Chapter 12

Again

At least you don’t smell,” Colin said as he opened the back door. Tramp struggled in and lay his head down on Colin’s smelly Nikes, the leather ones with the red swoosh. They were his favorite shoes to chew on. Colin didn’t mind, he was growing out of a pair every two months. By the time Tramp had gnawed a hole in the toe, Colin’s toe was ready to push out and it was time for a new pair. Tramp loved Colin’s feet. He wouldn’t think of gnawing on Emmett’s dress shoes.

The ice between his toes and pad and in his fur, that Tramp had ignored was really starting to bother him. His face was covered in ice from his eyes to his lips and it was impossible to smile, snarl, bark. He made a pathetic whine. This all happened as he was walking carefully up the street from the lake on frozen paws. The rest of his body was encased in icy points that kept Colin from holding him. His tail was sticking straight out as if he was pointing, just like his poodle ancestors.

“What have you been up to, Tramp?” Liz said with a scowl and folded arms.

Even when he was covered in mud and fish scales, he’d sit up formal like, shake his head, and smile, teeth bared and his eyes wide open. This usually made Liz smile. It didn’t save him from the basement or the bath, but it eased tension.

But he couldn’t sit up in his condition. He lay, eyes looking off into the distance as if he hadn’t heard her. She knew it was a confession of guilt.

“Bring him in Colin, over here by the sink,” she said to Colin. That’s where he was put, in a big dish pan in the sink.

Liz took a scoop of water and poured it over his feet. At first, he didn’t feel anything, then came a warm tingly sensation that meant he was alive. She worked her way up his legs, along his tail, across his back and finally to his ears and lips. Each scoop of water brought a little yowl. He wanted them to feel sorry for him. He knew how to make it happen.

Then Liz wrapped him in a big red towel and squeezed gently. No yowls, he took the pain. Later the hair dryer made his hair fly and his heart beat to the rhythm of a circling airplane. He was warm again in no time.

“Don’t you do that again, Tramp. Next time, we may not be able to save you,” Liz said.

“I’d be here,” Colin said in Tramp’s ear.

Tramp slept in his bed that night.