“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.

“I’m Jillian and this is Adam.”

Jillian was embarrassed because her hands were sweaty, she was so excited, but she had to shake this woman’s hand. If I pretend it’s not sweaty, then it won’t seem so sweaty, she thought.

Adam said hello but his attention was on the tv and the collection of videos underneath it. He didn’t recognize any of the titles, but he studied them anyway. He imagined the woman might invite him to watch a video and give him a sandwich, because most women wanted to do things like that for him.

“Let’s go out to the run,” said Emily.

Jillian’s heart was pounding, she couldn’t calm down. Who is this woman, what am I doing here? Ok, calm down, you know, it’ll be great.

The back door was off the kitchen. Jillian could see it from the living room because there was an open wall above one of the kitchen counters. They walked through the kitchen, which had several bowls of dog food and water on the floor on children’s place mats. The lower cabinets were held shut by rubber bands wrapped around the knobs. There was a loaf of bread on the counter. Emily opened the back door, turned and smiled at them and said, “This way.”