Harper (The K9 Files #19)(6)
Author: Dale Mayer

 

She shrugged. “I mean, we do have a male War Dog here, while the other is a female, and this one? Well, he’s pretty much a beast.”

 

“An injured, broken beast?”

 

“Definitely injured, broken maybe, but, just like the love story, if he could be with the love of his life, I think it would make a huge difference to him.”

 

At that, Harper nodded. “Badger told me not all that long ago about how we sometimes give dogs human qualities, maybe in a way to identify and to understand what they’re going through.”

 

“Absolutely, though it’s not always easy.”

 

“It’s easy enough to do. I just don’t know that it’s necessarily a good thing.”

 

Startled, she frowned and added, “It’s human nature too.”

 

“Yeah, that’s a whole different story.” He smiled. “Human nature tends to give us all kinds of excuses to become something that we aren’t.”

 

“That’s an odd thing to say.” She held open the door and said, “Follow me into the back room.”

 

He looked at her in surprise. “I figured that the vets here might have something to say about my coming in.”

 

“I am one of the vets here,” she noted calmly.

 

“Oh, sorry. I had no idea.”

 

“No, of course you didn’t, and I didn’t enlighten you.”

 

“Any particular reason?”

 

“Yeah, because I didn’t know who you were and what you were here for,” she stated immediately. “My interest is and always will be with the patients. In this case, the dogs. All animals are part of my world, and I admit that the animals here are very special.”

 

“It sounds like it,” he agreed, “and obviously they’re lucky to have you.”

 

She chuckled. “I’m not so sure they believe that at the moment. Maybe once they get out of here, it will be a different story.”

 

He walked into an industrial but very contemporary hallway, with rooms on either side. As he looked inside, he saw steel tables and high-end surgical equipment, all lined up for surgeries and procedures. “You guys really operate at the top level, don’t you?”

 

“The best in the country,” she declared, with a nod. “And that means constantly upgrading our training and learning new things.”

 

“Continuing education is a good thing,” Harper agreed. “I’m never against that.”

 

“No, I’m not either.” She smiled. “However, it does take a lot of energy, and there’s so much to learn that we can’t ever really let our knowledge slide.”

 

“No, I agree with you there,” he murmured. When they came to the area full of cages, he shared, “I never quite get used to seeing this many animals in cages.”

 

“We don’t like to cage any of them, but it’s too easy for them to hurt each other and themselves, by fighting their surroundings,” she noted. “So cages are still the best way to go, even if it does seem kind of Machiavellian.”

 

He laughed at that. “Ah, I guess it’s no different than my being drugged in the hospital. Maybe this is better. I don’t know.”

 

“Actually that’s true. At least this way, we don’t drug them quite so heavily, and we do try to get them out as often as we can, at least the ones that are able. We have lots of fields and trails, so we take them outside for walks, letting them move around a bit.”

 

“Good to hear. I’m amazed at the facility and the equipment you have available.”

 

“It’s a beautiful place to work,” she murmured. “We’ve been building it up and working at it for a long time now, at least a decade.”

 

“Is that how long you’ve been here?” He frowned at her. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you don’t look like you’re a day over twenty-five.”

 

Her laughter pealed out. “I don’t know if that was meant as a compliment or not, but I’ve crossed the thirty-year mark quite handily, so thanks,” she replied, with a rueful smile.

 

“You don’t look it, and I mean that. Maybe it’s the work. Maybe this kind of stuff keeps you young.”

 

“Maybe.” She led the way forward to the cages. At the far end in a large cage, she crouched and pointed. “This is Beast.”

 

As Harper looked at him, he realized why they called him that. “Poor guy.” He crouched beside her. “It almost seems cruel to call him that.”

 

“No, I don’t think so,” she said gently. “And I’m not sure whether our name for him is the same number of syllables as the name that he used to be called or what, but he responds to it very well.”

 

Even hearing her voice, the dog’s tail flapped a couple times, but he remained prone, with a brace on his back.

 

“Is that to keep his hips aligned?” Harper asked.

 

“Yes. Because he’s lying down as much as he is, until that leg heals, so that we can get a prosthetic on it, it’s easier to keep him slightly sedated. Yet, in order to keep his hips the way we need them, we keep that apparatus on.”

 

“Do you think he’ll make it?”

 

“He’ll only make it if his spirit picks up,” she declared. “Otherwise I don’t see how he can.”

 

 

 

Saffron tried hard not to let the sadness flow through her voice, but it was the truth. She didn’t know if Beast would pull through if he didn’t find something to care about again. That his partner, Beauty, wasn’t here with him broke Saffron’s heart. She’d seen pictures of Beauty and understood that the two of them had healed tremendously well together. Then, once they were separated when Beast had to return here, that had been the end point of healing for him. Saffron reached into the cage and gently stroked him behind the ear.

 

“I’ve put a lot of time and effort into keeping this dog alive,” she said. “It would break my heart to lose him now, after all this.”

 

“And yet,” Harper noted, “you sound like it’s a possibility.”

 

“Oh, it’s absolutely possible,” she confirmed. “I would hope it’s not imminent, and, if we can get the other War Dog here, maybe it will give Beast an incentive to fight for his life.”