“Whoa,” her mother said, laughing. “Turn Tiny out into the dog run, would you, sweetheart? He’s only two years old and has boundless energy.”
“Will do.” Ava reached for one of the many cheap, multi-colored leashes her parents hung on wall pegs around the kennels. The place was as full as Ava had ever seen it, and she hoped the Home for the Holidays event would help place many of the animals in loving homes.
She led Tiny to the dog run and released him into the enclosure, where he immediately started running around and around the pen as fast as his long legs would carry him.
Wow, she thought. He looks a lot like me when I first left Kringle, crazed with pent-up energy and so certain I was going somewhere when I just ran in circles.
Mom brought out Moses, and they let the two dogs romp for a while before returning them to their kennels. Next, they visited Juliet.
The little dog was curled in a ball on a blanket in the corner of her kennel, but when she saw Ava, her face lit up. She ran to the cage door, wriggling so vigorously it looked as if she’d topple right over.
“You have an admirer,” her mother murmured.
Ava opened the kennel and picked up Juliet. She had to admit, the little dog had wiggled her way into her heart.
“I think she and I have a special bond.” She looked at her mom.
“Too bad your nomadic lifestyle prevents you from adopting her.”
“No, but if you adopted her, I could see her every time I came home.”
“Sweetheart, do I need to remind you we’ve already adopted five dogs?”
“No.” Ava chuckled. “They all came in bouncing on my bed this morning.”
“My fault. I shouldn’t allow them on the furniture, but I can’t resist.” Laughing, her mother brushed dog hair off her sleeve. “I have too much love to give and it’s hard for me to get down on the floor and romp with them the way I used to romp with you.”
It had been fun growing up at the shelter. Because she’d always had so many animals around, she’d never felt the lack of siblings. She’d had an idyllic childhood, and her travels had only underscored how lucky she’d been to have such loving parents who’d always put her needs ahead of their own.
Ava gave Juliet a kiss on the top of her head. “I’ll be back soon.”
Juliet looked at Ava with solemn eyes and blinked twice, almost as if she understood the plan.
After they finished spending time with every animal, Ava and her mother headed to the office where her father was working on the computer.
He looked up and smiled as they entered the room. “So what’s the verdict? Do you think we can pull off this Home for the Holidays thing by next Friday?”
“Sure!” Ava said. “What’s the worst that can happen? No one shows up and we’re no worse off than we were before, minus the money I spent on advertising.”
Her parents looked at each other in that way that long-married couples did but they didn’t say a word.
“Here are the posters you asked me to print up.” Her father took a stack of papers off the full color printer and handed them to Ava.
She studied the poster she’d stayed up late to create.
They looked good if she did say so herself. She’d used Juliet’s picture popping from the Christmas stocking for the advertising. No way around it—Juliet looked cute as the dickens. Later, she would photograph all the pets at the shelter and make a similar poster for each one of them.
“She’s so darling,” her mother said. “Juliet looks amazing in this photograph! You’ve done a superb job with this, Ava.”
Ava had written a brief story to go along with the picture, explaining that Juliet was a cheerful, friendly dog who loved to help—hence her job as Santa’s elf. Juliet would fit in well in any home because she got along with children and pets alike.
The bottom part of the poster explained the goal of Home for the Holidays. They scheduled the big adoption event the day after the town’s parade, so that meant there would be plenty of people in town for the Christmas tree lighting festival. They encouraged folks to come sooner and qualify to adopt a new family member. Ava hoped the big push would help empty the shelter before Christmas. What a lofty goal.
“Let me see if I can place these posters around town.”
“Want me to help?” her mother asked.
Ava started to say yes, but she knew her mother well enough to spot a shift in tone. Her mother was sincerely offering to help, but she really didn’t want to.
“I’ve got this.”
“If you’re sure…” Her mother and father exchanged another cryptic look, and she couldn’t help wondering what they were thinking. Worried about their flighty daughter no doubt.
For the first time since she’d left home, Ava wondered if maybe their concerns about her future were valid.
The UPS truck disappeared out of sight just as Caleb realized one of the packages the driver had delivered was dog food destined for Kringle Kritters. It had gotten mixed in with his order of horse and cattle feed.
He could have one of his hands drive it over, but they were out mending fences and would be at it all day. No bother to hop into his truck and take it over to the Millers’. He wasn’t doing it in the hope of seeing Ava again. He was simply being neighborly.
Your nose will grow, Sutton, if you keep that up.
Not true. He would take the feed over whether Ava was there or not.
Yes, but you wouldn’t jump to it immediately.
Fine. Seeing Ava again had stirred old feelings, both good and bad. He’d spent a restless night thinking about her and wishing for things better not wished for. She was who she was. A free bird. And darn if he didn’t love that about her.
She was fearless. And even though her bravery scared him, he respected it. Respected her. How many other eighteen-year-old girls raised in a small rural town took off for adventure with only a talent for photography and an optimistic attitude that everything would work out as it should?
So many things could have gone wrong. He’d even made a list and given it to her before she took off. But she was fairy dusted and everything had worked out in her favor. Secretly, a part of himself that he wasn’t particularly proud of, had hoped she’d fall on her face and come running back home with her tail between her legs.
It had taken him a good year to shake off that wishful thinking and accept that she wasn’t coming back.
When he pulled up in front of the shelter, all three Millers were running around behind their main house. The gate to their backyard stood open.
A feeling of dread settled over Caleb. He knew trouble when he saw it. Once or twice in the past, the Millers’ pets had gotten out of the gate, usually because one of the volunteers had forgotten to shut the gate between the house and the shelter. If the dogs had taken off, they could end up anywhere on his ranch and he owned a couple of donkeys who were used to battling coyotes and were aggressive to canines.
Or worse, they could end up on the road.
Caleb parked and jumped from his truck. “What’s up?”
Ted rushed over to him. “I’d let the dogs out in the backyard when I came over to the shelter, and I guess my mind, my mind. I forgot to lock the gate behind me. I’m a feeble old sot.”