Buck Vs. the Bulldog Ants

by David Kersey

CHAPTER FIFTY

  Marlene stood inside one of the facility rooms while pouring over the blueprints. She was mentally placing the furnishings, some of which were scheduled to be delivered next week, and some still needed to be bought. She was already over budget when she realized that she hadn’t added hoses to her list. She would need five fifty foot hoses. Four to be put in use at the bibs servicing the kennel wings and one for the guest quarters, which was taking shape and was full of workmen hard at labor swinging hammers and aiming their pneumatic guns.

  The contractor joined her as they both watched the last of the windows being installed. Three of the wings contained six adjacent 5’ by 8’ kennels and a five foot aisle which would allow walking space when the kennel doors were opened. Each wing had three windows in the aisle wall. Sunlight was available in every room except her office and the washroom.

  “When will we be able to turn on the electric?” she asked Jim Morgan, the general contractor.

  “Should be in a couple of days, right before we get the final inspection for the facility part. The guest house won’t be ready for another month, provided we don’t get a late snow that slows us down. By the end of the day we will have the windows and doors done and you can lock up the facility starting tonight.”

  “Excellent. I’ll tell ya Jim word is spreading like wildfire. I’ve got my first dog coming in two days and if we’re not ready yet I’ll put her up in Buck’s kennel. Then in the next two weeks after that I have dogs coming out the kazoo. Six more by the first of April. The Cleveland newspaper article caught a lot of attention. A very flattering article. My phone has rung off the hook from people wanting, almost begging, to work here. Had one call from Indianapolis, what is that, like three hundred miles away, a gal who seemed like she would almost pay me to help out. And the website is getting a lot of hits. Later today I’m interviewing my first employee candidate, so I’m going to talk with her in my car as we go to PetSmart and Ace Hardware. I’ll need the extra set of hands, I’ve got a lot of stuff on my list and no time to sit around interviewing.”

  “You’ll have to schedule phone service if you haven’t already. Make sure the installation is after the electric is hot. By the way, I read the article. Cagnetti did a great job for you.”

  “Done deal on the phone. Meanwhile my cell phone is blowing up. I think John offering the opportunity to hunt and fish here sweetened the pot with Cagnetti.”

  “I wouldn’t mind being included in that offer. I know about the giant catfish back there. You know my uncle used to own this place, don’t you?”

  “Yes, of course, Jim, that’s why John chose you for the job. And you know you can fish or hunt here anytime. Ok, I’m a happy camper, it’s really taking shape, but I gotta boogie, so much to do.”

  Before she left for the house she walked over to the south fence. A dozer was clearing the road access from the highway. John had been right. It needed its own access for cars, delivery trucks, and parking. The fencing would need modification to allow a double gate for the canines, and a swing gate for vehicular access. That work had been ordered. Things were progressing just fine. Her cell phone rang. She gave directions to the house to Matilda Davis, the woman she had scheduled to interview. Her heart raced with each candidate wanting to come aboard, how would she ever afford even one?

  “Cassie, we shouldn’t have brought up the hayride with the circle. Marlene doesn’t have time for it right now. It’s going to break Methusaleh’s heart. He’s been practicing his songs every day. The whole group was jubilant about it but maybe we should try to cool it with them for a little while.”

  “They’ll understand, at least I think they will. Mort could care less but Penny wanted to walk alongside the ATV. Maybe we can work on Marlene for some evening soon, she surely can’t work through the night, can she? And we still have the little problem with Raspy insisting on having Marlene bring a radio. Methusaleh is having a fit about it.”

  “Whatever, not a biggie. He’ll run out of songs to sing anyway. We’ll work that out. And Randall wants to bring two of his buddies. Maybe it was a bad idea in the first place. I mean even Ferdinand wants to come, geez.”

  “I suppose there are bigger problems in the world, what do you think Buck?” Cassie knew how to chafe me now and then.

  “Happy to meet you, Mrs. Johnson. I’m Matilda but people call me Tillie. I’m here about the job and I hope you find me qualified.”

  “My pleasure, Tillie. Do you have three hours to spend with me for which I can’t pay you? And if I hire you can you start right away?” Marlene spoke as the two walked toward the facility.

  “Yes, ma’am, to both.”

  “Good. Also I have a pay scale that I can’t bend since the early days will be all expenses and no income to speak of. So for a thirty day probation period it will be minimum wage, then after that a raise if you qualify. Is that acceptable with you before I take any more of your time?”

  “That’s what I expected, ma’am.”

  “Another thing. Are you employed now?”

  “Yes ma’am. I work at a kennel in Sweetwater, Tennessee.”

  “What? You came all the way up here to interview? I thought you were local. Why did you come that far not knowing if you’d get the job?”

  “Well, it’s because of my love of military dogs, ma’am. I was a trainer in the Army down at Lackland. That’s in San Antonio, Texas ma’am.”

  “Oh, my God, Tillie, let’s jump in the car and we’ll talk a million miles a minute. And you’re staying here tonight, ok?”

  “I’d be delighted, ma’am. And Mrs. Johnson, if I get the job, can I bring my dog?”

  Marlene laughed. “I don’t see why not. What kind is he or she?”

  “He’s a Belgian Malinois named Bblackie, ma’am. Me an’ him retired from active duty at the same time and I worked it out to keep him. I hope you don’t think I’m strange, but Bblackie can talk to animals. I know that’s hard to believe, but he really can. Bblackie is spelled with a double B by the way.”

  “My, oh my Tillie, I know the double letters well. It means he was trained at Lackland where every canine has a name starting with a double letter. Come on, let’s ride and we’ll talk about your talking dog.”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  John entered the lab and sought out Sid Showalter. “Hey, Sid, thanks for you and Mary coming over, I really enjoyed it and learned a lot.”

  “We both enjoyed it, Mr. Christianson. And thank you. I’ve been thinking about the idea and I agree with Marlene. Until the medical community treats the dogs differently there isn’t much of a green light to proceed. But I did lose some sleep over it because it is a potential major breakthrough. It’s square peg, round hole for now but I see the upside. Mary and I have chosen to stay put even though you didn’t make any kind of offer, but I caught the hint. You know what I thought about?”

  “Shoot.”

  “I’d like to be tested by the dogs when they’re ready and I bet everyone that works here would do it too. Similar to the drug testing you do, you know, I’ve already talked to some who want to come over to your place to do it.”

  “Yeah, I would be interested in doing the same thing. The problem is we don’t have the volatiles for anything other than ovarian cancer, and that probably wouldn’t interest you, but it might Mary. So, if we don’t have the volatiles, we can’t train the dogs, and you would be wasting a trip. That all comes back to the idea of you working on isolating the biomarkers and packaging the scents into usable form.”

  “To be perfectly honest with you sir, I am good at what I do here but the field of breaking down molecular structure in the medical field would mean a whole lot of new education for me. I wouldn’t know what I was looking at under the scope, or how to classify strains. I know chemical structure, not the human body. I hope you understand?”

  “Sid, you do a fantastic job here for which I am thankful. I appreciate your candor. If you get any wild ideas, though, I want to hear them. When you speak,
I listen. Ok?”

  “Yes sir, and thank you again. And Mr. Christianson, if you don’t mind my saying, you are my mentor, sir. You say you listen to me, and well, I’ve noticed you over the years. You always listen and I’ve noticed that time after time. You’re never too busy to listen to anyone. I think that’s maybe the most important part of being the head of a company like you are. And I think you know I’m not buttering you up. I mean what I say, sir. It’s saved my marriage more than once, to listen to Mary that is.”

  “Thank you Sid. Listen, observe, and understand before speaking has been my internal proctor over the years. I suppose it has helped solve some issues. Thanks again.”

  John’s cell phone rang on the way back upstairs to his office. “John, you are not going to believe this. Listen, I don’t want to talk too loud. I’m over in Warren at the PetSmart. Riding with me is a job candidate who says she has a dog than can talk. My God, John, should I even tell her about Buck?”

  “Do you like her so far?”

  “Yes, she seems ideal. We talked a mile a minute on the way over here. She was Army, John, and trained MWDs at Lackland before she went overseas. She’s not married. A little bitty thing, she weighs a hundred pounds wet and is cute as a button. She’s 29 years old and has had only one boyfriend her whole life, but she swore to me she’s straight. She is agreeable with what I’m offering her, she just seems ideal. But John, she needs to spend the night with us. She came all the way from Tennessee to get the job.”

  “Wow! Make sure she knows about the drug test. I can bring home the kit tonight if you want. About Buck, I think I’d hold off on that. Let it be a surprise if her dog really can do what she says. I wouldn’t bring up the sex preference again, that’s a no-no nowadays.”

  “Bring the drug kit. If I hire her she will go back to Tennessee tomorrow so we’d better do it now. I didn’t bring up the sex part, she did. I’ll see you at home, lots of stuff to do over here. Oh, and John?”

  “Yes?”

  “She’s a direct descendant of Jefferson Davis. You ought to hear her command of history. And she is a real piece of work, I love talking with her, she’s unique, you’ll see.”