I'm not a writer... we'll see if this goes on any longer.
"…Bella and Bailey BOTH need treatments done next at midnight. Make sure you're turning the little HBC dog every 2 hours - he's kind of touch and go, make sure someone checks him every time they walk by. And please, please don't forget to keep checking the FLUTD cat's catheter. Dr. Ames has been briefed - I'm outta here!" The small, lively doctor pumped a fist in the air. "Just kidding. Seriously though, any questions?" The pair of technicians smiled and shook their heads.
"We've got this, Doc," said the little blond one. "Enjoy your weekend - if anything goes catastrophically wrong we'll call your cell, otherwise I think we can all handle it." Alina Davenport gave them a thumbs up, grabbing her purse and slinging her white coat over one arm.
"You guys are the best! I'll see you Monday - I'm gonna try to hang out with my boys." The diminutive doctor strode to a kennel at the back of the hospital, and opened the door for a bouncy, tawny brown dog to exit. "Let's go, Mano." The dog bounced along at her left side, eyes trained on her face. "Bye ladies," she called on her way out, "thanks again!"
Outside, in the cool night air of the dark parking lot, she exhaled and allowed herself to relax for the first time in over twelve hours. Opening the back door of the white four door sedan, she tossed her white coat, purse and stethoscope onto the floor.
"Up," she said simply, the dog leaping into the backseat. She shut the door and heavily sank into the front seat, sitting for a moment before turning her key in the ignition. The car roared to life and her eye caught her traveling companion paced excitedly back and forth in the rearview. "Mano, dear God, can you relax for two seconds?" she sighed as she regarded the wild look in the skinny, pointy brown dog's eyes. "Of course you can't," she resigned herself, "you're a Mal." She rolled her eyes and zipped out of the parking lot into the night.
A little less than thirty minutes later, she pulled into the modest driveway of the modest house in the modest town of Charming, California. It had been easier to find affordable land here, rather than near her job at the fancy animal hospital in Lodi. She appraised the little two-story, single family home critically for a minute before turning the ignition off.
Dragging herself out of the car and opening the back door of the civic for Mano, she grabbed her purse. As Mano ran circles in the front yard, one eye on the young woman, she trudged up to her front door. Turning the key in the lock, she could already hear the young dog screaming in the kennel in the backyard, and the elderly black dog bouncing up and down in front of the door, whining and wagging.
"Hey there, Liv" she greeted the skinny old brindle hound dog. The dog leaned against her for a moment before hustling out the door to relieve herself. Alina watched the two dogs traverse the front yard, then called them into the house with a whistle. After turning and locking the front door, she passed through the sparse living room, containing only her two white leather couches, black end tables for each one, and a large turquoise area rug over the hardwood floors. The flatscreen tv hung on the wall across from the larger couch, well out of reach of playful dogs. She crossed into the recently updated kitchen, flipping on a light switch and tossing her purse onto the countertop, starting for the back door. As she exited the back door, the flood light lit up the yard and the kennel to her right, where the third dog was leaping about and scream-barking. "Ese!" she shout-whispered at him, "you're going to get us all killed - it's like ten o'clock at night!" She unlatched the kennel door as 60 pounds of pointy brindle dog exploded from the kennel, running loops in the large fenced yard. Alina sighed and sat on the back stoop. Mano raced out the door to join his buddy. Livid took a seat beside Alina on the stoop. The young doctor threw a companionable arm around the twelve-year-old dog and rubbed her eyes with her free hand. "They're crazy people," she murmured to the dog. "Crazy. People." Eventually the two dogs in the backyard stopped running around and came back to the house, tails and ears erect and waiting for direction. Ese began staring at Alina's face and barking, demanding. Alina stood slowing, disappeared into the kitchen, and grabbed a large, hard plastic, egg-shaped dog toy. When she returned to the stoop, Ese was still staring at her, but began wagging wildly and bouncing, in addition to the barking. She tossed him the toy. Being hard and oddly shaped, it slipped out of his teeth a few times before he was able to get a grip. Once he'd gotten his teeth around it, he went back to pacing the yard proudly. "That should at least shut your mouth for the rest of the evening," Alina said, amused. She glanced to her right, where Mano was still standing at attention. "Haven't you had enough excitement, being at work all day?" she asked him. He cocked his head at her voice and stared, tail waving, waiting. Always waiting. "C'mon, let's go inside," she said, turning for the door.
Finally changed into sweatpants, a hoodie, and eating ramen noodles out of a mug, Alina was sitting on the couch watching Jaws with Mano laying in front of the door, and Livid stretched out on the couch next to her. Ese hadn't been seen since she'd fed the dogs - he'd scarfed down his food and promptly returned to the yard, egg toy with him.
"Glamorous life of a veterinarian," she muttered, setting the empty mug on the end table. She swung her legs onto the smooth leather of the couch, one on each side of the sleeping dog, and allowed her eyes to sink slowly shut as Roy Schneider yelled out "Smile, you son of a bitch!" in the background.
The sound of her ceramic mug hitting the ground made Alina sit bolt upright.
"Fuck," she swore quietly. "Ese, what the fuck?" louder. Sunlight was streaming through the living room windows. She must have fallen asleep in front of the television and never made it to bed. Liv was gone, meaning she'd put herself to bed at some point during the night. She flipped her wrist towards her face. Nine A.M. Sighing, she stood up and bent to pick up the pieces of the mug and dispose of them. Ese stood back, staring at her and wagging his tail. "Right, you're hilarious," she told him. Livid appeared down the hall at the top of the stairs, stretching out and yawning. Mano was on his feet, following her silently. She'd forgotten to close the back door, and assumed that they'd all been going in and out all night. "Liv, go outside and pee," she shuffled the old dog out the door to do her business and opened the freezer, rummaging for something to feed them. Finding a package of chicken quarters, she cracked a few of them apart, and passed one to each dog. Ese ran to his open kennel, leaping on top of his dog house with his prize. "Freak," Alina murmured to herself, as Mano flew past her to "his spot" in the back of the yard. Livid chose to stay on the stoop. Alina brewed a cup of coffee, watching the dogs through the small kitchen window. After shuffling outside to lock Ese back into his kennel, minimizing the chances of a dogfight, she peeled off her clothes on the way to the bathroom for a shower. Turning on the hot water and slipping inside, she ran through her plan for the day. She was going to try out a new schutzhund club in Sacramento, see if she liked them. She chuckled to herself at what a dog soccer mom she'd become since she had graduated veterinary school. Now that she finally had some breathing room between shifts at the hospital, she was chasing titles again and enjoying her dogs. Exiting the shower and toweling off, she walked out into her bedroom and picked up a pair of jeans off the bed, dug through her drawers for a light v-neck t-shirt, and pulled an old dog training hoodie over her head. Pulling her hair back into a simple ponytail, she glanced in the mirror. Satisfied, she grabbed a Victoria's secret beach bag filled with training tools and toys from the hall closet, and went outside to fetch her dogs.
She pulled up to the park that the training club had chosen as their field with knots in her stomach. Ese knew what was going on, and was spinning and screeching in the crate she'd managed to shove into the back seat of her car. Mano wasn't acting a lot better on the 1/4 of the back seat he had to himself, bouncing on and off the top of Ese's crate, but at least he was quiet. Alina was always nervous to meet people she didn't know - a trait years of networking still hadn't erased. Having the dogs helped, but in the back of her mind she always felt that people were judging her, judging her dogs. She surveyed the field - a helper wearing a padded decoy suit, with a blind set up nearby, was in the middle of a group of three other men. A young man, probably early thirties if Alina had to guess, who seemed to be in charge looked like he was explaining how things would run, as everyone nodded at him. The two men in motorcycle club vests were what caught her eye. A handsome guy with blonde hair and a mean brow, and a freakishly tall, intimidating guy with a snake tattooed on his bald head. Sons of Anarchy, she read off the back of their cuts, silently to herself. Now she was really nervous. "Please don't make us look like idiots," she murmured to Mano. "I KNOW there's no hope for you," she grinned, knocking lightly on Ese's crate, "knucklehead." She slipped out of the car, keys in hand (she remembered what had happened last time she'd left keys in the car with the dogs - Mano had locked her out) and slowly approached the group.
The man in charge watched the short young woman approach his training group for the morning, and continued talking to the other people. Alina frowned.
Finally, he asked, "can I help you?"
"Uh," she blushed, "this is Sacramento dog training club, right?" the young man smiled.
"Yes! Sorry about that! I'm Chris - club president, I help coordinate and set everything up. This here," gesturing to his right, "is Kent, decoy deluxe," Kent nodded at her with a smile. "You here to train?" he looked a bit confused.
"I'm Alina. And yea…" she gestured lamely towards her car in the lot, where Ese was screaming away. The blonde man in the club cut closest to her laughed.
"Malinois?" he asked, blue eyes sparkling. Alina briefly thought that he was incredibly good looking when he smiled, and gained confidence quickly with the chance to talk about her dogs.
"How did you guess?" she said with a sly smile, as he laughed again.
"I would recognize that scream anywhere! I happen to have a Mali-noise with me as well," he gestured to the truck in the lot behind him, sporting a diamond plate dog box with a constant, high-pitched whine coming from it.
"Those of us who are sane," added the taller, bald, motorcycle club member on the other side of the blonde guy, "have dogs like Dobermans. And Shepherds." He was scowling. Alina's blood froze. This was quite possibly the most terrifying man she'd ever seen… and yet something about that attracted her. The guy next to her punched the other man's arm, grinning. "Hap, the last thing I'd ever call you is sane," he scoffed, "it's not our problem you can't keep up with the REAL dogs". He winked at Alina, and held out his hand. "I'm Kozik, by the way… this is my friend Happy." Alina shook the younger man's hand, as Happy nodded his greeting. "And I'm totally kidding," Kozik added, "Hap's Doberman is one in a million. Real good drive, total badass, and a little more sense than I fear my Mal's got. I'm hoping that'll come with age." Alina giggled.
"Time is what I'm hoping will fix my Dutchie… not that I think he's broken, I think he's just a Dutchie." The group all chuckled together.
"Well Ms. Alina," said Kent, "let's see what your pointy dogs have got!" She grinned and jogged off to get Mano out of the car, as the outlaw bikers strode to their own car to retrieve their dogs as well. Alina opted to leave the windows down for Ese rather than getting him out of the car. She'd let him show off his rotten self after Mano had made her look like a passable trainer. Clipping a lead to the dead ring on his fursaver collar, she grabbed a rubber ball toy on a rope out of her bag and tucked it into the pocket of her sweatshirt, then they jogged over to join the group.
Kozik's female Malinois was hopping and straining on her leash, trying to reach Mano. He grimaced.
"She's… still pretty baby-like," he said apologetically, "just 14 months." Alina smiled sympathetically.
"Mano's only good because he's like 7 years old now… Ese, in the car? He's insane. My 8 month old Dutchie will put your 14 month old Mal to shame." Kozik grinned at her and held up his hands.
"You win." He said. Happy grunted. His Doberman was alert, but sitting quietly by his side. Alina stuck out her tongue at him.
"Yea yea, pick the easy breed and then look at us like we're idiots," she teased. He looked surprised that she'd deigned to stick her tongue out at him. She guessed not many people were brave enough to mock this man, and her face immediately felt hot.
"Lot of hard work went into this dog. Not my fault Glock belongs to a better breed." he let a shadow of a smile slip; Kozik and Alina chuckled.
After four hours of drills, in which Mano and Glock showed off their intense training, and Ese and Kozik's dog, Riot, acted like puppies during obedience, all members were exhausted and ready to head out. Kozik jogged up to Alina as she was putting Ese back into his crate.
"Hey," he said as she turned out, "we're having a party tonight at our club - was wondering if you wanted to come by? Girl who can handle protection dogs is alright with us," he flashed her a winning smile. She contemplated for a moment. What did she have to lose?
"I could drop by, I'm off work." she decided finally, "Just let me get an address."
"Good deal," said Kozik, "here…"