dogs’ paws, which held them pinned to the floor, and as she looked farther up the shafts of the toys she saw that the material became a lighter off-white color and then even farther up it was soft and foamy. The dogs worked the bones in semi-circles with their teeth, and a little bit of foam made of hide and spit dribbled from the dogs’ lips. The dogs didn’t look up at Jillian when she came near, they just gnawed their bones, breathing heavily, and making a rhythmic grinding sound.

“They’re so calm,” said Jillian.

“These are mine, Misty and Fancy Pants. See her pants?” The dog had darker fur on her hind legs that did look like pants. “They’re used to company. I’m Emily.” The woman held out her hand.