Page 17 of A Furry Thing Called Love
She barks and runs in a tight circle, before coming over.Her blue eyes are bright and she licks me as she passes by.
“Gross,” Rodney says.“Cooties.”
Chuckling, I enter the house behind Indie, sighing and opening the sliding door again when there’s a thump on it.Porter doesn’t even look grateful as he ambles into the house.
I close and lock the door behind him, then work Rodey’s harness off and coax him into his cage.
He sighs and flaps his wings.“Poor Rodey.Jailed!Unfair!”
“You’re fine.”
“Unacceptable!”
I roll my eyes and shut the door to the cage, making sure to put the lock on the latch because I don’t trust him to not figure out how to escape.
Doing a quick check of Porter’s area to make sure he has everything he needs, I then grab Indie’s harness and lead.“Let’s go, Indie.”
She hops up and runs to the front door, happy to be included in this adventure.I grab a bag of treats I prepared, and double check I have everything before joining her.
I hate askingArlo to come out while he’s still healing, but I didn’t want to introduce Indie to Millie at his house, because I don’t want to have Arlo worry about a territorial dog in case Millie feels threatened by Indie’s presence.Nor did I want to overwhelm her by having them come to my house.The menagerie could be…a lot.It’s why I made sure to build the training building as far from the house and my yards as possible.
That being said, I also don’t want to chance a dog park because I don’t know how she’ll act around multiple dogs.So, the beach in the middle of a work day it is, in order to try to lessen the issues we could run into today.
I can feel the judgment from Indie as I put her harness on her.We both know she doesn’t need it, but it's for her and Millie’s safety more than anything.It’s better to be safe than sorry, at least until I can assess how Millie is around another dog.She’s been doing pretty well in her training.The basics are easy for her, but her recall could use more work, so I’d rather err on the side of caution than risk an accident happening.
Arlo is waiting on a bench a few feet from the pier.Eli sits at his side, with a harness and vest on.Millie isn’t as calm as Eli is, and she gets excited when she sees me, but after a few moments, Arlo is able to calm her down and get her to settle once more.
I wait until she’s standing still before I reach out and pet her head.I slip her a treat when she sits as I ask.We’re slowly working our way to her automatically sitting when I greet her, but for now, this will do.She’s very smart and eager to learn, it’s just going to be slow since she’s older now, and her brain is full of other things, but I have tricks up my sleeve to help both her and Arlo.
Indie sits calmly and patiently at my feet, waiting for instruction.When I meet Arlo’s eyes, he smiles, making his already bright blues shine in the sunlight.It takes my breath away, and I have to remind myself that we’re just friends.Kinda.
“She’s beautiful,” Arlo says.
I look down at Indie and grin.“Thank you.Shall we test out the waters?”
He looks down at Millie, who’s watching Indie intensely, but hasn’t made any aggressive moves against her.“Sure, she seems chill for now.”
“Go ahead, Indie.Greet.”
Arlo leans forward, reaching out a hand.Indie jumps up and moves toward him, happy to reacquaint herself with someone she only knew briefly as a puppy.
Millie moves forward as well.She doesn’t growl or show any other aggressive tendencies, but I keep a careful eye on her.When Arlo pets Indie, Millie lets out a huff, as if jealous she’s not getting the attention, but she doesn’t try to shove Indie away, or do anything really worrisome.
Millie sniffs at Indie, but Indie’s too much in heaven, getting undivided attention, that she doesn’t pay her, or Eli, any mind.
“You’re so pretty,” Arlo tells Indie.“Yes, you know you’re pretty, don’t you?Do you remember me?”
Indie’s tail wags and she barks.I don’t know if she actually remembers Arlo or not, as it’s been a long time since she saw him—aside from briefly a few weeks ago—but she eats up the attention either way.
“Are you done love-bombing my dog?”I pretend to gripe.
“I am not,” Arlo says.“Not until she wants to go home with me.”
Sighing, I shake my head.“I’ll take Millie then.”
Arlo easily hands over Millie’s lead and I drop Indie's.I trust her not to take off.Though she’s too busy getting love from Arlo to even pay attention to me.
“Betrayed by my own dog,” I mutter.Clicking my tongue, I say, “Come on, Millie, let’s go.”
