Page 58 of The Shell Collector
“Wow. Sounds like it!” Too bad she hadn’t heard about this before she accepted her teaching job. “Who wouldn’t love to get paid to play with dogs all day?”
“Tell me about it. And the benefits are good too.” He glanced at his watch. “I need to catch up to an appointment. Can I answer anything else for you or connect you with someone?”
“No. We’re just going to look around. I have the flyer.”
“Great. Well, I hope we’ll see you back around here with your dog one day.”
“Maybe you will.”
He darted off into a jog.
“He was nice, wasn’t he?” Amanda said.
Hailey and Jesse nodded. They seemed mesmerized by the number of dogs.
The three of them followed the road signs and entered thelarge-dog area of the facility. They stopped and stood on the visitors’ side of the big-dog park. The pace there was slower, but the breeds were huge. A Great Dane walked to the low fence that separated the walkway from the park and hung his head over the railing in front of Jesse.
He tentatively lifted his hand. “Horsey?”
“No, Jesse. That’s a dog. A very big dog.”
A woman wearing a Paws Town shirt came over. “This is Duke. He’s very friendly.” The shiny black dog lifted his chin in the air and tucked his nose under her armpit.
The woman wiggled away. “That tickles.” She brushed him aside. “He knows it tickles. He does it all the time.”
“Can I pet him?” Hailey asked.
“Sure. Call his name. He’ll come right to you.”
“Hi, Duke.” She waved her hand, and the dog walked over for some attention. “Nice doggy.” Hailey’s fingers swooped across the top of Duke’s head and down his ears.
“He’s here on vacation with his family,” the woman explained. “They drove all the way from New Jersey with this guy.”
Hailey’s nose wrinkled. “Is that far away?”
“It is a very long drive, but they didn’t want to vacation without him, so they checked him in here since no pets are allowed at Plantations Resort. They come visit him every day.”
“I bet he really likes that,” Hailey said. “He’s sweet.”
“Yeah, he’s part of their family. They said they’d had him since he was just six weeks old.”
Amanda reached over and petted the dog too. “I thought our English bulldog was big. This makes him look like a Chihuahua.”
At that moment a beautiful tricolor shepherd ran the perimeter of the fence and then lay down on a boat-shaped bench next to a small water feature.
Amanda was captivated by the dog’s grace. “He’s beautiful.”
“That’s Gunner. He’s a retired officer.” The woman swung around and whistled. The dog stood and ran to her side. “Sedni.”
He sat, ready for another command.
She placed her hand out flat and said, “Lehni.”
“What language is that?” Hailey’s head cocked to the side. “Is it dog language?”
“It’sthisdog’s language. He’s a military working dog. Or was. He knows all the same commands as the other dogs, but in Czech.” She leaned over the fence and whispered, “That way the bad guys don’t know the commands. Pretty sneaky, huh?”
Hailey nodded. “Gunner must be smart.”
