by C. Coal
Here they could hike together and enjoy nature. Loki loved to chase his squirrels. Just last week he'd found a mouse of some sort and chased it through the high grass. He hadn't eaten it, thankfully, but trying to find where it had run to had entertained him for a good five minutes.
She'd never seen him happier.
Now, though, she was thinking that maybe it was better to just keep him locked up at home or always on leash. Then at least she'd know he was safe.
Didn't seem like much of a life for an energetic puppy like him, but at least he'd be alive instead of…
She shook her head. "Loki!"
She was not going to go there. He was fine, just off adventuring somewhere.
She glanced down the path, but no sign of him. Not like she could see most of it anyway, since the path twisted and turned through giant trees and boulders that obscured her view in both directions.
Blair heard a dog barking in the distance. It didn't sound like Loki, but maybe the dog was barking at him.
She followed the sound, stepping off the trail onto a barely-visible game trail that wound through the trees. "Loki," she called as she followed the sound of the barking dog.
The trail led to a fence with a German shepherd on the other side. She didn't know what he was barking at, but he was what she'd been hearing, so strike one.
She looked around but didn't see any sign of Loki. Or of anything else worth barking at for that matter. "Sorry, buddy. Just looking for my puppy."
She found her way back to the trail, shouting Loki's name the whole time.
Still no sign of him.
She was about to turn back and retrace her steps, desperate to do whatever it took to find him, when she heard a high-pitched plaintive puppy cry that sounded like the worst thing in the whole world had just happened. It was Loki's, "where are you, why did you abandon me?" cry.
"Here, Loki. Come here, boy," she shouted, her knees almost buckling with the relief she felt.
She watched the trail, scared to move, until she saw him race around the corner, his tongue hanging out of his mouth. If dogs could smile, he was. He looked so pleased with himself it was ridiculous.
And the camera was right there on his back—he must've run into a tree or something because it was angled more towards the sky than the ground in front of him, but puppy and camera were both just fine.
"Come here, boy." She was going to take that thing off him, right now.
He ran towards her but then swerved to the right and dashed up the side of the hill before he reached her.
"Loki!"
He ignored her as he sniffed something interesting halfway up the hill.
At least he was back where she could see him, but she watched him like a hawk in case he decided to take off again. Once had been enough, thank you very much.
The rest of the walk he stayed close to her, but he never did come close enough for her to leash him up or remove the camera harness. He was too smart for that.
When they finally did reach the gate and Loki ran up to her, she was so relieved she didn't even know what to do with herself.
She swore she'd never bring him back. (Even though she knew it was a lie. How could she resist that cute little face?)
* * *
That night, Blair curled up on the couch with Loki next to her. He rested his head on her thigh and gazed up at her with his soft black eyes, his black tail thumping slowly in sleepy contentment.
"You are too cute for your own good, you know that?" She scratched behind his ears. "I should be mad at you for running away today, but I can't be."
Loki gave a contented sigh and leaned into her hand.
"You ready to see your footage, buddy?"
She'd loaded the video to her computer and hooked it up to her TV so they could watch it in full-blown live color.
She hit play and settled in to see where he'd gone.
Loki perked up when he heard himself barking at the squirrel. He stared at the TV, his nose pointed forward, ears half-down, body tensed, unsure what to make of it.
Blair laughed. "It's okay, buddy. It's just on the TV."
Loki jumped off the couch and ran over to the screen, sniffing it intensely. He stepped back from the TV and barked at it and then tilted his head to the side as if waiting for some sort of response.
"Come on, Loki. Leave it."
He glanced back at her.
"Leave it. Sit here with me." She patted the couch and muted the sound on the TV.
He glanced at the TV and then back at her.
"Come on." She lowered her voice as she called for him once more, trying to sound as sweet and welcoming as she could.
Loki glanced at the TV one last time before he clambered back onto the couch and laid down next to her with a small harrumph.
"Good boy. Now let's see where you ran off to today."
It was a little hard to see where Loki was going since his ears really did take up a large portion of the screen, but Blair could see enough to decipher what had happened.
He was halfway down the hill when something caught his attention and he turned his head to the left, ears perked forward. She longed to unmute the TV once more and hear what he'd heard, but she didn't dare. Loki was still intensely focused on the TV screen.
"Here it comes," she muttered as she saw Loki glance up the hill where she probably was and then run towards whatever he'd heard, leaving the established trail far behind.
He darted through trees, up a hillside, down a slight dip, and then up another hillside until he reached what should've been the boundary of the dog park. It was marked by a large wooden fence consisting of long wooden slats overlaid with chicken wire.
Loki sniffed his way along it until he found a spot where the fence ended, giving way to rocks and boulders. He scrambled over them and down the other side.
Blair held her breath, wondering where the hell he was going. Oh sure, she knew he was safe now, but just how close had he come to something bad happening?
He ran through a forested hillside, leaping small brush plants and dodging between tree limbs, and then across a narrow dirt road and up the driveway of a house nestled in the shadow of the trees. It was more log cabin than house, really, but nicely taken care of.
Sitting on the porch was a dog that looked just like him, wagging its tail in the same crazy way he did. It had the same quirky ears, the same dark patches around the eyes, but where Loki's body and paws were mostly white, this dog's paws were each brown, like it was wearing little stockings on its feet.
The other dog stood and they both did the little circle thing that dogs do when they're trying to sniff each other but neither one will stand still.
"Ah, so that's it. You found a friend, did you? Or maybe a sister or brother?"
She'd adopted Loki from a friend of a friend of a friend whose dog had gotten knocked up accidentally. She'd known there were other puppies in Loki's litter, but never how many there were or where they'd ended up. He'd been the last one adopted—the runt of the litter who no one except her wanted.
This had to be one of his litter mates, it just had to be.
The door to the cabin opened and Blair saw a man's legs. He was wearing hiking boots and jeans, both well-worn but well-cared for. She unmuted the television to hear what he said.
"Hey there, little guy. Where'd you come from?"
Loki licked his hand and the man knelt down to pet him. She only caught a glimpse of dark green eyes and a friendly smile as Loki leaned into his scratching.
On the couch beside her, Loki thumped his tail and whined as he watched the screen.
"You liked him, did you?" Loki licked her hand and let out a little sad puppy sigh as he laid his head back down to watch.
On the screen the man had managed to find Loki's tag, but then muttered to himself when he realized his phone was inside. "Wait here, buddy. I'll be right back."
The man retreated inside and Loki looked like he was going to wait, but then his ears perked up
and he turned back towards the dog park. Very faintly, Blair could her herself calling his name somewhere in the distance.
Without a backwards glance, Loki raced away to find her.
"So that's where you went, huh, Loki? To find yourself a new friend." She rewound the video and watched the few glimpses of the man the camera had captured. "And you found me a good-looking man, too…"
She ruffled his ears. "Next time you run away, bring that man back with you, would ya?"
* * *
Blair didn't think much more about it for the rest of the week. She had a ton going on and was hard-pressed to finish everything she needed to at work and keep Loki from going insane at home. By the time the next weekend rolled around she knew she had to take him to Deer Valley to let off a little steam.
"You aren't going to run away on me this time, are you?" she asked him.
Loki sat obediently in front of her, watching with his big black eyes and thumping tail. He looked too innocent—like a kid who's trying to hide the fact that he just raided the cookie jar. But he really did need the exercise. And there was no place like Deer Valley anywhere around.
She just had to trust that he'd stay close to her this time.
When they reached the gate, Blair unhooked Loki's leash and he shot off into the trees, barking after a squirrel.
Just like every Saturday morning, it seemed.
She gave him a minute or so with the squirrel and then called him to her. Loki came immediately and she felt a small surge of relief. Good, he was going to listen to her today.
But when they turned a bend in the trail a few minutes later, he dashed off into the trees, barking ecstatically.
"Loki!" She raced after him even though it was a helluva lot harder for her to crash her way through the underbrush than it was for him.
A tree branch slapped her in the face and she found herself feeling very, very grateful that she was wearing sunglasses. That had been close.
"Loki! Come back here!" She tried not to sound angry, because she knew that would just make him run farther, but she really, really didn't want him to run away again. She'd be forced to stop bringing him to Deer Valley and they'd both suffer for it.
She loved bringing him, but if he couldn't listen to her….
She pushed through a tangle of branches and stumbled onto the path, right into some poor guy. They both fell over, Blair landing heavily on top of the man.
She rolled to the side immediately. "I am so sorry. I didn't mean to knock you over. Are you okay?"
The man stared at her and at the forested hillside and then back at her.
"I know, I know. I just came out of nowhere. I was trying to follow my dog. He ran away from me last time we were here and I was so worried he'd run away again, so I just followed him straight down the hill through the trees and I guess I wasn't looking and I just barreled right into you and…"
She stopped talking as she finally realized a few things.
First, the man was the same one from the video. (He was even more gorgeous in person.)
And, second, Loki was sitting next to the man licking his hand.
"Loki, stop that."
The man scratched Loki's ears. "So this little guy's yours, huh?"
"Yeah."
"I'm glad to see he's okay. He found his way to my front door the other day and I was about to call you but I didn't have my phone and so I went back in to get it and when I came out he was gone and I thought, oh no, poor guy, but here you are."
He smiled and Blair smiled back at him, relieved to know she wasn't the only one who'd been reduced to a blubbering fool by the situation.
"Yeah, I saw it. On the video."
"Right, right. I forgot the little guy was recording it all." He ruffled Loki's ears and nudged him towards the other puppy who was sitting in the middle of the path, watching the whole scene with his head tilted to the side and ears perked up.
Loki barked at the other puppy and chased after him. In less than a minute they were rolling around and nipping at each other, having a fantastic time.
Blair settled back on the trail to watch them play. "It's hard to tell which is which, they look so alike."
"I know. I bet he's Badger's brother. There was one other in the litter that had those same patches on his eyes. I almost adopted both of them, but then I figured that was more than I could handle."
"I'm glad you didn't because I wouldn't've found Loki otherwise."
They smiled at each other and then both looked away, blushing.
"So, uh, which direction were you headed?" the man asked her, wiping his hands off on his jeans.
"Um, honestly, I'm not really sure. I'm a bit turned around after following him down the hill."
The man stood and offered her a hand up. She liked the feel of his hand on hers—it was strong, capable, the hand of a man who had confidence in himself and his abilities.
"Well…the pups sure seem to be getting along well. You want to walk with us for a bit?" He shoved his hands into his jeans pockets.
"Yeah, I'd love that." She tried not to blush as she settled in beside him.
"I'm Gary, by the way."
"Blair."
They exchanged a quick glance and a smile but both looked away quickly.
"Oh, look at that." Gary laughed as he pointed at the puppies who'd managed to roll themselves in a mud puddle and were now completely coated.
"Oh, no…" Blair shook her head, but she couldn't help but laugh, they looked so pleased with themselves.
Gary and Blair spent the rest of the walk talking and laughing as the puppies romped and played along the trail ahead of them. Gary was just as shy as Blair was, but fortunately for them the puppies were a never-ending source of amusement and conversation.
When they finally reached the gate, Blair paused, unsure what to say but knowing she didn't want this to be the end of things. She hadn't had this much fun talking to a man in far too long.
Gary leaned back against the fence rail, his arms crossed across his chest. "So, you, um, you come here each weekend then?"
Blair nodded, kicking at a rock with her foot. "Yeah, it's a bit of a drive for us, but so worth it for Loki to have a chance to run around."
Gary nodded slowly, looking off into the distance. "I try to bring Badger here each day when I can."
They both fell silent, neither one moving to leave, but neither one saying much else.
Finally, Blair gathered her courage together. "You know, I think they really enjoy playing together."
"That they do." Gary smiled and met her eyes for a second before looking away with a blush.
"So, maybe…next Saturday when I bring Loki I could call you and let you know we're coming? And you guys could join us? What do you think?"
Gary met her eyes and held them this time. "That'd be great." He stood up. "And that way Loki won't be tempted to run away to find Badger."
"That, too."
Their eyes met and both of them immediately glanced away, but then Gary stepped closer to her and held out his hand.
"If you want to give me your phone, I can key in my number."
"Okay." Blair hovered next to him as he keyed in the number, smelling the clean, earthy smell of him. She didn't think he was wearing deodorant or cologne, he just had a nice smell to him. Very much like a crisp mountain morning.
"Let me test it." He hit send and the phone in his pocket started to ring. "Yep, worked."
"Great." Blair bit her lip. "So I'll call you next weekend then?"
He nodded.
Blair led Loki towards the car, trying not to be too disappointed that she'd have to wait a whole week to see Gary again.
As she reached the car, her phone rang.
It was Gary.
"Hello?" she asked as she gazed quizzically in his direction.
"Hey, Blair, it's Gary. I was wondering…you doing anything for lunch today?"
Blair tried to hide her smile but failed. "No. Why?"
"Well,
uh, maybe you could come over and the pups could play some more and we could get to know each other a little better. What do ya think?"
"I'd like that. A lot."
Gary nodded. "Alright then."
They stood there in awkward silence for a moment before Blair finally asked, "Do you want a ride there? I don't really know where I'm going and I think Loki's way to reach you isn't the best choice."
"Right! Yeah, definitely. Let's drive there."
Gary hung up the phone and led Badger over to Blair's car. Blair watched them, trying not to show just how excited she was to spend more time with Gary.
* * *
That first lunch was a bit awkward, because both Blair and Gary were a little shy and the conversation faltered more than once. But they always had the pups to fall back on when their conversation came to a stuttering stop.
And it was clear enough to both of them that Loki and Badger were inseparable and never wanted to leave one another, which made it easy enough for Blair and Gary to make excuses to extend their lunch into dinner.
And to arrange for Blair and Loki to come back on Sunday for another hike. And then on Tuesday night. And Thursday night. And…
Of course, truth be told, Blair and Gary liked each other quite a bit as well, so it wasn't too long before they'd found a way to be together all the time.
And when it came time to make it official in front of all their friends and family, they had the two cutest flower pups on the planet. (Not that either pup actually managed to walk all the way down the aisle, but that was okay. It was that rebellious, adventurous spirit that had brought Blair and Gary together in the first place, so they didn't really mind.)
Puppy Love Holiday Surprise
As Amy threaded her way through the holiday shoppers crowding the aisles of Barks 'n' Books, she tried not to sing along with the holiday muzak playing on the overhead speakers, but that sleigh bells ring song was really too catchy to resist. And after a week straight of listening to the same CD play over and over again, each word was practically embedded in her brain.
She'd probably be ninety, living in an old folk's home somewhere, and still able to recite every single lyric of every single song on the CD even though she wouldn't know what day of the week it was.