Cassie shook her head. “Limited power, so tinkers are taking turns at the machine shop.”

“Oh,” I said. I approached the door, peeking around the corner.

Chicken Little, Darlene, Amias and Nicholas ran by, chased by a herd of puppies. They hopped up onto hay bales, Chicken helping Amias up, and the puppies were too small to follow. The kids hopped down and ran over to the next spot they could find high ground.

In the center of the horseless stables, there were plastic and metal containers that I was guessing the Patrol had brought over. The containers formed a walled in area with a layering of newspapers that had been soiled. Within the area were two chairs, a foot from one another. Candy and Kenzie sat facing one another, Candy’s legs were propped up on either side of Kenzie, heels resting on Kenzie’s seat. Candy’s legs formed walls while Kenzie’s lap and knees formed a floor. Three or four puppies, no more than two months old, were inside the de-facto basket of legs, fast asleep.

Rachel sat on the stacked containers, high above them. Her wolf, Yips, and two other dogs were on various levels of the stack.

I thought for a moment Kenzie might have nodded off too, but her hands moved, like she was going to touch a puppy, then stopped.

“Touch it,” Rachel said. “Touch heals, it comforts.”

“What if I break it?” Kenzie asked.

“I’d send my dogs after you, take you to pieces,” Rachel said. Then, softer, “You’d have to try to hurt them.”

Kenzie didn’t touch them.

“It was a part of my unofficial therapy,” Candy said, quiet. She stroked one pup. “I don’t like… liking things. It makes me nervous, like if I for-sure decide I like something it’s just going to be taken away, or used against me. Aunt Rachel made me take care of the puppies every day. Holding them and reading books to them.”

“While some of us picked up poo and carried around huge bags of dog food,” Darlene chimed in.

“But it worked,” Candy said, her tone bright. “And now I’m cured, I can say with an open and unguarded heart, Chicken Little, you are the love of my life!”

Chicken Little bumped into an annoyed-looking Darlene, while looking over at Candy. “You’re such a goof. Ow, frick, my ankles!”

The puppies were nipping.

“Don’t teach them bad habits,” Rachel ordered. “Make them stop and sit. Sitting is how they say please, and they have to say please to keep playing.”

Which distracted Darlene and Aiden with the task of getting eight or so puppies to cooperate.

“I ruin everything I like,” Kenzie said, quiet. “Because I like them too much.”

“You can’t like a dog too much,” Rachel said.