Adopted - Now What?

Mom came in the front door, Lucy’s leash in hand. Of course, Jo and Elbie met her at the door, tails wagging. After greeting them, she threw the leash on the Command Chair and said, “Well, I know you don’t like Lucy, so I got rid of her. I just took her out into the country and dumped her.”

“What?” Jo wagged his tail. “Nah. You wouldn’t do that. I know better, Mom!”

Elbie wasn’t so sure. “Well, Jo, you know you’ve been growling at Lucy a lot lately. Maybe Mom DID get rid of her!”

Jo’s tail faltered, then came to a standstill. “No. You don’t really think she would have… No. No!” He trotted off to look out the window, but there was no Lucy to be seen in the back of the Dogmobile. “No!”

Mom said, "Oh, wait. I forgot something." She scooped up the leash on her way back outside, and when she came back, Lucy was on the end of it!! Jo jumped up and down, whined, barked and twined all around Lucy. Lucy just grinned and yawned.

“…And there were three other dogs there.” The three dogs were laying in a circle in the middle of the living room, and Lucy was telling JoLee and Elbie all about her very first class. “And we played and played – and you should have seen Maggie! She was really pretty. We were playing and then she got the zoomies and she ran and ran and ran – and then she ran right into the glass doors that went outside! We all thought she was going to be hurt, but she seemed to be okay.”

“Maybe a little dazed, you think?” Jo was hanging on every word. Elbie looked at him and just shook his head.

“Yeah, I would think so. She really bounced off that door.” Lucy yawned again. “And then Mom made me go through some more doors. You know,” she said thoughtfully, “I really don’t like going through a door when I don’t know what’s on the other side of it. Even if I can see through it, I don’t really know what’s in there.”

Jo nodded. “I know what you mean, Lucy. When I was just a pup, there were things I didn’t like, too, but I’ve done them all now, so I’m okay with them, and you will be, too!”

“Yeah, maybe,” Lucy said. “The instructor watched me playing with all the other dogs and then she looked at Mom and said, ‘And why were you here again?’ I think she was teasing Mom, because Mom told her that I was shy and needed to get more World Experience.”

They all laughed.

A little later, Mom was telling Dad about the trick she’d pulled on JoLee. “Lucy was so tired after the class that she was sound asleep no more than two minutes after I pulled away from the place. In fact, she didn’t even wake up when I pulled into the driveway, or when I went into the house!” She and Dad laughed. “I wish you could have seen how happy Jo was to see his little Lucy!”