{ 2 }
“What do you mean you can’t find him?” Jared Gardiner demanded in a harsh whisper as he cornered his mother in her kitchen. Trish Gardiner looked worried and sheepish, and as though she hadn’t had a lot of sleep last night. “I’ve got a five year old kid out there in the living room who really needs some good news this Christmas. I told her I had a surprise for her. This is the surprise? I got you a puppy but we lost it?”
“I don’t know how it happened,” Trish said, her forehead creased with worry. “I put a big red bow around his neck, just to see how it would look, I even took a picture. Then he looked like he needed to go out, so I opened the back door. I figured he’d sniff around the yard. It is fenced. And then the phone rang, and I was talking for a few minutes.”
He didn’t say anything. But his mother had never talked for a ‘few minutes’ in her life. Her shortest phone conversation ever was probably twenty minutes. She could wear out a cell phone battery in a single call.
“Then I heard thunder and I thought I’d better bring the dog back inside.” She let out a sigh. “But when I went to get him, he was gone. He must have found a hole in the fence.”
“Why didn’t you call me right away?”
“I didn’t want to worry you. And you’ve got Sadie. What could you do at nine at night?” She shrugged helplessly. “I drove around looking for him, but it’s hard to call a dog who has no name. The Border Collie is supposed to be the smartest breed. I thought he’d come back.”
Jared glanced at the clock. “He’s been missing more than twelve hours.” He didn’t need to check out the window to know the weather was wet and cold. He couldn’t stand to think about all the things that could happen to a helpless little puppy out there alone. What had he been thinking, agreeing to take on a pup? He was barely coping as a single dad. He had no business accepting another responsibility. But Sadie loved dogs. Foolishly, he’d thought he could handle both. Looked like he was wrong.
“Don’t worry, Mom.” He put out a hand and patted her shoulder. “I’ll call Dal, the farmer who gave the dog to me. Like you say, Border Collies are smart. I bet he went back there. Anyhow, anybody around here who sees a herding dog will know to contact Dal. Or the shelter. We’ll find him.”
A quick call to Dal revealed that his buddy had neither seen the dog, nor heard from anyone who had. “Hope you find him,” he said, terse and not his usual friendly self. To Dal, herding dogs had a job to do, they weren’t family pets, but he only gave away the ones who weren’t suited to farming to good homes. He obviously wasn’t impressed that Jared had lost a puppy the first day he had him.
“I thought he might find his way home, Border Collies being the smartest dogs.”
A sound that might have been a snort, or a laugh, answered him. “Not that one. You can tell pretty young if they’ve got the smarts and nerve. This one is small, not too bright and I think he’s scared of horses. And cows. To tell you the truth, I think he might be scared of ducks.”
“How do you think he’d do if he was out all night?”
“I wouldn’t get my hopes up.”
“I’m sorry, Dal.”
“Don’t waste your time apologizing. See if you can find him.”
“Yeah. And if you hear anything—”
“You’ll be first to know.”
He shook his head just as Sadie pushed open the door into the kitchen. At five she was cuter than any kid should be, with long blond curls and the big blue eyes of her mother. He worried she was too skinny, but then he worried about most everything with Sadie. It was hell not having a wife. Worse for her not having a mom. Her eyes scanned the kitchen. “You said you had a surprise, Daddy.”
“Well—”
“I made cookies,” his mother jumped in. “That’s the surprise.”
Sadie accepted a freshly-baked oatmeal cookie happily, even remembering to say thank you. But she wasn’t fooled. “That would be your surprise. Daddy said he had a special surprise just for me.”
“I do.” He put on his everything’s fine smile and said, “I am taking you and grandma downtown.”
“For pancakes?”
“Of course for pancakes.”
“But—” his mother began.
He dropped his voice. “You can keep her occupied while I check out the shelter and put the word out about you know what.”
“Let me freshen my lipstick and grab my purse.”
He let his mom and Sadie go ahead of him once they got to Rosie’s diner so he could have a whispered conversation with Rosie who was pretty much gossip central in Kaslo, Washington.
She shook her head, her Lucille Ball red ringlets swinging. “Haven’t heard anything. You should put a poster up.”
“Good idea. And you’ll let me know if—”
“Course I will.”
As soon as he could get through breakfast, he’d check out the shelter, the vet, and then get his mom to take care of making posters while he got a few guys together and started a search party.
Worry gnawed at him thinking of that poor little puppy alone and helpless.
As soon as they were done, he said, “Okay, Sadie. Grandma’s going to take you to the toy store so you can make your list for Santa.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’ve got an errand to run.” He kissed the top of her head. “I’ll see you soon.”
Now all he had to do was find a small black and white puppy who could be anywhere.