Chapter 55

Laurie held on tight as we got out of the car and walked up to the strange house. Let's face it, she's just three years old. She probably didn't understand half of the discussion about a caretaker and now she was being delivered to a strange house.

Eric opened the door and started when he saw Wanda. "Oh, Hi."

"Hi, Eric. This is John. This is his daughter Jill and her sister Laurie."

You have to admire the guy. I expected him to say 'Huh?' after that mouthful but he just nodded to all of us and shook Daddy's hand.

Daddy said, "We're here to see the 'you know whats'." He nodded slightly in Laurie's direction.

Eric stepped out on the porch and pulled the door shut behind him. "Follow me. They're out back."

We went through a gate, past the side of the house and into the back yard. A golden retriever raised her head and thumped her tail a couple of times, then, seeing we looked safe enough, put her head back down. Laurie perked up a bit when she saw the golden but held on a little tighter when everybody walked by her.

There was a wall of concrete blocks in the middle of the yard. As we got closer, I could see it was more like a rectangle, three blocks high. I could see that there were some old blankets on the ground and something sort of wiggling around inside. The blocks were about as high as Laurie's chin, so she had no idea what the deal was.

Eric said, "They're in here," pointing toward the improvised shelter.

I stopped and looked at Laurie. "Come up here a minute." I picked her up, planting her crotch on my hip.

She looked like she was ready to panic. I realized that our effort to surprise her had practically scared her to death.

"Look," I said, pointing.

She turned her head, the puppies saw us and the noise started. It's hard to say if the whimpering and yipping started before Laurie's cry of "Puppies!" or not. I'm willing to concede a tie. It's a good thing I had a grip on her because she started squirming about the same time as they did.

"Hang on, hang on. Let me lift you over so you can play with them."

I lowered her in and the next thing you know, she was deluged with puppy.

I have to hand it to her. They knocked her down and they climbed all over her and she didn't freak. She just giggled and tried to pet them and cover her face when it seemed like they were attempting to lick the skin off.

After a couple of minutes I lifted her up to her knees. She immediately squatted down and ended up sitting on her calves. A couple of them grew bored with her and started wrestling with each other, then growling as they each attempted to pull a section of the blanket away from the other. Two licked her hands and nuzzled her for attention. The last dog tried her best to scramble up Laurie's body. Laurie picked her up, which was no easy feat. These pups were about the size of a five pound bag of sugar and this little lady was wriggling and squirming, fighting Laurie every step of the way as Laurie was trying to do exactly what the dog was — lift her up to her face. They finally got it worked out and Laurie got licked to death before she pulled the dog into her and snuggled her face into the puppy's side.

Daddy and Wanda were grinning at each other like they'd just invented sex.

"What did I tell you?" I said to Wanda.

"You said she'd pick one."

Daddy said, "Looks like the dog chose her. Would you like to take that puppy home with us, Laurie?"

She pulled her closer still and said, "Uh huh."

Daddy said, "Come on, let's get you out of there."

He reached in and got hold of her sides, just under the armpits. He did it from behind because a good third of her front was covered in puppy.

He set her down.

Wanda said, "Let him down and see what he does."

Eric and I both said "Her" at the same time.

"Well, I didn't know."

Daddy leaned over and whispered something in Wanda's ear and she turned red.

The puppy was sniffing around a bit, not used to being on the grass.

I said to Laurie, "Are you sure this is the one you want?"

"Uh huh."

"OK. She's going to be your dog. That means you have to learn how to feed her and make sure she gets fed and that she always has plenty of water to drink."

"I can do that. I'll give her lots and lots of food."

"You can't give her too much food or she'll get sick. You have to learn how much so she has enough to eat but not too much."

"How much is that?"

"I'm sure your Daddy John and Mama Wanda are going to get some puppy food for her. When you get home, they can show you how much."

"OK."

"You're going to have to take her outside when she needs to go to the bathroom and take her on walks and play with her. You're going to have to teach her not to chew on things and to keep off the furniture and not to jump all over people. You see that dog over there?"

"Uh huh."

"That's her mother. So when she grows up, she'll probably be about that big. You wouldn't want a dog like that jumping on you, would you?"

"Uh uh."

"Good. You know what else you have to do?"

"No."

"You have to give her a name."

"Posie."

"You like that name, huh?"

"Yes."

"OK. Go over there and call her so she gets used to her name."

Laurie went over near the mother and bent down. "Here Posie." She clapped her hands. "Here, Posie."

Posie perked up and stumbled over to her, almost tripping over herself a couple of times. I think she responded to the voice and the clapping more than the name but she'd learn.

I said to Eric, "What's the mother's name?"

"Lady."

I reached down and scratched behind her ears. She sighed and closed her eyes, lapping up the attention.

"Hi, Lady. Whatsamatter girl, are your babies wearing you out? Can Laurie take this little girl home with her? She'll take real good care of her."

Laurie looked at the big dog. "I will. I'll feed her and play with her and teach her and everything."

"Scratch her behind the ear like I showed you, Laurie."

"Is this a dog I know?"

I smiled. "Sure. Laurie, this is Lady. She's your new puppy's mommy."

Laurie squatted down and scratched. Posie came up to investigate and got licked for her curiosity.

Eric brought over a big plastic freezer bag filled with puppy chow and handed it to Wanda. "This should keep you for a couple of days. We've just been making sure they have plenty of food and water but you should probably find out how much they really need. I know they're supposed to eat a couple of times a day when they're young."

He looked at both Daddy and Wanda. "We got all their shots a couple of weeks ago. They'll be eight weeks old on Saturday. They're supposed to go back to the vet at three months so that's about another month."

Daddy said, "Shots and all that food. Can't be cheap. How much do we owe you?"

"Oh, don't worry about it. It's not like they're purebreds or anything."

Laurie was giggling, chasing Posie around the yard. Daddy looked at her and said, "She doesn't need to be a purebred. Look at the two of them. You put your time and money into raising all of them. It's not fair for me to just take this one away from you without giving you something in return." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a hundred. "Thank you, Eric. If I run across anyone else looking for a puppy, I'll be sure to send them over to you."

Eric took the money and shook Daddy's hand. "You're welcome,..."

"John."

"John. And thank you."

Daddy let go of his hand and said, "Sure thing. Come on, Laurie. See if you can get Posie to follow you out to the car."

She giggled, "OK Daddy. Posie. Posie. Come on, Girl."

She took off towards the front and Posie scampered after her.

Daddy looked at the two of us. "Did you hear what she called me?"

I said, "Daddy. It's a lot easier than Daddy John. What are you going to do when she starts calling you Mama, Wanda?"

"I don't know."

"Well, you better figure it out because it's going to happen. Probably real soon. She really needs a family to belong to and you two seem to be the most likely choices."

Wanda said, "What about you?"

"Me? I'm her big sister, her buddy. I'll probably end up being her hero because I have all the answers she's looking for. I'll teach her what to do when the boys make fun of her and about blow jobs when she's ready. That's a big enough responsibility without being turned into a parent. Plus, what would people think if Daddy and I were mommy and daddy to her."

Daddy snorted. "I don't want to think about it."

We got out front and I had to warn Laurie about keeping Posie out of the street.

"You've got to watch out for her and make sure she doesn't get hurt."

"OK."

Daddy opened the trunk and I got the box out. Posie went in on top of the blankets and was put on the back seat between Laurie and me. It took both of us to keep her from jumping out for a couple of minutes and then she settled down. They were both out for the count when we turned the corner to my street. It didn't last long. Posie woke up and started looking around as soon as Daddy slowed down to park the car.

"Wanda. You're going to have to ride back here on the way home. Otherwise Posie's going to get loose and who knows what trouble she'll get into."

"I can hold the box on my lap up here"

"And what are you going to do if Laurie wakes up and wants her puppy?"

Wanda got out and took my place. I stood on the sidewalk with the door open.

"It looks like these two were made for each other. I can tell Posie is going to be just as curious as Laurie is. You need to let them sleep together or you're going to be kept up all night by a crying puppy. Let Laurie sleep in a sleeping bag on the TV room floor. That way you won't have to worry about carpet getting stained. Put some newspapers on the floor for Posie. Sometimes females are clean enough that they'll use them. I'd also feed her a little and let her have some water, then take her out next to the garage for a while and see if she'll go out there. If Laurie's awake, take her out with you and let her know what you're doing."

Daddy said, "I have had dogs before, Jillian."

"Not when I was alive. Oh, Wanda. You know you're going to have to bring both of them over here tomorrow, don't you?"

"I hadn't thought about it."

"Well, you need to or she's going to disturb the neighbors all day while you're at school. You should also bring some clothes over in case there's an accident. Laurie may want to stay over once in a while, too. She can sleep in Jack's old room or on our couch. That'll give you two some time together."

I could see Wanda liked that idea as I closed the door. Just as they started off, I yelled, "Don't forget her food tomorrow."

Daddy made a U-turn, stopped and stuck his head out of the window. "Are you sure you don't want to come over and supervise to make sure we don't screw things up?"

"That's OK, Daddy. If you screw things up, you can fix them."

I went in the kitchen to find Mom. "What were you yelling about them bringing food? We can feed her."

"Wrong her. You're going to have two little ladies tomorrow — Laurie and Posie."

"Laurie I know. Who's Posie?"

"Posie is Laurie's new puppy. She's a golden retriever, shepherd mix. She looks like a dark-haired golden retriever with a long nose. She's adorable."

By this time Mary and Charlie were in the hallway, outside the door. Charlie said, "Eric was able to fix you up, huh?"

"Yeah. We didn't tell her what was going on so we could surprise her. Poor kid. I think she thought we took her over there to leave her. Then she saw the puppies and that was it. I put her in with them and they crawled all over her. I don't know who was having more fun, Laurie or the puppies. I finally got her up on her knees and two of them found something else to do, two were paying a little attention to her but the one she brought home was trying to crawl up her body. Her name is Posie and Laurie has promised to take care of her."

Mary said, "I'm sure that going to happen."

Mom said, "I could say some things but I won't."

Mary said, "Hey, I never asked for Dino. Jackie just came in and threw him at me when I couldn't even defend myself and I've been stuck with him ever since."