Page 79 of Timber's Line
I love animals and I’m glad some of the guys take notice of that.
We drive to Atlanta and park at one of the many local shelters.
The receptionist greets us, “You must be Rome and Timber.”
“We are.” Rome smiles.
“We’re always glad to have volunteers. Today, we were hoping you could walk some of the dogs around the block.” She smiles sweetly at us.
“We’d love that,” I quickly reply.
“This way.”
We walk through the building and through the rows of cages. They are clean, which makes me happy. Each dog has his or her own and a cute bed.
She opens a cage and leads a dog out. “This is Ice.” I’m kind of nervous since Ice is a pit, but he comes right over to me and nuzzles my legs.
“I guess he chose Timber.” The woman chuckles.
“Rome, you can walk Peanut,” she says and brings him a tiny pocket dog. I laugh because when she hands him the dog, it looks even smaller in his hands.
“Don’t laugh.” He sends me a mock glare.
“Let’s go, big hands.” We head out to walk the dogs.
We start walking and let the dogs sniff. They are excited to be out and I’m glad we could give them this. We find a park to let them run and we can sit. I even forget the camera crew is with us.
“Thank you,” I say as he hands me a drink from the backpack he carried.
“You’re welcome.”
We sit and watch for a minute. I could do this all day, even with Rome.
“I like this,” he echoes my thoughts.
“I want to get a dog someday.”
“You don’t have one now?”
“No. I work so much and going to school, I don’t have time.”
“But you get so many cool animals to play with and pet,” he says.
“Even the chickens.” I giggle.
“I haven’t been around them yet. I did venture into the barn and pet some of the horses,” he says.
“Next time, take them sugar cubes,” I tell him.
“I’ll do that.”
He pulls out some dog treats, and they come over and lay at our feet.
“I might adopt them,” he says as he scratches Ice’s ears.
“Really?” My heart melts.
He shrugs. “I like animals too. When you live by yourself all the time, it gets lonely. At least with these guys, I’d have some company.”
