Chapter 5

The next day was a confusion of activity. Mainly just folks were stopping by to say goodbye and to exchange contact information. I made sure to get Marsha’s recipe for scrapple, two copies. One for Mabel, the other for myself. I was also able to pry a copy of Bruce’s apple pie recipe from him. I had never had a use for ‘Everclear.’ But now I was going have to stock up. Or find a moonshiner.

One of the things that I had feared was realized. When Donny found out that his newest, bestest, friend in the entire world was going away, his little heart was broke. The poor kid went through the grief stages 3 or 4 times. He was a trooper, though. He didn’t throw a tantrum or whine. Quietly crying, however, was definitely on the menu.

That was when I realized what the problem really was. Even though he had a loving family, mom, and dad, brother and sisters, ranch hands, and animals galore, he had no friends. When Shadow showed up, here was a warm, friendly, and cuddly buddy. Willing to jump and run and roll around in the hay.

It damn near broke my heart, and I blamed myself. I could have stopped this at the very beginning. Calling Shadow out and stopping the playtime. But what was done was done. I called Bruce over, and he was well aware of the problem.

“Bruce, I know this isn’t an immediate solution, but I think it’ll probably work out for the best. Here is the name and phone number of a dog trainer I know in Washington. He’s the guy I got Shadow from. Give him a call, tell him you’re a friend of mine, and he’ll set something up with you. My suggestion is that you take Donny with you when you go to pick up the dog. Take the time to do a little extra daddy-son bonding. It’ll take a week or two of training for both Donny and the dog he picks out. But it’ll be worth it in the long run.”

“Damn Matt, you are putting quite a burden on me. You’re suggesting I leave this place unsupervised for two weeks?”

“Your call Bruce, but there may be another solution. Why don’t you invite Mr. Curran down here? You’re almost set up as a dude ranch already. Have him look around, feed him some good old fashioned country food, and bomb him with your apple pie? You might be surprised.

Then I called Donny over. I sat down on the ground to be closer to his eye level. I called Shadow over and gave him a heel and sit command. He left Donny and sat down on my right side. I reached over and gave him a good ear rub. “Donny, I know you’re upset. And there probably isn’t anything I can say right now that’ll make it better. But I know that you know that Shadow is my dog. He’s my best friend, and I’m his. You understand this?”

Donny stood there, scuffing his toes in the dirt. “Yes sir, it’s just that I was kinda hopein’ that I could make a deal with you. But that ain’t gonna work, is it?”

“No, son, it wouldn’t be fair to Shadow. But I talked to your dad. I think you can probably count on a birthday or Christmas gift that you’ll like.

I saw a gleam of hope in his eyes. “But there will probably be conditions. Conditions that you will have to fill. Things like feeding and walking and cleaning up after. You’ll also need to train it. You can’t have an undisciplined dog running around. These things will be up to you. You assume a responsibility when you adopt a pet.”

I could see a little hint of steel in his eyes. All of a sudden, I was feeling very confident that this youngster was becoming a young man in front of me. I held out my hand, “Deal, Mr. Taggart?”

With all the solemnity of a diplomat, he gripped my hand and shook it. “Deal, Mr. Reynolds”

The rest of the morning was spent loading the truck and putting Suzy’s horse in the trailer, which was surprisingly easy. He went in with nary a neigh and barely a buck.

Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.