Chapter 1
Lacey
“OKAY, BENJI, IF YOU stand up, I’ll have a look at the underside of your tail.” I nudged the backside of the rusty-coloured mongrel, and Benji huffed, looking over his shoulder at me with big doleful eyes, indicating he was not impressed at being poked and prodded. As a vet, I was on the receiving end of this look regularly, but it never failed to hurt my feelings. I was doing these animals a favour, and they thought I was the enemy.
“Come on, boy. This will soon be over,” I said, using my most soothing voice.
Miss Brown, his owner, frowned. “I’m sure it’s nothing that medicated shampoo can’t fix. I can get some from the big pet shop at the retail park.”
Taking the hint from me pressing on his rear, Benji stood up, but he still refused to lift his tail. I managed to raise it enough to see the red and broken skin on his backside, suggesting he needed much more than cheap, medicated shampoo.
I was still inches from the dog’s backside when a puff of air broke the silence, and the unmistakeable smell of a doggy fart permeated the atmosphere. Miss Brown hid her head in her hands and groaned. While my instinct was to make a face and move away from the offensively-arsed dog, I put on my game face and smiled. I was used to it, and Benji needed help. I could be a professional in the face of a dog breaking wind.
“Benji has an allergy,” I said. “It’s probably something in his food, but it may be dust or something else. I’m going to give you a special shampoo and suggest a special diet for ...”
Miss Brown raised her head from her hands, tears brimming in her eyes. She bit her lip and gazed at the window. The frosted glass stopped her from seeing out onto the quiet city street, yet she stared anyway.
“How much to have him put to sleep?” she asked.
“Euthanised? Miss Brown, he’s healthy. It’s just an allergy. With the right care and attention, it ...”
“I can’t afford it.” She stared at me. A solitary tear slipped down her cheek, and she swiped it away. “Ms Kendrick, you may have a well-paying job, but some of us are on zero hours contracts. Some weeks I get twelve hours of work. If I have a bad migraine and can’t go in, they cut my hours even more. That’s what it’s like for some of us. Sometimes I feed him while I go without.” She motioned me away from the dog as if to spare her beloved pet from hearing this uncomfortable conversation and I moved willingly. “You’re clearly not stupid. If I take him to the cat and dog home, no one is going to take him on if he needs a special diet. They’ll put him down anyway. I ... I’d rather not put him through that. I’d rather he died in my arms.”
Tears streamed down her face, and I swallowed hard. She was right about the cat and dog home. They were fantastic, but they would struggle to rehome a dog with special food and hygiene requirements.
“Are you on any benefits?” I asked.
“No. It’s complicated if you’re single and have a job where your pay goes up and down. I manage, but only just.”
I nodded my understanding. “Wait here for a moment.”
Giving her Benji’s leash, I patted her awkwardly on the arm and went to the storeroom in the hallway. I grabbed a large bag of hypoallergenic food and a bottle of the shampoo I recommended and headed back into my surgery.
Miss Brown furrowed her brow. “I said ...”
“Let’s see if it works. Some customers make donations to help those who can’t pay their vet bills. It’s put in a kitty and we keep it for times like these. Come back and see me in two weeks, and we’ll see how Benji is doing. If he’s no better, we’ll look into other reasons for his skin flaring up.”
“I don’t want charity,” she protested as I handed her the bag of food and bottle of shampoo.
“This is for Benji.” I tried not to grind my teeth, and turned my attention to the dog instead, offering him a treat and stroking the soft fur on his head. “I don’t want to put a healthy dog down. We may easily get on top of this, and he’ll be able to return to his previous diet. Try this for two weeks, then we can go from there.” And tonight, I would go home and research the cheapest hypoallergenic dog food on the market.
Miss Brown nodded. “Okay, but only for Benji.”
“Do you need me to drop the food off at your place in the car tonight?” I asked, noticing she was struggling under the weight of the bag.
“No, it’s fine. I’m strong.”
I smiled. I wasn’t going to take her independence away. She’d already left some of her dignity in my surgery by accepting charity, but only she and I knew that. This was the bit I hated about my job—the fact I had to charge people for caring for their beloved pets. It wouldn’t be any better than asking people to cough up the funds as they wheeled their grandma out of the hospital. Of course, in some countries that was what happened, but in Scotland human medicine was free at the point of delivery. Sadly, it wasn’t the case for our furry and scaly babies.
I rubbed Benji behind the ears and helped him onto the floor. Holding the door open for them both, I followed Miss Brown out of my surgery to the waiting area and shook my head at Annie, the receptionist, as we passed so she knew not to pull up Miss Brown’s file and ask her to pay.
We both watched Miss Brown and Benji leave. The second the door closed behind them, Annie shoved me back towards my surgery and handed me my next lot of case notes. “You did it again, didn’t you?”
“What?”
“You’re paying for that dog’s treatment,” she said. “The partners are going to lose their shit with you.”
“It’s being paid for. Who pays for it is none of their concern.”
“You’re a big softie,” she said, but I knew she liked that I was such a pushover when it came to animals. She was in the field of work for the love of animals as much as I was.
I walked back out into the waiting room, glanced down at my notes and called out my next patient’s name. “Rover.”
I expected to see an Alsatian or an Irish wolfhound. When a chihuahua was carried over to me, under the arm of a burly looking man who looked like he belonged on a building site, I had to hide my shock by opening Rover’s notes and pretending to look for something. Once I had schooled my expression, I looked up and smiled politely.
“Hi Rover. Let’s get you inside and we’ll have a look at you.” I nodded to his owner. “Hi Mr Jones.”
Today was turning out to be an interesting day at the office.
Chapter 2
Rory
I COULD TELL THE MOMENT Calum Morris walked into my classroom he was not in a good mood and it was going to be one of those periods for him. I saw a lot of my younger self in Calum. I’d been a tearaway and was often in trouble at the age of thirteen, at least until a French teacher who was young, enthusiastic, had a sharp sense of humour, and also coached the boys field hockey team became my hero. He took no prisoners, yet he also took the time to get to know me and understand me. If anyone asked me who my favourite teacher was, I’d always say Mr Hamilton.
As I led the class through the fun part of the French lesson, Calum became more and more disruptive, shouting out wrong and rude answers to make his classmates laugh.