From Down Here Chapter 9

Half asleep, Kojo scents Genny and her young ones before he hears them, but he hears them pretty soon. The little paws move faster than Genny's big ones, but they stop at the door until Genny gets there to do the thing that lets it open. He yips happily as Tyler pets him while the words pour out of the littler one's mouth. "Officer Nolan told us you're a hero and you gave the police what they'll need to catch the bad guys. I bet no other dog in the city is as smart as you!"

"You want to show Kojo what you brought?" Genny asks the young ones.

"I'll give it to him," Tyler says.

The littler one stomps his paws. "No! I picked it out. I want to show him." He grabs a big bag from Tyler and starts pulling furry stuff out. "Look, see! It's like a tree and you can hide squirrels in it. Look Kojo, there are three and they all go in different holes."

Kojo can't stop watching as the littler one sticks furry-tailed-looking things in holes in a big thing almost as tall as he is. The furry-tailed things look a little like what Kojo heard called squirrels, but they don't smell like them. The big thing doesn't smell like a tree either. Usually, trees are marked by a lot of scents. This one isn't marked at all. Kojo would like to mark it, but marking anything inside gives Tim and Lucy mad faces. They looked mad enough that morning. He doesn't want them mad at him. He looks at what the young ones brought, trying to figure out what he's supposed to do."

The littler one starts jumping and banging his paws together. "Get a squirrel, Kojo! You always want to chase squirrels. Get a squirrel!" Kojo sticks his paw in a hole where a furry-tailed thing is. Nothing happens. "Come on Kojo! You can get it!"

Kojo gets his mouth around the furry-tailed thing and pulls it out. The young ones make happy sounds and the littler one bangs his paws together again. "That's it! You've got it, Boy! Get another one!"

Kojo pulls out all the furry-tailed things and puts them on the floor. Now what? They don't smell like something to eat like his chew bones do. Maybe he can put them back for Lucy. She likes furry things. Kojo uses his mouth to put the furry-tailed things back in their holes.

The littler one bangs his paws together again. "Kojo really is smart! He knew just where they go!" He looks up at Genny. "Mom, I want a smart dog. Can we get a smart dog like Kojo?"

Genny's face doesn't look happy. "I don't think there is another dog like Kojo. And even if we could find one, who would take care of him? I've got a lot of work. Your schools here are ahead of where your old schools were and you and Tyler are still doing extra work to catch up. Tyler's got baseball and you're supposed to be starting soccer soon. Who's going to walk a dog? We can't just let him outside. Our backyard doesn't have a fence."

The littler one sticks part of his mouth out a lot. "Officer Nolan could build us a fence. He fixed the cabinets in the kitchen and made Tyler's bookshelves. He put the shelf in the bathroom too."

Genny's fur moves as she shakes her head. "Officer Nolan got hurt. You know that. He has to get better before he can build anything. And I can't just ask him to build us a fence. That's a lot of work."

The littler one keeps sticking the bottom of his mouth out. "I wish Dad was here. He could get us a fence and a dog."

"He didn't before," Tyler says. "He never did anything like that."

The littler one kicks his paws against the floor. "We should have a dad like Officer Nolan who knows how to do stuff."

Genny makes a sound like Lucy does when she hurts herself. "That's enough! You gave Kojo his squirrel tower and you both have homework to do. Time to go."

The littler one drags his paws against the floor as they leave. Kojo looks at the thing Genny called a squirrel tower and remembers Lucy looking mad when she left. Maybe a squirrel will give her a happy face. When she comes back, he'll give her one.

Kojo carefully lays the most furry-tailed of his squirrels at Lucy's paws and looks up hoping for a happy face. Lucy looks down at her gift. "Kojo, what?"

That wasn't the face Kojo wanted, but he hopes if he shows Lucy the tower, she'll like the furry thing. He runs back to the tower, nudges it with his nose, and yips. Lucy follows him and slowly gets a happy face. "You have a new toy and you wanted to share it with me." She strokes Kojo's head. "That's really nice, Kojo. I can use some nice right now."

Lucy sits on the floor next to Kojo. "There are a lot of scared people out there." Kojo recognizes "scared." But he doesn't smell it on Lucy and she just keeps talking. "I got a call from a senior home. Places like that have a lot of older people who need someone to take care of them. It wasn't near any of the houses with bombs."

Kojo barks at "bombs."

Lucy strokes his flank. "It's OK. There weren't any. But some of the seniors were watching the news on TV and the news keeps showing a clip of something blowing up, over and over. They thought it was a lot of things blowing up and their home was going to blow up next. I have a chemical sniffer the lab just recalibrated. It's not as good as a dog's nose, but it's supposed to detect the new explosive if it gets close enough to it. So I went into every room and showed them all that it never flashed red. Oh, you can't see red or green, can you? Well, neither could a couple of the people there and it took a few of their friends to convince them. I was there for hours and it was really sad to see all those people so scared."

Kojo doesn't get a lot of Lucy's story, but he understands "sad" and cuddles against her. She rubs her face against his head. "Thanks, Boy, I knew you'd get it." Lucy's cell dings a text. "But it doesn't look like you're going to get one of Tim's dinners. Metro will be out all night narrowing down the search for the bad guys. But I could try to cook for you."

Kojo whimpers and covers his ears with his paws. Lucy looks up at the thing that made all the noise when she cooked before. "All right, I understand. I can give you your kibble and let you have an extra chew bone."

Kojo barks his approval at "chew bone," grabs another squirrel, and offers it to her.

Lucy makes a happy face but doesn't take the squirrel. "You keep your toys Kojo. You'll need them to keep you company while Tim and I are so busy. But when we get the bad guys, we'll make it up to you. I promise."

Kojo doesn't understand "make it up," but Lucy looks like she's talking about a good thing. She reaches for the big bag and fills Kojo's bowl very full. "Maybe we'll both get lucky and Tim will be here at breakfast time."

Kojo decides Lucy isn't mad at her mate anymore.