Wishing for Wonderful (Serendipity #3)(53)

Dear Doctor Mead,





I am responding to a notice you posted on the Tiny Treasures website. I think we have the dog you are looking for. Three weeks ago a dog matching this description showed up in our backyard. I thought it most likely belonged to someone in our area, but after two weeks of advertising in the newspaper and putting posters in store windows no one has called to claim her. Yesterday we took the dog to our vet for a checkup and discovered that she has a microchip implant with the Kindness Animal Clinic listed as owner. The address indicates that you are in New Jersey. We are located in Florida, and I am uncertain as to how best to get this dog back to you. Please advise.





Jayne Rayner –

A photo of the dog is attached.





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At first Matthew thought the e-mail was a hoax, a cruel joke maybe. He sat there and reread the words four times before he could come to believe it was true. A fairly practical man, he kept asking himself how Kindness could be listed as the owner. Was it possible Lindsay found the dog and put the chip in? No, not possible. She’d have said something.

After nearly a half hour of wondering how this had happened, he came to accept that there was no explanation. The picture of the dog was exactly the same as the one Lindsay tacked onto the bulletin board. Finding the dog was as unexplainable as a crocus popping up from beneath the snow or a rainbow on a clear day.

Carefully measuring the weight of each word, Matthew responded to the e-mail.





Dear Ms. Rayner,





I am delighted to learn that your vet discovered the microchip in…

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He hesitated a moment then typed in the name “Fluffy.” The woman inferred the dog was a female—the e-mail read “took her to the vet”, “she had a microchip”—but it was probably best to use a generic name good for either male or female.

He started typing again.

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I am delighted to learn that your vet discovered the microchip in Fluffy. My fiancée has been searching for her for well over a month, and this will most certainly be welcome news. If you will send me the name of the vet you work with, I can arrange for them to crate and ship the dog to me. To thank you for taking such good care of Fluffy, I’d like to send you a token of my appreciation, so please also include your address.

Sincerely yours,

Matthew Mead

_____________________________________





He pressed Send. I knew exactly what he was thinking. Nowhere in the e-mail had he actually lied—well, with the single exception of giving Fluffy a name. He had not said send her “home,” nor had he said it was his dog or Lindsay’s dog. He had simply said they’d been searching for her. Okay, he did call Lindsay his fiancée and that was a stretch, but perhaps in time…

For once Lindsay is right. This one is a man with principles.

I watched as Matthew leaned back in his chair and began waiting. That day he checked his e-mail seventeen times. He found plenty of messages: dog food specials, breeder notices, volunteer requests. Everything but an answer from Jayne Rayner.

Later that night as he sat on the sofa alongside of Lindsay, I knew it was all he could do not to mention the e-mail. He was afraid there was a remote chance it wouldn’t work out. I can assure you it will, but you’ll have to wait to learn about Matthew’s plan.

The next morning Matthew arrived at the office a full hour earlier than was necessary. He walked through the front door, straight back to his office and immediately switched on the computer. As he sat there waiting, it seemed to take forever for the computer to boot. When at long last the screen came to life, he clicked the “Get Mail” shortcut and began to scan the list. It was third from the bottom.





Dear Doctor Mead,





As per your request, the name and address of our vet is Herman Goodman, 467 Main Street, Stuart, Florida. Doctor Goodman’s telephone number is 772-894-7867. After you have made arrangements with him, please let me know and I will take Fluffy to his office.

She is such a sweetie, Gerald and I will be sad to see her go.

As for your generous offer of a reward, please be assured that none is necessary. Having Fluffy with us for the past month has been reward enough.

Yours truly, Jayne Rayner





A wave of guilt passed over Matthew, because he knew he was taking the dog from someone who had obviously become fond of her. The guilt came and went in less than thirty seconds, and before Matthew’s first appointment walked through the door he’d spoken to Herman Goodman and made the necessary arrangements to have the dog crated and shipped to the Philadelphia airport.

Throughout the remainder of that day and for the week following, Matthew walked around with a smile stuck on his face. And as if that weren’t enough, he bought five huge red poinsettias and placed them all over the reception room. Before the calendar was flipped to December, he began wishing everyone he met a Merry Christmas.

“Aren’t you a little early?” Mary Ellen McNamara said, but Matthew just smiled and handed her bulldog a free chew toy.