Page 92 of Friends That Heal Us
He puts his finger to his ear.
Soft whining sounds in the distance come up. I sit there quietly trying to pinpoint if what I’m hearing is what I think it is.
Is it an animal?
I get up from my desk and follow James into the back, where the bays are. I shush the other employees as we stand around trying to figure out where it’s coming from.
“I think it’s in the back,” I say, walking over to the back door. I swing it open, and the whining becomes louder.
James is right behind me, so I put up my arm to stop him from moving. We stand quietly.
“It’s coming from the dumpster,” James whispers.
I get closer to the dumpster, but nothing is in front of it, so I walk behind it and see a German shepherd lying on the ground while she feeds her puppies.
“What the fuck.”
The rest of the guys come around, and I hear gasps as they see what we’re looking at.
“Fuck,” I whisper. I run my hand through my hair in frustration because I think someone dumped them.
It’s so common for people to breed their dogs and then have trouble selling the pups. So they end up getting dumped. The temperature has been dropping at night. They weren’t here yesterday, so someone must have dumped them last night. But German shepherds are a popular breed, so I wonder what happened. Whatever it was, no animal deserves this.
The mother gets up, hovering over her pups as some of them still cling to her.
“Hey, can you all go back inside so we don’t scare her?”
As they shuffle back inside, the mother’s nerves clearly ease up.
“Do you want to find some water for them?” I ask James.
“Sure.”
I reach my hand out slowly. “Hey, girl, it’s okay. I won’t hurt you.” She slowly walks closer to me with her head tilted down a little. She reaches for my hand and sniffs me out. I give it a minute before I reach further in and pet her on the top of her head. I count six puppies as I rub her head. Hopefully, none wandered off. It seems like none did, because all of them move to stay close to her.
I slowly reach my hand down and pet one pup, making sure the mom is okay with it. When I notice she doesn’t seem like I’ll harm them, I reach both hands down, petting the pups that have come up around my feet.
James comes up behind me, sets down a bowl, and pours bottled water in it. The swish of the water makes the mom rush over to the water.
“It looks like some bastard dumped them,” James says, sitting down next to the pups.
“Yeah, I think they were. Let’s get them inside.”
The front door of the shop opens, and when I see a couple of ladies enter, I stand from my desk and walk to my office door to greet them. “Can I help you?”
“Yes, we got a call about some dogs that were dumped.”
“Ah, yes. They’re back here,” I say, motioning them to follow me.
After getting them all inside, I called the local animal control, and they said they would send someone over to pick them up.The mom quickly fell asleep when I laid my coat on the ground for her to lie on. Poor thing was probably up all night protecting her pups.
One of the women squats down close to the mother, and offers a quiet greeting and a hand for her to smell.
I watch as they do an initial check over all of them.
“What’s going to happen to them?” I ask.
“Someone most likely dumped them. By state law, we have to hold them for five days and see if anyone claims them.”
