Samantha carried me as she followed Ben and the nice woman to the big, boxy car that had arrived after the truck. They opened the rear doors and we all climbed in. There was so much to see and smell! Things to chew were everywhere. Smoke still painted the air.
But the girl holding me was in real distress, wiping her eyes and taking shuddering breaths as she sat down on a bench. I decided to hold off exploring until she felt better.
The woman sat next to Ben, on an opposite bench. She leaned forward to look into Samantha’s eyes. Her nose was within reach, but I decided to leave it alone for now. “You did the right thing, Samantha. Climbing out on the roof was really smart,” she told the girl.
“I couldn’t go down the stairs. There was too much smoke,” the girl explained weakly.
“My name’s Roxanne Sabin,” the woman went on. Her voice was calm and the girl seemed to relax a bit just from hearing her talk. “There’s a town in Minnesota called Sabin, but I’ve never been there. And this is Ben. We work together on the rescue squad when he’s not off adopting dogs. He’s harmless.”
Ben smiled. “Ripley really seems to like you.”
Samantha’s arms were rigid as they clutched me. I did not understand what was happening at all; I only knew that this girl was very agitated and unhappy. “How old is he?”
“Ripley’s a little more than ten weeks,” Ben answered.
“Why don’t you tell us what happened, Samantha?” the woman prodded. Her light brown hair was very curly and bobbed around on her head as she spoke. Normally I would lunge over to try to grab a mouthful of those curls, but normally I’m not being clutched by a panicked Samantha.
“I’m scared of heights,” Samantha blurted in response. “When I crawled out the window, I thought I was going to die.”
“Nobody’s dying today,” Ben replied softly. “Right, Roxie?”
“Nobody’s going to die,” she agreed levelly. The woman with the curly hair was probably Roxie, I thought.
“Do people call you Sammie or Samantha?” Ben inquired.
The girl shrugged. “Some people call me Sammie. Some people call me Samantha.”
“All right,” Ben agreed. “You’re safe now, Sammie.”
“Samantha!” I heard a woman wail. We all turned to look out the open rear doors, and there was a woman sprinting through the grass. She had light hair just like Samantha and was thin and shorter than Ben. She ran straight to me, as any person would, and enveloped Samantha and me in a fierce hug, tears streaming down her face. “I couldn’t get here. They have the street blocked off. I’m so sorry, Samantha.”
The new woman cried and Samantha cried and Roxie and Ben glanced at each other. I wriggled a little, pressed between the crying people.
“Are you okay?” the new woman kept asking Samantha.
“I’m okay,” Samantha replied woodenly each time. She was petting me rapidly now, stroking my head with shaking fingers.
Ben was intently watching the new woman. “Seems like your daughter and Ripley have bonded,” he observed with an easy smile.
The new woman grinned back gratefully. “Yes, thank you. Whose puppy is it?”
Ben chuckled. “Until a little more than an hour ago, he was supposed to be a guide dog for the blind, but he flunked out before they even started—I guess they call it career-changed. So now he works for the fire department.”
I noticed Roxie’s eyes widen a little, staring at Ben, but he was still talking. “I’m just not in uniform today. I took the day off to go pick up this little guy.”
Roxie’s expression was skeptical. “Does Lieutenant Hutchins know about the dog?”
“It’s okay. I cleared it with the captain.”
Roxie shook her head. “That’s not what I asked. Does Hutch know?”
Ben smiled at her. “Yah, well, I just told him.”
“Huh,” Roxie replied. “What did he say?”
Ben’s smile faltered a little. “Okay, he didn’t exactly endorse the idea.”
“Ben. Ripley’s not going to be a fire station dog. Hutch will never let that happen.”
The humans all seemed oddly troubled, which made no sense to me. The day was full of smoke dancing on cool breezes, there were all sorts of things to smell and chew, and I was here to play with everyone. Also, I was getting tired of being held so tight. I wiggled and began to nibble on a strand of Samantha’s hair. It tasted smoky and very interesting.
“Yah,” Ben finally said to Roxie. “Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“How are you doing, Samantha?” the new woman asked. “Do you want to call Mrs. Middleton?”
“I’m okay, Mom,” Samantha replied in a low voice. She had called the woman Mom often enough that I figured out it was her name.
The people talked, and gradually Samantha’s arms relaxed, her heart stopped beating so loudly, and she even smiled at me. “Can I play with Ripley outside?” she asked timidly.
“You betcha!” Ben agreed easily.
We jumped down out of the car and Samantha put me down in the grass. Finally! I shook myself hard after being held so tightly.
Then I attacked Samantha’s shoes, found a stick and carried it around, and showed it to Samantha. She understood how to play Tug, so we did that until the stick broke. Then, to my delight, I located a plastic toy buried in the grass. I dug it up and let Samantha pull it away from me so she could throw it. Then I pounced on it and chewed it to bits, the sharp little pieces sticking to my tongue.
A shadow loomed over me and Ben scooped me up.
“Walk with me to my car,” he suggested to the woman named Mom. “Roxie can stay here with Samantha a little longer.”
With a puzzled look on her face, Mom nodded, and the three of us left the backyard. Ben carried me but not Mom.
“Seems like this was a tough experience for Samantha,” Ben said. “I’m curious as to why she was home.”
Mom eyed him shrewdly. “You mean home alone? Is that what you’re asking?”
Ben reluctantly nodded. Mom sighed. “Well, Samantha’s suffered from anxiety since … I should tell you that her father died in a car accident a few years ago. She was in the car with him. She’s homeschooled because going to school is just … too much. Mrs. Middleton, her therapist, is worried that Samantha’s getting too dependent on me. For a while it was so bad I couldn’t even be in a different room for more than a few minutes.”
Since I was being held so tightly in Ben’s arms, I decided to lick them. His soft, short hairs tickled my tongue.
“Yah,” Ben told Mom. “I think I get it.”
Mom nodded. “I’ve been taking quick trips, gradually increasing the time away. Today the idea was for me to make a fast visit to the store. I was only gone for about forty-five minutes. I’m not sure”—she gestured back behind us, to the smoky house—“what happened in that time.”
“Lieutenant Hutchins thinks something was left on the stove and boiled dry and then ignited. That’s not uncommon. Especially when I’m the one cooking, don’tcha know.” Ben grinned.
Mom didn’t smile back. “Oh, my.” She briefly closed her eyes. “I set some stew on the stove in a pot and forgot all about it. This is my fault.”
“Do you think your daughter is…” Ben trailed off.
“Traumatized? This couldn’t have been worse.” Mom sounded and smelled almost as upset as Samantha. Would she need to hold me too? I was willing, if it was truly important. But honestly, it’s hard work being held and staying still when you want to run, and I’d already done a lot of being held today.
“I’m trying to do what Mrs. Middleton said and gradually introduce her to the notion that she can be left alone safely,” Mom went on. “And then there’s a fire.”
“So, you work from home, then?” Ben inquired.
“Yes, which is fortunate, because of Samantha.”
“Yah, that probably wouldn’t be easy for me.”
Mom smiled. “Not too many stay-at-home firefighters,” she speculated.
“I’ll ask my captain about it. Maybe start a pilot program. So what do you do from home?”
“I’m a ghostwriter.”
Ben blinked. “So … haunted houses?”
Mom laughed. “No, I write books that are published under other people’s names. I just finished one on yoga. Before that it was dog training, and before that a woman pilot who crashed in the mountains and had to find her way back through the wilderness.”
“Maybe you could write my life story! As soon as I have one, anyway,” Ben suggested. “So, when you do a whole book about yoga, does that mean you become a yoga expert?”
She smiled and shook her head. “Well, to be an expert in yoga, you have to practice it nearly every day. I do occasionally go online for a class, but that’s it. You’re reminding me I should get back to doing that. I’m between assignments right now, so I have plenty of free time.”
“What about dog training?” Ben asked. He sounded very interested in Mom, even though she didn’t have any treats that I could smell. “Did you have to become an expert for that book?”
“Well, expert?” Mom shook her head. “I certainly know all the basics and have a good idea of what’s required, especially when you have some problem behaviors. But there’s a difference between writing about something and actually doing it.”
I squirmed again. If we were going to just stand around, I couldn’t think of any reason why Ben shouldn’t let me chase one of the butterflies I saw flitting from flower to flower in some bushes.
“I wonder if the universe, or at least a pan full of stew on the stove, is trying to tell me something,” Ben mused. “A while ago I lined up a dog trainer to teach the basics to the puppy I was planning to get, plus do some dog sitting. But I guess she met someone in New York on a trip and now she’s moving there, so…” He gave Mom a hopeful smile. “My plan was to take the next couple of days to find someone. Do you think you…?”
Ben and Mom were smiling at each other even though they weren’t paying me any attention. Then Mom frowned. “But like I said … I’ve never actually trained a dog before.”
“How hard can it be?” Ben replied with an easy grin. “Ripley’s a border collie—very smart, smarter than me.”
“All right,” Mom agreed thoughtfully. “I’m certainly willing to give it a try, especially because of how much Samantha enjoyed holding Ripley.”
Mom turned and looked back toward where people were still trooping in and out of the open front door. I wanted to go play with them if Mom and Ben were going to go on being so dull. “I guess I’ll look for a new place to rent. One that allows dogs,” she said with a sigh.
Ben smiled. “That’s great. At the fire department, we work twenty-four-hour shifts on and then have forty-eight hours off. On my days off I work for my dad at a car dealership. It’s a pretty loose schedule. I already told my dad I’m going to need time off to train Ripley to be a fire station dog, and he’s all for it.”
“Give me a week or two,” Mom responded, “to find a new place and move in.” She sighed. “I hate moving. But then, yes, it’s a deal.”
We left Mom and got back in Ben’s car. It was so fun to jump back and forth between the seats. “Ripley, do you ever stop moving?” Ben demanded. “It’s a short trip. Are you really going to make me put you back in the crate, for Pete’s sake?”
I wagged because he was talking to me.
The car started moving and I felt like I wanted to sit still for a while because of the funny feeling that created inside me. “Thank goodness,” Ben muttered, glancing over at me as he held on to a big ring that looked like a nice chew toy.
After a little while, we arrived at a place Ben called home. It was wonderful!
There was carpet and I dug at it. Then I squatted on it. Ben shouted “No!” and took me out into the lush grasses of the backyard, which had birds in it, so I chased them, but then they flew up into the trees, so I bit at some bushes. Then ran in a big circle, jumped on Ben, who was sitting there laughing at me, and found a wonderful toy.
“Not the hose,” Ben objected, pulling it out of my mouth.
This set the pattern for the next several days. I ran in circles in the house and the backyard, I dug up dirt and grass and squirmy bugs called worms, and I chewed a lot of things. Ben pulled some of them from my mouth while he talked to me. “Not my hiking shoes, Ripley!” “Stop, that’s my tie.” “Ripley, let the cushion alone.” “Not the remote, Ripley!”
Sometimes my chewing games turned into chasing games, and that was very fun indeed.
I could always tell when Ben wanted me to be serious because he would talk to me in low tones. When he talked like that, he often wore a pouch on his belt, and in that pouch was my food. He would hand a piece of food to me and then click a toy that he held between his fingers. Soon I understood that if he clicked, I would get a treat.
What I did not know is how to get a click. I decided I needed to find out.