One day I’d been talking with Mable, who’d been like a rock these last few days since we’d finally found Neo, and the next I was agreeing to join a search and rescue team.
Mable had convinced me by sharing that several of the women were going to join.
And since I was so desperate to make some friends here, I’d agreed. Even though I knew next to nothing about search and rescue.
“How do I get the muzzle on?” I wondered.
Without getting my hand bitten off for coming too close.
Though at this point, I had gotten close enough to pet him. I’d just given him the space that he so clearly wanted and hadn’t breached that particular act with him yet.
Holly was right, though.
He had made significant progress since he’d first been brought in a week ago.
Just not enough.
“Maybe I’ll try my place first,” I suggested.
“Don’t be surprised if he has trauma where that trailer is concerned,” she pointed out. “That’s where this all started for him. He was taken from your trailer.”
He was.
There was a man who was on Bear Pass city council who had admitted to taking the dog from my trailer. Apparently, the lock that I had on my door had been a universal RV one, and he’d been able to bypass the software to open it.
He’d taken Neo straight from my trailer while I’d been at work to his own. Where he’d then left with Neo in the back of his RV.
He’d taken four other dogs that day, and Koen, the RV park owner, had put up so much surveillance equipment afterward that it now felt like I lived in Fort Knox.
I pulled out my phone and texted Gentry.
Me:
There’s something I want to try.
Gentry answered within two minutes.
Gentry:
You’re not taking Neo home with you.
I rolled my eyes.
Me:
You can’t tell me what to do. Anyway, I might not be taking him to my place. I was thinking about taking him to yours.
Those three little dots appeared. And stayed for a solid five minutes before they disappeared.
No reply.
“He say no?” Holly guessed.
Before I could answer that, the door to the kennels opened and Gentry appeared in uniform.
My heart skipped a beat like it always did when I saw him.
It was weird.