"Uncle Chibs, can we keep the puppy?"
Filip jumped a little, he'd been sure the little boy was asleep until he'd spoken.
Before he could answer however, Fiona spoke first "Sweetheart, we can get a pet later."
"Why can't we keep this one?" Abel pouted.
"Cause that dog is going to grow to be as big as a horse and he'll eat his bloody weight everyday." Filip responded.
"Why do you always say everything's bloody?"
Before Filip could come up with a short response, his speaking was cut off again. This time the speaker was an overweight biker named Filthy Phil. "C'mon Chibs you can't keep a little boy from getting a dog."
"And I assume you're going to come over and clean up the dog shit?" Filip snarled in response.
"Now why would I do a thing like that?" Filthy Phil responded, "I just think you should let Abel have a puppy."
"We don't really have the space for a dog that's going to get that big." Fiona responded.
This time Tig, who was sitting in a nearby armchair with Mayhem on his lap, cut in..."It isn't that hard to take care of a dog."
"I don't see you taking care of three kids as well Trager."
"Well I'd gladly take them off of your hands for a while." Tig responded.
Filip was surprised by the next person to insert themselves into the conversation. "Nobody's going to take the kids off their hands...they're great parents." when he looked over at Gemma she added "I'm not going to repeat what I said, but you should consider getting some kind of dog as a playmate. Something normal sized though...I'm not going to have my grandson killed by a dog sitting on him." she paused before adding "and not one of those yippy teacup things either."
Despite not approving of Gemma trying to make all his decisions for his family, Filip did actually like the idea and glancing at Fiona he could tell she did too.
He sighed softly "Alright, why don't we go by the shelter this evening?"
For the rest of the day Filip could only think about what was coming next. This morning he hadn't had any plans to add another member to his family either of the human or the animal variety and now thanks to a morning detour it was almost certain that he would be getting a dog. Tig had already decided to adopt the puppy he had rescued from the dumpster and he couldn't help but laugh that the dog's name was now Anarchy.
At the shelter the dogs were all kept in a kennel at the back of the shelter and at first most of them ignored the small group as they walked into the area.
"What about that one?" Kerrianne asked pointing at Yellow Labrador that was racing around the kennel.
"I think that one's just a wee bit too hyper." Filip responded.
They were all so busy looking around at the other dogs that nobody noticed the dog walking over to Abel until he shrieked.
"What's wrong?" Fiona asked turning to look at him, an almost maternal tone to her voice.
"He won't stop licking me!" Abel's shrieks had now turned to laughter. A brown and white Bulldog was now sitting on Abel's feet gratuitously licking his face.
"I think he really likes Abel." Kerrianne laughed as the dog continued his licking.
"I don't think you want Stanley..." a shelter girl who's name tag said Emily cut in.
"Why not?" Filip asked.
"Well he's already four years old so he doesn't have the energy a puppy would and bulldogs aren't a very cute breed." Emily responded.
After Stanley finished licking Abel's face he trotted over to Filip and sat down on his work boots while gazing up at him almost pleadingly as if he knew this was who he had to convince if he wanted a new home.
"He seems to have a great temperament." Fiona pointed out as Stanley snorted while continuing to sit on his feet.
"You're not going to let me move are you?" Filip asked the dog.
Stanley just snorted again in response.
"I think he picked us out Da." Kerrianne added.
"I think he did." Filip responded.
"Can we please keep him?" Abel pleaded.
"I don't know..." Filip pretended to be indecisive. "I don't know Fi, do you think this is the dog for this family?"
"We wouldn't want to disappoint the children now would we Lovely?" she responded.
He turned his attention back to the dog who was still sitting very contentedly upon his feet. "You know Stanley if you want to go home with us you're going to have to get off my feet." after a pause he added "you're just planning to sit there aren't you?"
After another minute of the Bulldog sitting and staring at him panting, Fiona picked him up and held him as Filip tried to wake up his now sleeping feet.
The whole ride home, Stanley laid peacefully on Fiona's lap sleeping while Filip drove.
"His snoring is going to keep us up at night." she commented chuckling lightly.
"Well that's why he's not going to be allowed to sleep in my room." Kerrianne added from the back seat.
"Well he's certainly not going to sleep in with us." Filip responding snorting.
I guess it's going to be implied that at some point they bought supplies for Stanley...updates normally won't be quite as frequent as they were this time.
