Page 128 of Until the Sea Runs Dry

Having anticipated their arrival, Loki was rushed into examination as Logan and Jane waited, nervous as any pet parent.

“I shouldn’t have let him out on his own. He must have eaten something bad. Are there any plants in the garden that could be toxic to him?”

Logan’s eyes had drawn a blank. “There are plants that can be toxic to dogs?”

“And cats,” Jane replied, having no idea how she knew any of this. “I know lilies are incredibly toxic to cats. Even just the pollen from them can kill a cat.”

She couldn’t sit still, jumping up to pace the room.

“I’m sure there wasn’t anything in the back yard. He’s been out there a hundred times before.”

“But never on his own.” She stopped, her thoughts diverting to a different tangent. “Maybe it wasn’t even that. What if it was the cake? Maybe he reacted to something in there?”

She tried to run the ingredients through her mind. What had they been? Flour, eggs, butter…

The guilt was torturing her. Logan had to do something to bring her back down.

“Stop blaming yourself. It won’t help anything and will only make you feel worse. Come sit by me. The vet will be out soon. Until then, it’s pointless to keep guessing when it could literally be anything.”

But soon didn’t come until two hours later, by which point, Jane was pale with exhaustion, her nerves frayed. The vet had dark circles under his eyes. He looked at them both, gravely.

“I think Loki has eaten something toxic. We have induced vomiting and flushed his stomach with fluids. We’ve also given him activated charcoal to stop the toxin from getting into his blood.”

“Will he be OK?” Jane’s voice sounded alien to her own ears.

“I think so. We have him on an IV right now to replace the lost fluids, but he is already better, though missing mom and dad.” The vet smiled.

“I fed him some cake that I’d baked earlier. Could that have done this?” Jane asked, her mouth dry as the desert.

“Did it have chocolate or raisins? Citrus maybe?”

“No. It was a regular carrot cake.”

“With raisins?”

“No,” Jane shook her head.

“Then no. Human foods aren’t great for dogs, but nothing in your cake should have caused this. Your quick action might have saved his life. At the end of the day, it’s hard to pinpoint the cause, and dogs do love to eat anything and everything they can get their paws on. But you did the right thing in bringing him here so fast.”

“Can he come home with us?”

“I’d like to keep him on the IV a while longer, but you can take him home soon. Are the two of you fine to wait?”

“Yes,” Logan answered immediately, speaking for the both of them.

“I’ll be back when he’s ready to be discharged. By the way, I’m a big fan of yours, Mr. Steel. I hope you don’t mind my saying.”

Logan flashed him a small smile. “Of course. Thank you.”

His response was polite but automatic.

The relief that came from knowing that Loki would be fine had Jane shaking. She sank into a chair, letting her head drop against Logan’s shoulder.

He held her hand as their fingers entwined, and they waited.

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