by V. M. Burns
I waved and looked around. Nearby was a display booth with a sign advertising a high-end doggie day care.
“Lilly!”
I jumped as Monica Jill waved her hand in front of my face. “You scared me to death.”
She smiled. “You were miles away. I’ve called you three times.”
“Sorry.”
She smiled. “Guess what?”
At that moment, my brain wasn’t firing on all cylinders. “Lenny wants me to clean up after elephants coming to the circus?”
She laughed. “No, but I wouldn’t put it past her.” She smiled expectantly. When I didn’t respond, she put her hand on her hip and stomped a foot. “I can’t believe you can’t guess.”
I shook my head. “Sorry, I think all of the ammonia has damaged my brain cells.” I held up my spray bottle.
She sighed. “The owners accepted your offer. You just bought a house!”
Even after she spelled it out, it took a few moments for my brain to remember what she was talking about. When the reality sank in, I leapt up and gave her a hug. “Thank you!”
“You’re welcome!”
We talked about the next steps, which involved getting an inspection and sending the signed sales contract to my bank to start the mortgage process.
“Now, what had you so engrossed that I nearly had to slap you to get your attention?”
I pointed to the booth for Pet Haven.
“They’re fantastic. I take Jac there two days per week.”
I cocked my head to the side to stare at her better. “Are you serious? Doggie day care? What is it?”
“Oh, honey, you need to take Aggie. She’d love it. You drop your dog off in the morning and they get to play and run and get rid of some of their pent-up energy. Aggie’s small so she might not be as wild and crazy as Jac, but it was either day care or I was going to have to take him back to the shelter.” She shook her head. “Dixie recommended I look into it.”
“Aggie isn’t as rambunctious as Jac, but she’s smart and Dixie said she gets bored when I’m at work. So, she gets into trouble.” I looked over at the sign again. “I wonder if it would be a good idea for her.”
Monica Jill linked arms with me. “Let’s go over and find out.” She guided me over to the booth.
Pet Haven Pet Resort and Doggie Day Care had a booth that was much more elaborate than the pop-up tents and umbrellas over tables that most of the other vendors brought. Their tent was a four-sided one that had round-topped windows on two of the sides. One side was unzipped and folded back to reveal a spacious interior. It looked as though hardwood floors covered the ground and a crystal chandelier dangled from the center of the tent. Inside the tent was furnished with comfortable furniture and a large television.
“Wow!” I stared at the inside thinking how much nicer this tent looked than my hotel room.
A man and a woman were engaged in an embrace but immediately separated.
“Welcome!” A tall, thin, beautiful woman with flawless skin, who looked like a supermodel, walked forward and extended her hand.
I wiped my hand on my T-shirt before shaking. Something about her perfectly arched brows and neatly coiffed hair in this immaculate upscale tent made me feel small and dirty.
The man gave one glance at the woman before sidling past us and making his exit from the tent.
Monica Jill didn’t seem to feel any discomfort. She smiled broadly, then walked up and gave the woman a hug. “Keri Lynn, I thought I recognized you.” The two women embraced. “You’re looking as beautiful as ever.”
Keri Lynn smiled. “Monica Jill, I didn’t know you were involved with dog shows.” She looked around. “Did you bring Jac?”
“Good Lord. No! Jac would be kicked out of here fast and in a hurry.” She turned to me. “This is my good friend, Lilly Ann Echosby.” She turned back to Keri Lynn. “This is Keri Lynn Simpson, owner of Pet Haven Pet Resort and Doggie Day Care.”
We nodded an acknowledgment.
“Keri Lynn, you’re just going to have to excuse us. We look a hot mess, but we’re both members of the Eastern Tennessee Dog Club and we volunteered to help out today.” She leaned close and whispered, “We’ve gotten stuck cleaning dog poop all day.”
Keri Lynn smiled. “No worries. Some days I feel like that’s all we do at Pet Haven.”
The two friends chatted for a few minutes and I wandered around the tent and looked at the homey décor. I picked up the brochures that detailed their menu of services, which included day care, pet grooming, and boarding. Apparently, Pet Haven was a high-end, full-service facility.
“What kind of dog do you have?” Keri Lynn stood by my shoulder.
“I have a toy poodle named Aggie.”
“Aggie is the cutest little thing.” Monica Jill scrunched her shoulders and grinned. “I just want to pick her up and love on her every time I see her.”
“She’s cute, but she has her moments,” I said. “Our obedience instructor, Dixie Jefferson, said she’s smart and needs something to do.”
Keri Lynn nodded. “Smart dogs without a job can get into a lot of trouble. Are you considering doggie day care?”
I nodded.
“I hope you’ll consider Pet Haven. We have a wonderful day care program. There will be plenty of dogs for her to play with during the day, plus we have excellent security.”
“Jac loves day care. As soon as we get to Pet Haven, he practically drags me inside. When he sees his buddies, he gets so excited and his little butt just wags.” Monica Jill smiled and demonstrated the wag by wagging her body. “He loves to run and play. By the time he gets home, he’s worn out.” She smiled. “They have excellent staff who will toss his ball for hours.”
“I’ve been reluctant to take Aggie because I worry about her getting hurt. She’s such a little dog.” I looked at Keri Lynn. “She only weighs six pounds.”
“No need to worry. We have a separate play area for the little dogs and another one for puppies. She won’t be playing with dogs that weigh more than twenty pounds. We’re extremely careful about things like that.”
Keri Lynn Simpson talked about all of the features of Pet Haven for several minutes, from the trained staff to the twenty-four-hour security and pet cams that allowed concerned pet parents to go online and watch their “fur babies” whenever they wanted. She also handed me a brochure that touted the benefits of boarding with Pet Haven. “At Pet Haven, your fur baby is a guest. Your dog isn’t put in a cage all day and all night and only taken outside a few times a day, like at other boarding facilities. Our pet guests have their own rooms.” She picked up a remote and pushed several buttons until pictures of the luxury accommodations popped up. The villas were actual rooms that included flat-screen televisions, aromatherapy, luxury bedding, private air-conditioned interior spaces, and a doggie door to their own private exterior space.
“Aromatherapy?” I looked at the brochure.
“Yes, that’s standard for all of our guests. Although you will be pleased to know we have a wide variety of à la carte services that include everything from shiatsu massage to acupuncture for some of our older guests.”
It took several seconds before I realized my mouth was open. I closed it and swallowed. “How much does something like that cost?”
I could tell by the way her lips pursed she found the discussion of cost distasteful. However, after a few seconds, she rattled off some figures that made my jaw drop again. She sniffed and shrugged. “We service a select clientele. Our patrons want only the best for their canine companions.” She lifted her right hand and looked at her wrist, which held an expensive diamond Rolex.
She took a gold pen and scribbled something on the back of a business card with her left hand and then handed it to me. Keri Lynn smiled, but the smile never reached her eyes. I had been mentally dismissed.
The s
peaker announced cleanup was needed, and Monica Jill and I made our apologies and hurried back to work. I put the brochures in my pocket and promptly forgot about Pet Haven as I returned to my self-inflicted purgatory.
By the end of the day, every part of my body ached and an odor followed me to the point that I could only conclude the hideous odor was attached to some part of my being. In the parking lot, I removed my shoes and placed a garbage bag I’d stuffed in my pocket on the seat before getting in the car.
I drove back to the hotel and sat behind the wheel of the car for a full minute before I could muster up the strength to force my body to get out of the car. However, Aggie needed to be walked and fed. So, I forced my mind not to think about the pain as I got out and made my way in my socks from the parking lot to the room.
I put on a pair of slippers and quickly took Aggie outside so she could take care of business. It took longer than normal because Aggie was fascinated with all of the smells on my clothing and spent a long time sniffing my legs. Eventually, she gave me a break and did her business. After an entire day of cleaning up after dogs, it took every bit of willpower to force my body to bend over and clean up after my own dog. However, as B.J. had commented earlier, I still heard Dixie’s voice in my head. Responsible dog owners clean up after their pets.
Back in the room, I ordered a pizza while I fed Aggie. When the pizza was delivered, I took it into the bathroom, peeled off my clothes, and sank into a hot bubble bath. The desk chair served as my table, and I took a bottle of wine from my small refrigerator and drank directly from the bottle while I soaked. Aggie scratched at the door and whined for admittance, but I knew from experience that my makeshift table wasn’t tall enough to prevent a determined poodle from stealing a slice of pizza, and the hotel bed was too low for me to slide under to retrieve her.
I stayed in the tub so long my skin started to pucker, and I had to refresh the water three times. When I finally got out, I was stiff but felt clean, a feeling I had wondered if I would ever experience again. I entered the bedroom, where Aggie had nestled into the middle of the bed and was sound asleep. I quietly dressed for bed and completed the remainder of my nightly routine by walking to the door and double-checking the locks. The extended-stay hotel rooms, while not huge by any standard, were much larger than a traditional hotel room, which was one of the reasons I chose it. When I turned to face the bed, I realized Aggie had expressed her dissatisfaction for being excluded from pizza by ripping up a pillow. There was a mass of foam along with a personal deposit that would have rivaled the one left by the borzoi. The smell of the pizza along with my bubble bath had delayed the odor, but now that I’d seen it, it overpowered every other smell. For a split second, I contemplated poodlecide.
When I woke up on Saturday morning, I was stiff but not nearly as sore as the previous day. Aggie was snuggled next to me, sharing the one pillow she hadn’t destroyed the previous night. When I opened my eyes, she immediately opened hers and her big brown eyes stared into mine. I wanted to be angry at her for the destruction she’d done the previous night. However, Dixie’s words rang through my head. Never discipline a dog if you did not see the offense happen. I had nothing but the highest respect for my friend, but I wasn’t so sure she was right that Aggie wouldn’t understand why she was being disciplined if it wasn’t done in the moment of the offense. I was sure I saw guilt staring out of her little face, plus something else. If I had to guess, I’d say it was a smirk of satisfaction.
Aggie yawned, and I got a whiff of doggie breath that reminded me I needed to make an appointment with my vet for a dental cleaning.
I stretched and got dressed. Today, I was thankful I hadn’t volunteered to work the entire weekend. I wanted to see the dogs and support Dixie. My plan was to go as a spectator today, although the idea of returning caused me to groan out loud.
As I was leaving, my phone rang. I looked down and recognized my boss’s name. “Hello, Linda Kay.”
“Lilly, I’m so sorry to bother you on your weekend.”
“It’s no bother, but aren’t you and Jacob supposed to be on your way to Atlanta for the art auction?”
“We don’t leave until tomorrow, but I just got a call from Jacob. He went hiking on Lookout Mountain and fell.”
“Oh. My. God. I hope he’ll be okay.”
“He’s got a broken ankle. He’ll be able to come back to work in a week, but he’s in no shape to travel to Atlanta with me. So that’s why I’m calling. I wondered if you would like to go?”
“Really?” I tried to hide my excitement, but I didn’t think I did a good job.
She chuckled. “Yes, really. Now, you certainly don’t have to go if you don’t want to. There’s no obligation.”
I looked at my face in the mirror over the bureau and realized there was no way I could hide my elation and didn’t even try. I screamed. “I’m sorry. I would love to go, but are you sure it’s okay? I’m just a temporary employee, and I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble with the board.”
I could tell from her voice she was smiling. “I already talked to the board chairman and got his approval. So if you want to come, you’re welcome.”
“I’d love to come.”
We finalized the details, and I was grinning when I hung up.
Linda Kay Weyman was the executive director for the Chattanooga Museum of Art, which was funded through the Hopewell Family Trust. Linda Kay and her assistant, Jacob Flemings, were full-fledged employees. I was a temp who was hired to straighten out the accounting mess left by the last Hopewell legacy, whom the trust was forced to hire. He hadn’t had the slightest clue about accounting and the books were in bad shape. I’d spent most of my time getting things straightened out with the IRS and making sure the museum’s nonprofit status was renewed. In the short time I’d worked at the museum, I was learning a lot about art. Linda Kay was an excellent teacher and a real classy lady.
She and Jacob had talked about the art auction a lot, and I had tried not to show my disappointment I wasn’t going to have an opportunity to attend. Now things had changed, and I was going to a real art auction. I did a happy dance, which must have had Aggie concerned I was having a seizure, if the tilt of her head and the look on her face were any indication.
I scooped up my dog and we danced—well, I turned around in circles and Aggie clutched my sweater as though her life depended on it. When I finally settled down, the realization dawned on me that in order for me to attend the art auction in Atlanta, I’d need to make arrangements for Aggie. I could ask Dixie. She and her husband, Beau, loved poodles, and I knew they would spoil her as much as they had their own two standard poodles. That was when I remembered Dixie and Beau would be leaving on Monday for their anniversary trip to the mountains in Gatlinburg. They weren’t even taking their own dogs with them. One of Beau’s nephews was going to be keeping their dogs. I racked my brain. Maybe Red, my gentleman friend, would be able to stay, but Red was away at a special training camp for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigators. He’d be back on Monday night, but that was too late. I needed someone tomorrow. I stared into Aggie’s expressive face and gave her a quick squeeze. I’d only been in Chattanooga a short time and hadn’t made a lot of friends I would trust to take care of her yet. The realization that I would have to board her left me cold. I knew people boarded their dogs all the time. I wished my daughter, Stephanie, lived closer. Or even my son, David. I took a deep breath and released it slowly. “Maybe Pet Haven?” I remembered the card Keri Lynn had given me earlier. I scrambled to find where I’d shoved it and took a look. Keri Lynn had apparently felt the prices were too steep for me, which they were, but the card gave me a 20 percent discount on my first boarding stay. I looked at Aggie.
She gave my nose a lick, which brought a smile to my face.
“This is crazy. I’m worrying for no good reason,” I reassured Aggie. “Pet Haven is an exclusive resort and spa. You’ll be able to
play and watch television. Maybe I’ll even spring for the shiatsu massage treatment.” I squeezed her and made a mental note to find out if Pet Haven accepted credit cards.
I fed Aggie and then took her outside to take care of business. I turned on the television to keep her company, one thing Pet Haven and I had in common. I briefly wondered what channel she would watch and then hurried out to the dog show.
Attending the dog show as a spectator was vastly different from attending as a professional pooper-scooper. I meandered around the grounds and admired the various breeds of dogs I’d barely glanced at the previous day. Many breeds I recognized, but far too many were dogs I’d never seen before, which I found fascinating. There were a lot of campers and RVs set up outside. Dogs were being bathed and groomed from one end of the grounds to the other. Few people walked without a brush in their hand and a small bait bag wrapped around their waists. As I learned from Dixie, bait bags were basically a small variation of a fanny pack used by dog trainers and competitors. They held treats used to “bait” or entice dogs.
I spent most of my time admiring the poodles, not just because I owned one but because I knew Dixie would be judging poodles and I hoped I would have an opportunity to see her in action.
Poodles were a popular breed, and there were a lot of them entered. Dixie had given me a crash course in conformation shows, which helped a bit, but there were still quite a few gaps in my understanding. I knew that most of the dogs entered were competing for points toward their AKC championship. To get the championship, each dog must acquire a total of fifteen points. The exact number of points awarded at each show differed by the breed. Popular breeds like poodles required more entries than less common breeds.
A parade of fluffy poodle puppies pranced by, and I smiled at the solid color fluff balls. I was engrossed in watching the various dogs.
“Enjoying the show?” Dixie asked.
I hadn’t seen her approach. I clutched my chest and took several deep breaths. “You scared me. Aren’t you supposed to be judging?”