Shadow

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Shadow Page 8

by Aris Austin


  She collected the dogs from the back and walked all three of them to the center of the park. The amount of planning that had obviously gone into the event was breathtaking. The whole thing had been set up facing a long stretch of sidewalk, so that both intentional adopters and passersby would see the dogs. Countless portable dog pens, most of them already occupied, had been linked together in the grass. Five evenly spaced pop-up tents stood at regular intervals in front of the pens, serving as either bases for volunteers or shelter for the dogs if the weather turned bad.

  Annie directed Shadow, Scott, and Mango into three adjacent pens and then took her place under a nearby tent. Shadow’s pen contained everything a dog could possibly need for a day outside—food, water, even a new toy. He happily rolled in the grass that made up the floor of his pen, covering himself in the scent. Just the feeling of fresh grass beneath his paws was enough to make this a good day.

  Two more dogs passed by Shadow’s pen, and he stood to watch them. It seemed like nearly every dog at the shelter had come to the park. There was no way to count them all, but it must have been more dogs than Shadow had ever seen in one place before. And after the dogs were all in place, humans began to arrive. Annie had been right about the size of the event. There were even more people than there were dogs! Countless people—most seeming friendly enough—stopped by Shadow’s kennel for a visit. Shadow was on his feet the entire day, meeting new people, sniffing new hands, and playing with as much energy as he could muster. Fortunately, the pen was small enough that he had an excuse not to run.

  Annie was busy all day too, pacing between pens and answering questions. She talked to potential adopters for most of the day, but Shadow was so busy that he only caught little glimpses of what she said. “Yes, we have an 88% placement rate for animals that come into our shelter—the highest in the state… This is Shadow. He’s such a gentleman… yes, Scott is a girl…Okay well, after you think about it, you can always come back tomorrow or give us a call at this number… Yes sir, we always encourage adoption over breeding, because breeding operations just don’t have the animals’ best interests at heart. Plus, there are plenty of animals who need homes already…”

  The flurry of visiting humans were relentless with their questions for Annie, which kept her away from Shadow for most of the day. Occasionally she was able to give him a few quick scratches while introducing him to some humans, but then she was gone again, off to process some adoption form or answer a question.

  By late afternoon, Shadow was too tired to keep standing. He settled down into the grass, nearly taking a headfirst tumble when he tried to bend his aching knees. People still came and he still greeted them just as happily, so Shadow decided it would be alright to stay down for the rest of the day. The afternoon sun warmed his back, and he splayed out to soak up as many rays as he could. The sun’s rays inevitably brought on thoughts of Riley, which brought hints of that old ache back to Shadow’s chest. It was impossible not to think of her whenever the sun came out. There were plenty of other dogs to befriend, but none of them seemed content to simply nap with Shadow all day, and none of them could replace Riley. The sun wasn’t quite as warm without her.

  Shadow was exhausted by the time Annie lifted him back into her car at the end of the day. Mango joined him in the car seat, but Scott was gone. Shadow vaguely remembered seeing a human take the little beagle home at some point during the day, but it was difficult to remember when.

  Annie climbed into the front seat and turned around to face Shadow and Mango. She looked worn out from the day too. Her face was sunburned, despite the copious amounts of sunscreen she’d put on in the morning. There was a hint of disappointment in her eyes, although she wore a smile. Shadow and Mango must have looked disappointed too, because Annie patted them and said, “Hey, cheer up guys! I know it was tiring, but the first day’s always the busiest!”

  She quickly added, “But don’t worry, you both still have a great chance of going home! There won’t be as many people tomorrow, but a lot of dogs went home today. Do the math, and that means you’ll both get more attention!”

  Shadow couldn’t imagine having even more attention than he’d already received, but he vowed to do whatever it took to find a home.

  ****

  Annie was right. The second day of the fair wasn’t as busy, but Shadow somehow did get more attention. He wondered how Annie always managed to be right about everything. She seemed to have a knack for that.

  Each person stayed with Shadow for longer, even climbing into his pen to sit in the grass with him. Shadow liked everyone he met, but for different reasons. There was a young man who looked like Adam, which made Shadow both excited and nervous. He smelled different from Adam, so Shadow decided it was alright to like him. A human with glasses had a gentle, soothing voice. A couple of young boys, while slightly irritating, seemed to have unlimited quantities of love to give. The younger boy even reminded Shadow of little Bri, who had always left him with kisses.

  One man who sat in the pen was a rare type of human—he allowed Shadow to give his face as many licks as he pleased. He sat in the pen with Shadow so long that the top of his bald head went from white to red, but eventually he got up and left. Everyone eventually got up and left, no matter how much affection Shadow showed them. Both Annie and Kim had told him in the past that there was nothing wrong with him, but Shadow couldn’t help but wonder if that was really true.

  In the afternoon, one young girl read to Shadow while her mother spoke with Annie. She was at the age where she read anything in sight, so Shadow heard everything written on his pen’s namecard at least twice. The girl stumbled over the occasional word, but Shadow waited patiently while she sounded it out. He’d been through this before plenty of times, back when Bel had learned to read. Shadow had been told repeatedly that he was the best listener in the family, a title he took pride in.

  “Shadow,” said the girl. “Male shep-herd mix. Sixty-eight pounds. Twelve…years old. Wow, that’s older than Michael! Michael is my brother. You don’t know him.”

  She glanced back at the card, using her finger to keep track of the lines. “Shadow is an older…gentle…man who would love to go home with you. His add… his adopt…”

  The girl furrowed her brow, confused. Shadow poked his nose out of the pen and gave her hand an encouraging lick.

  “His adop-tie-on fee has already been paid by a…gen-er-ous sponsor. Ask a… staff member for dee-ta-ils.”

  The girl stepped back, looking rather pleased with herself. Just then, her mother turned away from Annie and said, “Ready to go, Jenna?”

  Jenna stared up at her mother. “Are we taking Shadow home?”

  Jenna’s mother gave her a weak smile. “Maybe. We need to look at other dogs too. Shadow might be a little big for our house.”

  The young girl nodded and took her mother’s hand. As they left, she pointed to a sign that hung from a pop-up tent and read, “Save a life. Adopt a… home-less dog.”

  They worked their way farther down the line of pens, stopping to visit several dogs along the way. Eventually, they went home with a dog that must have been a fifth of Shadow’s size. Shadow sighed, settled down into the grass, and rested his head on his paws. It was hard not to get discouraged after watching so many other dogs go home.

  Tired of meeting people and then watching them leave, Shadow distracted himself with a dancing blade of grass sprouting just in front of his nose. Any time he inhaled, the blade of grass leaned in and tickled his face. It leaned away again when Shadow exhaled, which he found quite amusing.

  When Annie directed a couple toward Shadow’s pen, he left his blade of grass and made sure to play with the humans. He played with every human he met, which was quite the achievement considering how many of them there were. At the end of the day though, Shadow found himself back in Annie’s car. When Mango didn’t join them, Annie explained that the pit bull had been adopted at the last minute before closing. Shadow sighed. Other dogs always seemed t
o be able to find homes.

  The third day was like the first two days, but only in the morning. Dark clouds rolled in around midday, and before long a cold, heavy rain began to fall from the sky. The tent closest to Shadow’s pen was moved to shelter him, so he managed to stay mostly dry. The rain scared off most of the potential adopters though, which discouraged Shadow even more. The only advantage of the rainstorm was that Annie’s table of adoption paperwork also had to stay under the tent, which in turn meant that Annie was close by for most of the day. She stood next to Shadow’s pen, scratching the top of his head and waiting for more people to come by. While they waited, Annie told Shadow more stories.

  This rainstorm was supposed to last all the way through until tomorrow morning, she told him. At least it wasn’t snow, but it sure came at a bad time.

  Annie told Shadow about a rainstorm from when she was a very little girl. The rainstorm lasted for three days and nights, and the streets got so flooded that school was canceled on the third day. Annie laughed. “We didn’t get any snow days that entire year, I remember. But we did get a rain day. That’s the only one I’ve ever had.”

  When it was finally time to pack things up, Annie led Shadow through the rain and back to the car. The water soaked them both long before they reached the car, and Shadow decided that the weather reflected his mood pretty well. How was he supposed to find a happy home if no one even gave him a chance?

  Shadow hoisted his front half into the car while Annie helped with the back half. Always prepared, she grabbed a towel from the trunk and stood in the rain while she dried him off. Rain fell onto the seat while Annie stood in the open doorway, but she didn’t seem to notice. She looked as disappointed as Shadow felt.

  Sighing, Annie stepped away and reached back to close the door. Shadow whined.

  Annie paused, and then leaned into the car again. Outside, the rain soaked through what little bit of dry clothing she still had, but she didn’t seem to care. Instead, she scratched both sides of Shadow’s neck in big, slow circles. Then she pressed her forehead against his and let out another sigh.

  “I’m really sorry, buddy. I was so sure you were going to go home this weekend. The rain was some really bad luck. We’re going to keep trying though. You don’t deserve to have to stay in that kennel.”

  She waited there with Shadow for a long time, her head pressed against his, neither of them moving. Rain streamed in through the open car door and soaked the seat, but they were both too miserable to notice.

  Finally, Annie stood back and looked at Shadow. Her voice took on an optimistic tone, but her eyes betrayed her.

  “Listen, buddy. The foster system has been full all year so far, but we adopted all but eight dogs this weekend. There’s going to be a lot of rearranging of dogs and a lot of them will be coming out of foster and back into the shelter to get adopted. I think there’s a good chance of getting you into a foster home. It isn’t a permanent home, but it is a home. And it’ll buy you some more time, so you don’t get…it’ll be good for you.”

  Annie shut the door and climbed into the front seat. Neither one of them made a sound during the ride back to the shelter.

  Chapter 14

  Shadow never made it to a foster home.

  The rain that started on the last day of the adoption fair turned out to be an even bigger storm than the one from Annie’s story. Heavy rain drummed against the shelter’s roof for five days and four nights.

  During the storm—and in the weeks after—the shelter was the busiest Shadow had ever seen it. Countless dogs and cats were displaced in the floods, pushing every shelter in the area past capacity. On the fourth day of rain, Shadow heard talk of another shelter being practically destroyed in a flash flood. Fortunately, they had managed to save every animal in a miracle involving an army of community members. Shadow had been glad to hear that, even though every single dog from the destroyed shelter ended up in his shelter.

  Shadow missed his walks several days in a row, which made him hate the rain. Annie explained that they couldn’t go out because the creek near the trail had flooded, but knowing the reason didn’t ease Shadow’s restlessness. After the second day without a walk, he started occupying himself by pacing the kennel and watching the endless parade of new dogs go by. They were brought in every hour of the day, straight from the grooming room. “Flood dogs,” they were called. Some were reclaimed by their worried guardians within a few days, but fresh waves of homeless dogs quickly took their places.

  Staff worked longer hours to handle the volume, volunteers showed up for longer days, and the nearly empty shelter quickly swelled to capacity again. Since the shelter filled up so quickly, the foster dogs stayed in their foster homes. And Shadow stayed in the shelter.

  The days grew shorter as they passed, each a little colder than the last one. Shadow’s naps in the warm sun grew shorter too, since the sun spent so much less time in the sky. Some days, when the staff determined that it was too cold to go out for more than a few minutes, there were no naps in the sun at all.

  As the weeks ticked by, even Shadow’s beloved walks decreased in length. Not because of the weather—Annie and Kim were always prepared for bad weather—but simply because Shadow’s legs didn’t work quite the way they once had. His joints ached and his muscles tired quickly, despite the fact that he did little to tire them out. Once, Anthony had observed that daily walks were probably the best way to prevent the arthritis’s progression. But by shortening Shadow’s walks, the arthritis had somehow managed to prevent its own prevention.

  Annie did the best she could to ease Shadow’s aging. She always made sure he received his medication and that his bed had extra blankets to pad his aching bones. She scratched his favorite spot and told him stories, or sat next to him on the floor of the common room when it was too cold for the dog run. One day in late autumn, the shelter was closed except for the basic staff needed to feed and care for the dogs. Annie made sure to visit though, appearing during the afternoon with someone she introduced as her sister. With a furtive glance to make sure no one was watching, Annie reached into her coat pocket, produced a small dinner roll, and whispered, “Happy Thanksgiving, buddy.”

  The dinner roll was delicious, and Shadow adored Annie’s sister almost as much as he adored Annie. They had the same way of talking to him like he was a human, the same smile, and even the same laugh. Annie’s sister repeatedly exclaimed that she wished Shadow could go with her, but they would never allow it in the dorms.

  Shortly after that day, the cold grip of winter set in and all of Shadow’s dog run time became common room time. Staff set up an artificial Christmas tree in a corner of the common room, which pleased Shadow even if it wasn’t a real tree. It didn’t bring the smell of the forest inside like the trees from Brian’s house had, but it was nice for taking naps under.

  On one particularly snowy morning, Shadow slept under the tree with more excitement than he thought possible. Outside, the first snow deep enough to dig in had fallen, and he couldn’t wait for his afternoon walk. It had been far too long since he last played in snow. It was lucky that the cold had little effect on Shadow’s joints, though he would have been excited regardless of that. It would take more than arthritis to keep him away from his favorite weather.

  In between periods of sleep, Shadow listened to Annie make phone calls in the adoption office next to the common room. She usually played with the dogs on her days to supervise the common room, but she’d been on the phone all morning. Shadow could hear what she said clearly enough through the window between the two rooms, but he could only hear her side of the conversation.

  “No, he hasn’t shown any behavioral issues,” said Annie. She paused while the other person spoke. “I understand, we’re still full from the floods too. Just checking. Thank you for your time.”

  She hung up and quickly dialed another number. “Hi, my name is Annie Collins and I’m with the Ridgeview Dog Rescue. I’m calling to see if your shelter has any room for a do
g who’s almost out of time here. I’m told you’ve accepted dogs from us in the past.

  “I know, I never thought the floods would still be affecting us after so long either. It’s been a hard few months. Well, good luck and please call us if anything changes for you.”

  Shadow dozed off briefly while Annie searched for a new number to dial. He woke up halfway through another call, unsure of how much time had passed. Annie’s voice seemed strained, as if being polite and cheerful was quickly becoming a chore.

  “…No sir, our foster systems are completely full. Every time we adopt a dog out, another comes in almost immediately.

  “That’s a good idea, Utah escaped most of the flooding. I’ll try calling around there. Thank you. You too.”

  Shadow fell asleep again while Annie began making calls to shelters in neighboring states. He slept lightly, waking every few moments to catch snippets of conversation.

  “…they’re all from a hoarding situation? Yes, I can understand why you have your hands full. Thank you. Please call me if anything changes.”

  “Hi, is this Harper’s Hope Dog Rescue? Yes, I can hold.”

  “…only has a couple of weeks left here…”

  “…Please call me if anything changes. Thank you.”

  Shadow wondered how many numbers Annie had dialed. Over time, her normally cheerful tone transformed into rushed, clipped speech and the calls grew more and more desperate. “Hi, this is a longshot but I’m with Ridgeview Dog Rescue and I’m looking to place a dog who’s almost out of time, and I know your shelter usually takes dogs under twenty pounds, but if you have any space… Yes, of course. Thanks anyway.”

 

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