Page 127 of Dr. Stone
—Grounding rituals through mindful paw contact
—Behavioral pattern decoding using touchless cueing and ancient tonality
—Optional cacao ceremony (for humans only)
“At our core, dogs are not meant to be trained. They are meant to be trusted.”—Orin Rhylor
Beneath that wasa portrait of Orin, standing barefoot in a stone circle surrounded by four wolves, one of whom wore what looked like a hand-beaded crystal necklace. He had long, copper-streaked hair pulled into a half-knot at the crown of his head, layered with a sand-colored robe and thin leather sandals. His eyes were glacier gray and intense as fuck.
“Jesus,” I said, laughing and handing Jace back his phone. “How’d you find that guy? Through Ash?”
Jace chuckled and looked at the image of Orin again, “One could easily assume that, but no. The damn guy pops up everywhere on these dog specialist searches I’ve been doing.”
“Well, there’s the reason he’s popping up under the keywords you’re giving the search engine,” I laughed again. “We don’t need a dogspecialist,just someone to help us train him to be more obedient and listen to us.”
“Nah,” Jace smiled with almost a little wickedness in his eyes. “Duke needs something more, especially with our baby on the way. He’s been so damn unhinged lately that we need a dog guru like that guy,” he pulled the phone close to his face to look at the guy’s picture again. “His eyes are so intense he actually looks like he could hypnotize squirrels.”
I shook my head and returned to my Pinterest board, where I had been pinning pictures of nursery ideas.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Jace laughed. “Look at this shit.”
I looked over at his phone, where a side panel popped open with a quote: “The leash is not for control—it’s the karmic thread that binds.”
I pointed at the screen. “There’s a testimony. What’s it say?”
“Orin had helped a formerly feral rescue Chihuahua ‘reclaim his inner power’ using singing bowls and smoked quartz,” Jace said, laughing with me.
“Youreallywant to try this guy?”
Jace reached for his beer and took a sip. “Desperate times call for desperate measures, baby,” he said with a victorious smile. “This is definitely happening.”
Jace followed through,moved some mountains, and a week later, we had Jake and Ash over as we all watched Orin prepare to take on Duke and his issues. The dude was cool, smelled like weed, and showed up in a Volkswagen van circa 1968. So, if anything, he was dead-on legit so far with what his website said about him, in my opinion.
I watched, hiding my smile as Duke lay flat on the teak deck just in front of the pool, as if he’d just released years of suppressed guilt over chewing a table leg. A ring of polished stones surrounded him, and incense smoke curled lazily toward the sun-drenched sky.
Ash and Jake had just arrived, and after a few exchanged amused glances, we turned our attention back to Orin kneeling before my dog like Duke was the Dalai Lama in disguise.
“Is it just me,” Jake said slowly, “or does it smell like patchouli and sandalwood and possibly a cult?”
“Shh,” Ash said, the only one who seemed to be intrigued, which, of course, almost made me lose it.
Orin Rhylor lifted his head from his silent communion and whispered to Duke, “You no longer need to carry the tension of your humans. Your bark is no longer your burden.”
Duke sneezed, and Jace and Jake both snorted at the same time. I had no idea at this point who was going to lose their shit first.
“That sneeze was a release,” Orin murmured. “Old karma. Maybe a past life.”
“Shit,” Jace whispered to Jake. “Could you imagine the fucking past life of a dog?”
“No,” Jake tried to hold a serious expression. “I can’t even imagine anyone speaking like this to a dog, much less bringing up their past lives.”
Jace chuckled and leaned in toward Jace, “He saged Duke’s bed and asked the ocean for permission to enter hiscanine energy field.”
“That was the kelp moon blessing,” Ash corrected. “It’s on his website.”
“Baby, it concerns me sometimes that you know this shit,” Jake said, sipping his coffee and intently focused on Orin and Duke.
I closed my eyes, forcing myself not to explode into laughter at this situation.
