Kyron, page 10
“They’re in there. Or they were,” she murmured.
“Right. And you heard it from here?”
“I heard gunshots and ran outside. I was standing at the back field here, when I heard the growls.”
“Right. Stay here.” And, with that, he headed out to the back.
There wasn’t much light, though she had turned on the outside lights. As he headed down toward the back, it got dimmer and dimmer. He was about ten feet away from where Miranda thought Beth was, when Kyron heard a growl. He took two more steps and then came to a stop, as the growl became even more fierce.
“I’m here, Beth,” he said softly. “I get it. It’s been a really crappy day. I’m so sorry, sweetheart.” He kept talking to her as he crouched down, but he was on the wrong side of the fence in terms of getting close enough to her. It was hard to see as it was. As he leaned forward, she growled again. “I get it, girl,” he murmured. “You don’t trust anybody, and I’m so sorry because that’s not how life was supposed to be.”
He started to whistle, a whistle that he would use with the dogs when he was in training all the time, just a light happy sound that said everything was fine and that they were having a great time.
Her ears perked up, but she didn’t respond.
He took two more steps, and she immediately went from a growl to a howl. “I got it,” he murmured. “I’m just here. I’ll stop.” Of course he was about four feet away, but, in the dark, it was hard to see anything.
He stepped one more foot closer, and she seemed to growl and to whimper at the same time. He wasn’t sure what the change was, but he pulled out his phone, turned on the flashlight, and took a look. Sure enough, blood was all around her. The second dog was tucked up behind her. “Damn,” he whispered. “You’re hurt, aren’t you?”
She whimpered again and glared at him.
He snuck another step closer, and she immediately crouched and growled at him again. He gave her a command to stand down, to calm down, and to rest. She looked at him, her ears twitching, as if cataloging the commands. Then her head slowly lowered, and the other dog followed suit.
Kyron smiled. “Good girl. You came to people because you knew you needed help. But I have to get over there to help you.” The other dog just stared in his direction. “Is it you or her that’s hurt?” he asked in the darkness, trying to keep his voice calm and patient, as he analyzed the fence all around him, wondering how he was supposed to get over to Beth. He saw a gate, although it was ten feet off to the side. He walked cautiously toward the gate, staying in her line of vision, and unlatched the gate.
He took a quick look around, but all the other dogs were inside the house now, which was a good thing. If Miranda had managed to get all the dogs inside, Kyron wouldn’t have to worry about them surging in and fighting these two. He opened the gate up wide and said, “Come on, girl.” She just stared at him and growled. He walked through the gate and stepped forward. Now nothing was between them, if she decided to attack.
Keeping his hands calm and steady, he walked forward until he was about six feet away, then he stopped and said, “I need to check you over, and I need to check your friend too,” he murmured. Then he bent down on his knee and gave her the order to come. She growled and howled but slowly got to her feet. He wasn’t certain that she was the one that was hurt, though enough blood was on the ground to cause problems. It could have been either or, indeed, both of them. She took a few steps toward him, but they were wary.
He held out a hand. “Good girl,” he murmured, “good girl. You can do this.” She took another step and then froze and looked back at her friend. Kyron shifted the light so he could look at the other dog, who looked at him warily. Then the other dog laid down, whined, and dropped her head onto the ground. With the flashlight, Kyron saw that she was the one bleeding badly.
“Damn.” He got up and walked closer. He was sure it was Beth, at least according to the markings on her back, plus her response to her name and to the commands. No way for him to confirm it until he saw the tattoo, could scan for a chip, and could look for an ID tag. She growled at him again. “Come on, Beth. You know I have to help her,” he said quietly. He took two more steps, keeping an eye on Beth, and, when he got close enough, he held out his hand. Her tail gave the tiniest bit of a twitch, and she sniffed his hand and growled again.
“I know,” he said. “I didn’t bring food. I didn’t bring anything, did I? You and I have to get to a level of trust that has nothing to do with rewards right now. Because one or both of you needs medical attention.”
He crouched in front of Beth, and, as soon as she sniffed forward again, he reached out a hand and very gently laid it on her neck. As he stroked her neck, she trembled under his touch, as if afraid that hand would cause her pain.
In Kyron’s world, the only people who ever hit a dog were cowards and were people who didn’t care enough to actually learn how to live with these beautiful animals. As soon as he had her somewhat calm, he ran a hand across her back, down her belly and flanks. He found nothing wrong on the one side facing him, and she had made a few steps toward him. From what he saw at the moment, the other dog was badly injured, and Beth was standing guard.
“Good girl,” he said gently, “good girl.” She looked over at him and then started to whine. Her tail wagged against him several times, and he nodded.
“You have to let me in a little closer now,” he murmured. “I need to see the other side of you too.” She shifted a little bit, as if understanding what he said. She moved enough that he could come up on the unchecked side and run his hands down along her flank. It came back with blood, but she didn’t hiss or howl in any way.
“So it’s her, is it?” he asked. He hated that there was relief in his voice, but, at the same time, Beth was the dog that he had been tasked to get, and now he needed to see what was wrong with the other one. He bent down in front of the other dog, who barely lifted her head when she saw him. He took one look and swore because, indeed, he found what looked like a bullet hole amid all the blood.
He pulled out his phone and called Miranda. “Hey, that vet of yours, does he do emergency surgery?”
“Yes,” she replied. “I already gave him a heads-up that I had an injured dog out here.”
“It’s the second dog,” he noted quietly. “And you’re right. I think she’s been shot.”
“Damn it. I hate people,” she cried out.
“I know. But, at the moment, we have to get her to the vet, and that’ll be a bit of a problem.”
“You think?” she asked. “Can you get close to the one that’s hurt?”
“Well, I got close enough to the wounded one so that I could check around her, and the War Dog stood beside me as I did that. However, when we try to move her hurt friend, Beth’s likely to get defensive.”
“Well, we can take her in my pickup,” she offered. “I do have a cover on it that flips up, where I put animals inside a lot.”
“If you want to get it ready,” he said, “I’ll see if I can get the two of them to come.”
“And you really think both of them will come along?”
“I don’t think we have much choice,” he noted. “Beth seems determined to stay at the other one’s side.”
“And I don’t blame her. When you make a friend, you do everything you can to keep them,” she said, with a smile in her voice.
“Well, particularly when one’s been hurt,” he replied, his voice gentle. “See you in a bit.” And, with that, he hung up, then looked over at Beth and said, “Hey, girl. You know I have to take her in. I’m just not sure how to do it.” Using the light, he studied the wound closer, a bullet up in the flank. He didn’t know if it had gone through and through or had just ripped through a large chunk of skin. A lot of blood was everywhere, but he also knew that sometimes these bleeder-type shots didn’t necessarily mean major damage; it could have just nicked something and left a big mess.
As he studied her, he got a little closer and bent down and talked to her. She didn’t raise her head, but she jerked when he laid a hand on her. He held his hand against the ruff of her neck, gently scratching and petting her.
“Hey, little one. You got yourself in a spot, huh?” He didn’t have a clue who she was or why she had no collar. No way to know if this was just another dog that had been dumped or if it was something else entirely. But right now she needed care, and whether she survived that care was an entirely different story. He looked over at Beth, standing beside him, whining deep in her throat.
“No, you’re right, and I’m glad you warned us,” he said quietly. “That was a good girl. Now I’ll have to pick up your friend and carry her to the house.” He knew that would be the dangerous part. As he reached over and checked the dog again, he noted that her breathing was slow and steady, but she didn’t even appear conscious now. And that was a good thing, as long as he could pick her up and get her moved fast. Getting ready, he put his phone in his pocket and positioned his hands underneath the dog and scooped her up in one fell swoop. Immediately Beth fell into step beside him.
“Right,” he said. “You knew people here would help you right now and would help her too, so let’s get going, and we’ll see what we can do.” He carefully carried the dog around to the gate where he’d come through, thankful it was still open. He kicked it closed and as he stepped forward, Beth kept to his side. He walked toward the driveway and noted Miranda had already pulled out the other truck and had it running and had opened up the back. He nodded and gently laid the dog inside.
“Oh my goodness,” Miranda murmured, “she looks pretty rough.”
“Yeah.” Kyron nodded. “But that doesn’t mean she can’t pull through.”
“No, it just means that she’s had a rough go of it and that people should be shot themselves,” she snapped, her voice hard.
He smiled at her. “Which really won’t solve anything.”
“Well, it would make me feel better,” she said, with a smile.
He agreed with her, but the time for that discussion wasn’t right now. As he laid the injured dog in the back half of the truck box, into this big almost built-in cage, Beth hopped up beside her friend and laid down beside her, whining.
“Oh, look at that,” Miranda whispered.
“Now, the question is, how will she feel being locked up in this?” Kyron asked, looking at Beth.
“Well, it’s not very far to Doug,” she noted, “so I suggest we go now, and we’ll see if we can get her treated. I told my boss that I’d meet him there.”
Closing up the back of the truck, Kyron grabbed his bag from his rental vehicle, then hopped into the passenger side of her truck.
“Of course the weather is crappy too,” she stated, with a sigh, as she slowly drove through the snow.
“Is it ever not crappy when you’ve got an emergency going on?” he asked curiously.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “I’ve never been so lucky yet.”
He nodded. “You know what? Me either. It seems like, whenever there’s an emergency or disaster or something that you’ve got to deal with, the weather just decides to make life miserable.”
She laughed. “It’s kind of funny in a way, but you’re right. Almost like Mother Nature is testing our resolve. Like asking us, Do you really want to do this?”
“Well, the answer tonight is a flat-out absolutely.” Kyron watched as she drove into a parking lot.
“And the nice thing,” she said, “is that we won’t have to wait in line.” Indeed, another vehicle was in the parking lot, and the lights inside were already on. As the vet opened up the back door, he stepped out to look at them. “I’m grabbing a gurney,” he stated, then disappeared, only to return moments later. The trouble was, even empty, the gurney was hard to move because of the snow. Kyron immediately grabbed the other end, brought it closer to the back of Miranda’s truck.
“Hey, I’m Kyron,” he greeted Doug. “I’m the one who’s been looking for the War Dog. Thanks for coming out.”
“Well, looks like you may have found her,” he noted. “I’m Doug. Let’s see what we’ve got here.” When Miranda opened up the back end to her truck, Doug saw both dogs huddled close together in the pen. “Uh-oh, are both injured?”
“No, just the one. The other one is the War Dog, who’s been keeping her warm.”
“Interesting,” he muttered. “Will it be safe to get her out?”
“I hope so,” Kyron stated, “but honestly, I don’t know.”
“Of course not,” Doug replied. “Well, I haven’t been bitten in a few months, so let’s hope today doesn’t break my streak. We’ve got to see what’s up with the other one, and, from the looks of it, we better get moving.”
“Yeah, she’s lost a lot of blood,” Kyron noted, as he opened the cage and placed a hand on Beth. “Hey, girl, we have to take her out now.”
Beth stared at him, and then realized Kyron was trying to move the other dog, so Beth shifted enough so that the dog could be slid gently forward and onto the gurney.
With that, Kyron told Miranda, “I’ll lift the other end of the gurney to take the dog inside. Don’t move. Don’t do anything with Beth, okay?” Miranda nodded, and he grabbed the other end of the gurney, and he and Doug carried the injured dog inside. Once they saw the dog better under the bright lights, Kyron noted, “It looks like she took a bullet to the flank. Not sure if it went through or not. She’s not looking too great.”
“Maybe not,” Doug replied, “but I’ve seen a lot of dogs survive some pretty rough shit, so we won’t count her out yet.”
“Never, I wouldn’t do that either,” Kyron stated, “because, like you, I’ve seen them come back from some pretty amazing scenarios. Dogs are really tough and resilient.”
“Well, let’s hope we have a happy ending this time,” Doug murmured. “Because you know that Miranda out there will be pretty upset if it’s not.”
“Yeah, not to mention the War Dog won’t be happy. No pressure, Doc. You’re right about Miranda. She really comes from the heart.”
“She does, but that neighbor of hers, he’s a bit of an ass. He’s threatened to shoot her animals before. He used the excuse that they get loose and kill his chickens.”
“Did they?” he asked.
“She didn’t think so at the time because she didn’t have anybody go loose, but, for all I know, it could have been these guys killing the chickens, just trying to survive.”
“That is definitely possible, and maybe he’s the one who shot them.”
“Maybe, but listen. I wouldn’t put it past this guy to shoot Miranda either. He’s just pissed off enough half the time. Honestly, from the stories she’s told me, he’s three-quarters’ crazy.”
“That’s not good.”
“Leave me with her for a few minutes, while I get an IV going and some anesthesia into her. Go check and ensure Miranda is okay with that War Dog of yours. She looks like she can take off somebody’s face pretty fast.”
“Yeah, Beth could,” he replied, and he quickly moved across the room.
At the edge of the door, the vet looked up at him and added, “I know this will be one of those questions that I don’t like the answer to, but I guess the war department won’t pay for these injuries because it’s not the War Dog, huh?”
“I’m not sure they would pay even if it was the War Dog that I am here for,” he noted, “but I’ll pay for the surgery.”
The vet looked at him in surprise and then nodded. “Well, we’ll see what ends up happening,” Doug stated. “We could be premature even talking surgery at this point.”
And, with that, he returned his attention to the dog.
Chapter 7
Miranda waited beside the truck, talking gently to Beth. “Hey, sweetie. Kyron’s coming back, and we’ll make sure that your friend gets all the care she needs,” she explained. When she heard the back door to the vet clinic open and close, she continued. “See? Here comes Kyron right now. I told you that he’d be back.” But, at that, the dog immediately shifted and turned to stare at the door. “She looks like she’s waiting for her friend,” Miranda told Kyron.
“Honestly, if we were alone right now, and she had just managed to get here with her friend inside, I suspect she would stay here on guard, until her friend came back out,” he explained quietly. “I’ve seen that before, and, if Beth’s been isolated all this time and has now bonded with that dog in particular, it’s not surprising.”
“But she can’t stay here,” Miranda stated. “Not only could she be dangerous in her own right, but she could get picked up or shot by somebody who reports her here.”
He nodded. “Dogs loose in the city is never a good thing.” He walked closer and then bent down. Beth wagged her tail ever-so-slightly. “I know. Trust is hard, isn’t it, sweetie?” he asked quietly. “I did manage to get some dog food on my way home today, and I’ve got leads and stuff in my bag up in your front seat,” he told Miranda. “If I can get a lead on Beth, she should be a lot more amicable.”
“Will she?” Miranda asked, with a wry tone. “She looks like she’s ready to bolt to me.”
“Of course she is. She’s spent a little too long away from the good side of humankind, and now her friend is hurt, at the hand of a human,” he stated, looking over at her.
“Right,” she agreed. “So, like you just said, trust takes time.”
“More than time in this case,” he noted sadly.
“Well, you’ve done well with her so far. Let’s hope that we can get her somewhere. Get your leash.”
He walked to the front of the truck and pulled out the bag he’d thankfully grabbed before they left. He quickly took out the leash, and, holding it in a big loop over his hand, he bent down in front of Beth, petted her gently, and, as she half closed her eyes, Kyron slipped the lead over her head and tightened it ever-so-slightly. Almost immediately she snapped to attention. “Good girl,” Kyron said.
“I’ve never seen a dog react to a lead like that before,” Miranda noted curiously.
