Page 9 of Coming Home to Wishington Bay
‘Here’s Petey, mate,’ he said quietly.
Bryan stretched and put one paw over the toy, dragging it closer. I smiled at the scene.
‘He loves that prawn.’
‘So I see.’
‘My parents sent it over from home when I first showed them a picture of Bryan.’
‘Gabe rescued Bryan last winter,’ Carrie said, waddling over. ‘He found him wandering the streets in the city, shivering with cold, and brought him back to the practice for us to check him over. He wasn’t in good shape but Gabe said if we could save him, he’d give him a home.’
I glanced over to where Gabe was now intent on not looking at us.
‘Need any help over there, Ned?’ he asked and headed off, his long legs crossing the room in a few strides. Within moments, the expression that had clouded his face cleared as he laughed with my brother.
Carrie lowered her voice. ‘We didn’t have a lot of hope for Bryan when he was brought in. He’d obviously been out on the streets for some time, fending for himself. We don’t know his history but he had a nasty wound on his neck that wasn’t healing, possibly from a collar or rope that had cut in. He’s the sweetest-natured dog too, poor little thing. It was difficult to know what to do for the best. His fur was gone in places with a skin infection and he had an abscess in his mouth. He was only young and in such a state, it was heartbreaking.’
I looked at the dog sleeping peacefully with his cuddle companion, surrounded by love and comfort, and my eyes filled with tears.
Carrie saw and gave me a squeeze.
‘Stupid,’ I said, quietly.
‘Not at all,’ she reassured me. ‘Believe me, we were all in tears.’ She surreptitiously nodded at the big, macho guy now lounging against her worktop.
‘Really?’ I whispered.
‘Really. He walked in with this mangy little dog wrapped in a jumper and stuffed down the front of his bike suit and begged us to save him. We told him that even if we could, it might be expensive, depending on what we found, but he just waved it away. I mean, I know he’s a doctor so he’s not short of a few bob, but still. He’d just picked this dog off the street and he was prepared to do anything to save him.’
‘I’m glad he found him.’
‘Me too. I don’t think the poor little thing would have lasted many more days to be honest.’
I looked at the puppy and got another wash of tears.
‘Will you stop doing that?’ I hissed at her.
She grinned.
‘OK, everybody ready?’ Ned asked.
We both looked up ready to acknowledge him when Ned spoke again. ‘Why are you crying?’
Not content with finishing top of his class in ‘Tact’, my brother had also majored in ‘Subtlety’.
‘I am not crying!’ I said. ‘It’s the onions.’
‘The onions went in two hours ago. You weren’t even here.’
‘She was upset about Bryan’s history,’ Carrie stated.
I looked at her.
‘What?’ she whispered. ‘You were!’
‘I don’t need them to know that!’ I whispered back.
‘Why not?’
