Page 48 of Keg's Revelation

I looked down at the plates in my hand, then handed one to her. “You were meeting everyone over at the table. You’ve met Pinch, his real name’s Cal. The one leaning on the counter is Merit, who goes by Crank. Hawk, you met. This is Raven, Ry’s mom.”

They greeted Raven, and she spoke to each man, then we went to the table and sat down with the others to eat.

Conversation flowed around the table, and Raven participated as though she’d known everyone forever.

“Frankie and Steven are going to volunteer some of their time at the shelter. They always can use help with walking dogs or just spending time with the animals. The shelter employees aren’t left with much time to allow one on one with the dogs and cats after cleaning up, watering and feeding them,” Raven said and smiled at Shock and Freak who sat across from us.

“Did you come with me tonight to recruit helpers for the shelter?” She slapped my arm, and I laughed.

“No!” she said, then looked around the table. “Oh my God, I hope you all don’t think that.”

My dad smiled. “Sweetheart, no one thinks that. Hell, helping with the animals could be healing for some of us.” Dad looked over at Shock and Freak, then at me. Raven didn’t know what he was talking about, but I did. Shock and Freak were venturing outside Haven when last year they barely came out of the basement to eat. And there was no way to deny it was because of the women we were bringing into the mix. The women not only didn’t avoid them, they interacted with them. Even included them in things, leaving it up to them if they came to a cookout or dinner at one of their homes.

“Does the shelter here have a lot of animals waiting for homes?” Tram asked.

“They are always at capacity. But with the help of fosters and rescues, they’re able to find homes, which frees up place for more. It’s a never-ending cycle. I hate going there because I want to take them all home.”

“Reagan wants a dog. Why don’t you get her one from there?” I brought up.

“I’m planning to get her a dog and yes, from the shelter, after I find us a place to live. If Hope is still at the shelter, I’m going to adopt her.”

“Hope?” I asked and furrowed my brows.

“She’s a black lab that was picked up as a stray. She was in bad shape Aline, the shelter manager, told me when I asked about her. Every time I go there, she’s there, and I promised myself if she was still there when I found a house, I would adopt her. I estimate her to be about five or six, and she’s been at the shelter the longest, four hundred days.”

“How come no one wants to adopt her? Or foster her? She’s a lab, why didn’t a rescue take her?” Tram pressed.

“Well, Aline said she gets passed over because she only has one ear. They don’t know what happened, but best guess is she got in a fight while running loose. When they picked her up, the ear was pretty chewed up, and Gramps is the one who did the surgery to remove the flap because infection was setting up in the wound. None of the fosters can take her because they have more dogs or cats in their care and Hope needs to be an only pet. Guess running loose and being on her own and fighting to eat, soured the poor girl on other animals. Her not getting along with other animals is also why I didn’t bring her to Gramps. He has Sabith who is older, and it wouldn’t be fair to her or Hope if we had to quarantine them from each other.”

“What about a rescue?” I repeated Tram’s question.

“They’d pull her if the shelter here was a kill shelter. But since it isn’t, she’s safe and fed until she finds a forever home. Labs, retriever breeds period, are in abundance in shelters, and the number put down a year across this country saddens me. The breed ranks one of the highest in animals euthanized.”

“If she was a stray, how’d they know her name was Hope?” Tram asked.

“They’re given names in the shelter if they don’t have one because they don’t know how long they will be there and it’s good for the animals. Aline started calling her Hope on the third day she was in the shelter and people kept passing her over. Hope for ‘hope’ someone adopts her.”

“Damn, woman, you know how to bring down a room,” Moose said.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make everyone feel bad. I’m a vet because I love animals, which makes me passionate about them all.”

Tram pushed back his chair and stood, he said, “Getting a drink and congratulating Taylor.” He tossed his paper plate in the trash, and as he went to pass the table on his way out of the kitchen, he stopped by Raven’s chair. “I know you were going to adopt the dog when you got a place, but she needs one now. I’ll go by the shelter Monday,” he said and walked out, not waiting for a reply.

“We’re going next week, too, and look,” Katie said, and her and Moose stood and left the kitchen.

“Screw it. We already have three dogs. What’s one more,” Smoke said.

“Yeah, we got two. Another won’t be a big deal,” Fire said, and he and Macy, and Smoke and Tink left the table.

“Well, shit. We’re going to the shelter, too, Kaden. That’s sad. There’s probably a dog there waiting for us to come to take it home,” Charlie said, stood, and grabbed both her and Hawk’s plates.

Hawk pointed at Raven when Charlie walked off to throw the plates away. “I’m holding you responsible if she adopts a big motherfucker that chews my shit,” he said and led Charlie out of the kitchen with Crank and Pinch on their heels. I didn’t miss they didn’t comment, they just escaped.

Shock and Freak were the next to push away from the table, and both had small grins on their faces, which was alarming.

“We’re heading downstairs. Raven, it was good seeing you again. Don’t be a stranger,” Shock said, and I glanced at my dad, and he shrugged.

“Looking forward to helping out at the shelter. Thanks for bringing it up. Maybe I’ll even find an animal who needs an old man like me,” Freak said, and he and Shock headed to the basement.

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