11. 11
11
Chastity wandered through the double doors of the animal shelter. The familiar barks and meows greeted her as she approached the front desk. Behind the counter, the reception chair was empty. Rodney had probably gone out for his morning Starbucks run.
Chastity signed in on the clipboard, tossed it back onto the countertop, and headed into the back room, looking both ways down the long perpendicular corridors. She turned toward the path to the canine kennels, the cacophony of barks drowning out any intrusive thoughts in her head. She shouldered a lumpy tote bag sporting the image of a duck with stuffed feet dangling from the bottom seam, kicking her softly in the thigh with every step.
She walked past each wire-front kennel, petting dogs through the metal. She reached into her bag and handed a small biscuit to each. She greeted them by the name on their white info cards before halting in the middle of the last row. She stood still, staring at the beautiful animal inside, a Mastiff. Its large, walnut-colored eyes stared back at her distrustfully from the far corner of the enclosure.
The other dogs hopped against their chain-link doors, but something about this quiet, brindle beast called out to her.
The Mastiff’s door was marked with a red slip of paper with the dog’s information. She read it carefully.
Name: Molly
Breed: Mastiff mix
Sex: Spayed female
Age: approx. three
Good with children: no
Good with dogs: no, but does well with cats.
Notes: Shy on first meeting. Recent surgery. Do not pet. Use caution. Aggressive .
She kneeled next to the cage and held her hand at the chain link so the animal could scent her. Molly sniffed the air and turned away, squeezing tighter into her corner.
“You frightened, girl? You don’t have to be. I’m… a lot of things, but scary isn’t one of them,” Chastity cooed.
Molly didn’t move.
Chastity looked around, scanning to see if the coast was still clear of Rodney or any of the others. Before she’d left for college, when she had volunteered previously, she’d been warned repeatedly not to enter the cages of the animals marked as aggressive. It was dangerous and reckless, a liability for the shelter. But, stubbornly, Chastity often did it anyway.
At one point, Rodney had even threatened to have her removed from the volunteer list permanently, but in such a small town with such a minuscule budget, the place was too desperate for unpaid help to effectively ban anyone who wanted to share the workload.
Lifting the latch, Chastity stepped inside Molly’s kennel, closing the gate behind her. The Mastiff watched, cowering, ears raised at the sight of her small space being invaded.
Chastity slunk down to the floor near the door, ignoring the overpowering stench of urine and bleach in the air. She grabbed another biscuit from her bag and offered it, but Molly turned away.
Chastity slowly set it on the floor between them, watching the dog flinch as she leaned closer. Molly’s lip twitched as though she might bare her teeth but decided against it.
“I’m gonna leave that for you. For later. I’m Chastity. It’s nice to meet you, Molly. Although full disclosure, there’s not really an animal I’ve met and didn’t like.” She glanced at the untouched treat and then back at the Mastiff.
“You seem to have a bad reputation.” She smirked. “Me, too.”
The dog’s eyes finally met hers.
“Bite-risk, huh? Did you have a bad day? It happens. Or was it the volunteer? You know, some of these people are just here for court-ordered community service,” she said bitterly. “Not me. I’m here because I want to be around you guys. It makes me happy.”
She pointed at the paper zip-tied to the other side of the gate. “That thing doesn’t tell me what makes you happy. Or what your favorite toy is. Or if you’re secretly a cuddle bug. Your existence has been boiled down to a few words. Now everyone thinks they know you and that they can judge you on those words. Hell, I can relate.”
Molly eyed the treat again and thought better of it. Instead, she walked in a half-circle, looking for a place to lie down. It was only then that Chastity saw that the huge animal only had three legs, each attached to a snow-white paw. Finally, the dog collapsed into a furry mound on an old, rectangular dog bed and sighed.
Chastity relaxed, looking at the clear amputation scar a few inches below one of Molly’s hip bones, reddened stitches irritated. Molly turned her head, flapped her jowls with a few lazy chomps, and rested her chin on her front paws, warm eyes still staring.
“We scary ladies are the ones who need love the most, aren’t we, girl?”
The dog let out a snort as if to somehow agree.
Chastity smiled and pulled a book slowly from her bag. “Mind if I read to you?”
Silence.
“Great. I hope you are a fan of paranormal romance. If you’re not, just give me a sign, okay?”
Molly just stared at her from the dog bed, occasionally eyeing the treat between them.
“This one’s about two orcs who hate each other, but they’ve been forced together, and now they’re starting to realize they might actually like each other.”
Chastity read a few pages aloud. Sometime during the next chapter, Molly crept on her belly and snapped up the treat. Chastity smiled, still reading, seeing the dog drool in her periphery. She placed another treat in the same spot and continued on.
Moments later, Molly scooted closer, timidly gobbling it up, too.
By the end of the second chapter, Molly had shuffled close on her belly, close enough to reach out and pet. Chastity flipped the page and set her hand on the floor, giving Molly the chance to smell her. By the end of the next page, Molly gently licked her hand.
“I’m fresh out of bones. All I can offer is pets.”
Chastity hesitantly placed her palm on Molly’s head and rubbed between her ears. The Mastiff let out a low groan of pleasure and puffed air out of her jowls. Then, she slowly set down her book and stroked Molly’s face and neck tenderly with both hands, savoring the trust that she’d built with a little patience.
Molly had what people saw as a defect. She sat by herself, day in and day out, feeling unloved and unwanted. Chastity felt her eyes well with tears at the parallel in their lives. She wanted to rip the red piece of paper on her cage to shreds. Every other dog in the place would soon find a forever home, but gems like Molly would most likely continue to be overlooked.
From behind her, Chastity heard a pair of tennis shoes squeak to a stop. She knew the footfalls well, the limp of the gait. She smiled as she caught sight of him through the fencing.
“Girl, I know you know you’re not supposed to be in there,” the man said playfully.
Chastity smiled. “Well, look what the cat dragged in.”
Rodney was a brittle old man who loved animals even more than she did. Despite having arthritic hands and knees, he never hesitated to kneel on the floor and give love to any and every creature who wanted it. Semi-retired now, he was a man who devoted decades of his time, and even some of his pension, to keep the shelter afloat.
“You just can’t stay away from the naughty ones, can you?” His green eyes still shined bright with youth despite the wrinkled eyelids around them.
“I was always taught in Daddy’s church, ‘ You have to go where you are called. ’”
Rodney opened the door to the kennel beside her, riling all the other dogs with the squeak of the hinges. He wrapped a lead around the neck of a rowdy rottweiler. Chastity could smell its breath from feet away.
“I know, I know. I’m happy to see you, too,” Rodney said, watching the dog spin donuts at light speed. “I see we have some extra energy today. Let’s go out to the yard and play while Miss Erikson here corrupts Molly there with her dirty smut books.”
Chastity smiled. “You know me too well.”
“Oh, it wasn’t a guess. I heard ya. Came around the corner and heard something about an orc performing fellatio, and I felt like I had to make my presence known.” He snickered. “You know I have these virgin ears and all.”
Chastity blushed. Maybe it wasn’t the most appropriate material to be reading aloud in public …
Rodney took the excitable dog outside, and the other pups quieted down. Chastity read her book in silence, calmly running her fingernails along Molly’s scalp until the dog was snoring as loud as a human.