Leave a Trail (Signal Bend #7)(81)
They were both tired, but Adrienne was still riding a high of puppy love and in a great mood. Badger took his energy from that.
At the earliest opportunity that it would not be deadly to call Isaac with anything other than an emergency, he let his President know about the new clubhouse residents. Then he called Delia Borden, the local vet, who made house calls as a matter of course, since most of her patients were livestock. By the time she got there, the entire club was in the Hall, including families. There was an air of celebration in the room.
The kids were over the moon—and the puppies were, too. They might have been dumped on the side of the road, but they’d landed on a cloud.
Delia checked them all over, estimated their age at eight weeks, did all the basic medical stuff they needed. With a portable scale she’d brought in with her, she weighed them all. The alpha came in at just over thirteen pounds. Delia muttered, “This one’s gonna be a beast.” The little girl was just under seven pounds. The other three were clustered around ten.
When she was done, Delia turned to Isaac, even though it was Badger who’d called and was more or less in charge of the pups. Isaac was the leader, period. “Other than the usual stuff of an unwanted litter— worms, fleas, that stuff—these guys are fit as fiddles, Ike. They are gonna be big ‘uns. I’d say the biggest will top a hundred pounds easy before he’s done. Maybe most of ‘em will.”
Isaac had the alpha in his arms. Without any prompting or suggestion from Badger or Adrienne, he had gravitated to that pup, and vice versa. He turned the pup’s head up to face him. “What breeds are in here?”
“Oh, they’re mutts, through and through. Mutts are good dogs, though. I’m seeing Shep, some Rotty or maybe Bull as the dominant features. They’ll need strong hands. These won’t be the kind of dogs that piddle when they’re barked at. More like bark back. Or bite, unless they’re trained.” She looked around the room. “I guess you got a full supply of strong hands around here. You keeping ‘em?”
Isaac’s eyes followed the same path that Delia’s had. Badger looked, too. There was a lightness to the Hall that had been so long away it seemed alien. Children and old ladies laughing, puppies bumbling around, wrestling and playing. Gia was trying to lift one of the pups into Millie’s carrier seat to show it to her. Bo was crawling around barking, and Loki crawled along with him, trying to imitate him.
The Horde, too, were caught in the happy haze of puppy love. Grins all around. Even Nolan was laughing, his eyes on Loki and Bo.
With a laugh, Isaac turned back to Delia. “Yeah, I think we are.” He put his big hand on the alpha’s head and gave it a gentle shake, then set him down. The pup went off into the fray.
After Delia packed up and left, the Horde clustered loosely near the bar and watched the goings-on around the pups. It was still well before noon; the club girls had been sent home, and most of the adults were drinking coffee. Zeke, Double A, and Tommy had beer.
Isaac poured himself another cup of black coffee and took a sip. Standing behind the bar, he said, “It’s good we’re all here. We needed to meet anyway. Got a lot of news coming in since last night. But it can wait a minute. There enough of us want a pup?” He was watching the alpha pup pulling on Bo’s shoestrings. Bo sat on the floor, trying to take his shoe off. Badger assumed he intended to hand the shoe over, but then Lilli was there, taking his shoes off and away, safe from puppy teeth.
As he walked around to the front of the bar, Isaac said, “I’ll take the big one—with the white feet. Make a good guard for the kids.”
Badger already knew which one he and Adrienne wanted. “We’ll take the black and grey one, with the blue eyes.” Adrienne had already named him: Hector. He had no idea why, but she was adamant, and he thought it was a good, strong name.
“I want the girl. I like my girls,” said Len, who then called out, “Nolan! You want a pup?”
Nolan looked over at his mom. Cory cocked her head for a second, and then nodded. He turned back to Len with a genuine smile—those were rare on Nolan’s face anymore. “Yeah. Which one?”
“How about the one with a mouthful of Loki’s Pamper?” Laughter made Isaac’s voice light. Everybody looked over to see the blond pup, his mouth locked onto Loki’s denim-and-diaper-clad bottom, dragging Nolan’s brother down to the floor. Loki turned and yanked on the pup’s ear.
Cory separated the two, then lifted them both into her arms. She looked at Nolan and shrugged. “Why not?”
Only one pup was left unclaimed, but Show spoke up. “I’ll take the big red boy, then. Dog’ll be good for the kids. Always wanted the girls to have one.”
Gia came over with her little yellow backpack in her fist. “Look, Daddy.” Isaac put his mug down and picked her up, setting her on a barstool.
“What you got, squirt?”
Gia tucked her long, chestnut hair, which was very wavy and always working itself loose of whatever ties Lilli had forced it into, behind her ears. Then, with studious care, she opened her backpack and pulled out a picture book. Badger checked out the cover: Forest Creatures of North America. It looked like a library book.
“I can’t read to you right now, G. Sorry. Later, though.”
Gia sighed, and its tone spoke of her disappointment with her father’s intellect. “No, Daddy. I’ll read it.