Hat-man started to speak and New-man shut him up with a look.
“There’s a dog issue,” New-man began.
“She’s an emotional support animal,” Mom interrupted. I could feel the fear returning to her, see her hands starting to tremble. I touched her fingers with my nose, concerned.
“In my hospital?” Dr. Gann responded in a voice that reminded me of when Lucas would hold me before doing Go to Work—gentle and soft and caring. Mom looked down at me and I wagged.
“She’s been coming here a long time,” Ty said. “And now the sheriff’s department is here to pick her up.”
“Over my dead body,” added Mom.
“Me too,” said Steve.
Dr. Gann held up his hand, palm out. “All right.”
“We’re not going to let them have the dog, Dr. Gann,” Ty said hotly. “Period.”
“The last thing we need is for this to escalate,” New-man said.
“Ah.” Dr. Gann nodded, rubbing his chin. “But you’re sort of committed to action now, aren’t you? You didn’t choose this fight, but here it is.”
New-man gazed at Dr. Gann, and then made a tiny shrugging motion.
“Denver city ordinance eight dash fifty-five gives me the authority to confiscate that animal,” Hat-man said tightly.
“Chuck.” New-man sighed. “You’re not helping the situation.”
“Denver,” Dr. Gann replied thoughtfully.
“Yes, sir. I am executing my lawful responsibilities as an animal control officer.”
“For Denver. Denver County,” Dr. Gann repeated.
“That’s right.”
Dr. Gann looked at me for a moment, then at the two new police who had come out of the building. “Well,” he said finally, “this is not the city of Denver. This is federal property.”
“That’s never been an issue. We’ve been called repeatedly to this facility in the past,” Hat-man replied tersely.
“Called? You’re saying we called you tonight?” Dr. Gann asked.
“Well, no. I was tracking this animal, which is an illegal breed, and it went into the hospital.”
“So that’s it, then,” Dr. Gann said to New-man in the same gentle tone. “This is federal land. Animal control is out of its jurisdiction. No need for any further confrontation.”
New-man scratched his head, moving his cap with the motion. Then he gave a tiny nod. “I see your point.”
“Dog. Here.” Hat-man snapped his fingers and I felt Mom jerk in alarm. I did not move.
“Hold on!” New-man said gruffly. “Dammit, Chuck, what the hell are you trying to pull?” I felt his anger flaring.
“I expect…”
“No, I expect. I expect you to shut your damn mouth and obey orders!”
Hat-man looked unhappy.
New-man turned back to Dr. Gann. “Sorry for the misunderstanding. We’ll be on our way.”
“You are welcome here any time, sheriff. Give me a call, I’ll show you around the new facility,” Dr. Gann replied.
“I’d like that.” New-man turned to the police, who all seemed more relaxed. “All right, let’s go home.
“Fine, but I will tell you what.” Hat-man sneered, pointing a finger at Mom. “I’m going to be watching. And if I see that dog leave here in a car I am going to call for backup and pull you over and take it into custody.”
“You will do no such thing,” New-man replied, spitting on the ground.
“Sheriff…”
“Dammit, Chuck, you’ve wasted enough time on this one dog. I get more complaints about you than all the rest of the AC officers combined. I’m pulling you out of the field for more training. Starting tomorrow morning. As of right now, you’re off the clock. And no one pulls over a vehicle because of a dog,” he said intensely, glaring at the police. “No one. Is that understood?”
Some of the police grinned at each other. “Yes, sir,” a few of them said.
“You … you…” Hat-man stuttered.
“Return the department vehicle and sign out, Chuck,” New-man interrupted wearily. “Let’s go, everybody.”
The nice police turned and went back to their cars. Ty and Mom petted me and I wagged. They were happy.
“So … you do know VA regulations do not permit animals, even emotional support animals, on hospital grounds,” Dr. Gann said.
“Yeah, about that.” Ty shrugged. “Seems like a lot of people lately been bringing in their therapy dogs. Bella was just the first one.”
Dr. Gann nodded. “I have much, much better things to do than try to enforce everything in the book. Especially, as you say, since so many people have started ignoring that one.” Ty grinned at him and he smiled back. “Just don’t let her bite anybody.”
“Oh, she would never do that,” Mom replied.
“Bella!”
I whipped my head up. A new car had stopped in the parking lot, and I knew the man getting out of it.
Lucas.
* * *
In that moment, it was as if everyone else standing there vanished. I saw only my person, holding his arms wide, smiling broadly. He and I ran to each other. I was sobbing, wagging, licking him. We fell to the ground together and I climbed on him, craving his touch and his kisses. “Bella! Bella, where have you been all this time? How did you find your way home?”
I couldn’t help myself, I was yipping, not doing No Barks, dancing in circles. I was Go Home at last, Go Home with my person, with Lucas. Mom came over and knelt next to him. “She just showed up here tonight.”
“It’s amazing. I can’t believe it. Bella, I missed you so much!” Lucas seized my face with both hands. “God, look how thin she is. Bella, you are so skinny!”
I loved hearing Lucas say my name. He fell flat on his back and I dove on him, straddling him and licking his face while he laughed and laughed. “Okay! Enough!” He struggled back to a sitting position.
“Do you think it’s truly possible that she made her way here through the mountains? How far would that be?” Mom wanted to know.
Lucas shook his head. “It’s almost four hundred miles driving, but I have no idea what it would be like on foot. You certainly couldn’t walk a straight line here.”
I lay on my side, letting him rub my tummy. This was all I ever wanted, to have my person love me.
Mom stroked my side. “Animal control was here. That guy. But the sheriff told him to leave Bella alone.” She was no longer afraid or tense, and she was smiling.
“Really? That’s amazing!”
“I wouldn’t ever let her off leash, though.”
“That’s okay.”
“Hi.” It was Olivia. I wagged at her, and a moment later her hands were on me, too. I had never felt so loved.
Mom stood up. “I need to get back to my meeting.” She gave me a last pat before going up and into the building, trailing after all my other friends.
“Can you believe it?” Olivia asked.
“Honestly, no.” Lucas kissed me on the nose. “God, I’ve felt so guilty, so sure she died never understanding why I didn’t come for her.”
“Doesn’t matter. You see how she forgives you? Dogs are amazing like that.”
“Yeah. Forgiveness. About that topic.” Lucas stood.
“There’s nothing to forgive, Lucas.”
“No, I mean I forgive you.”
“Oh.” Olivia laughed. “Sure, that’s right.”
“I was a little out of line this morning.”
“I get it. Med school’s not supposed to be easy.”
“Oh, no, I wasn’t crabby about med school, it was your scrambled eggs.”
They kissed, doing love. I jumped up to join them, putting my paws on Lucas’s back. They both laughed and I wagged.
“You probably have to get back,” Olivia said.
“No, you know what? Let’s just go home. Be with Bella.”
I heard Go Home and wagged.
“Wait, what have you done with the real Lucas? You’ve never d
one anything irresponsible in your life.”
“Bella made her way home. If we don’t celebrate that, I feel like we’ll never celebrate anything. It’s a miracle! Look at how overjoyed she is. I can’t be serious right now, I need to lie on the bed with my dog and give her a tiny piece of cheese.”
I whipped my head up. Tiny Piece of Cheese? Really?
* * *
We all went back into the building. Ty came over to see me. “Can you bring Bella for a minute? It’s about Mack,” he asked Lucas.
“Mack?”
“He’s under lockdown for observation. You know he’s had a tough year.”
“Sure,” Lucas said slowly. He looked to Olivia.
“You go on. I’m going off shift soon anyway,” she told him.
Olivia kissed Lucas and I wagged. Then Ty and Lucas and I went down the hall to the place with the metal doors that swept open with a pinging sound. We stepped into the shaking room and when the doors creaked shut and then open we were someplace in the building I had never been to before, though it smelled pretty much the same as everywhere else. Ty went to a window and picked up a phone and held it to his ear. “Got someone here to see Mack,” he stated. Then he waited. “Hello, doctor. Yes, I know the protocols but this is important. No. No, I know what Mack needs.” Ty slapped his palm against the glass and Lucas and I both jumped. “Dammit, Theresa, open the door!” He sounded angry.
There was a buzz and with a loud click a door opened. Ty, Lucas, and I walked through it. A woman met us in the hallway, staring at me. “What on earth, Ty? Dr. Gann—”
“Dr. Gann just approved this dog,” Ty interrupted. “Which one is Mack in?”
She looked unhappy. “Last one on the left.”
Lucas was looking around. “I’ve never been here before.”
“Yeah, well, I have,” Ty muttered.
We went down the hall and I started to wag when I smelled who was on the other side of the door: my friend Mack! With another buzz, the door opened and I bounded in. Mack was sitting in a chair and I jumped right into his lap.
“Bella! Hey!” he greeted. I licked his face. He seemed very tense—tense and afraid. “I thought you were lost for good, girl.”
“We all did. But she found her way back. All through the mountains, hundreds of miles. Pretty amazing, isn’t it?” Ty said.
“Sure is.” Mack scratched my ears and I groaned.
“Think how tough it must have been for her,” Ty continued. “But she never gave up. She knew we were all counting on her, that she really mattered.”
“Yeah. I do get the point, Ty. I’m not stupid.”
Ty came up to pet me. “You’re one of us, Mack. We need you.”
We stayed in that little room for a long time. As I pressed up against Mack, his hands on my fur, I could feel the sadness in him break a little, become a little less tinged with fear. I was providing comfort. I was doing my job. I was happy.
* * *
When we left Go to Work, we both smelled like Olivia. Lucas had his own car! I sat in the front seat. We did car ride to a completely new place, getting out and climbing some stairs. I could smell Lucas in the air and knew he had been here before. He opened a door and Olivia was sitting in a chair. Of course! I trotted over to see her.
“It is so, so nice to come home and find you here,” Lucas told her.
“I stopped and got some dog food and a collar for Miss Bella. And look what I found in the closet!” Olivia picked up a folded cloth and the scent hit me instantly—my Lucas blanket! “I’ll put it on the bed.”
Lucas came over and felt the blanket. “I forgot all about it.” He kissed her and I wagged. “So nice to live in a building that allows dogs, even giant ones.”
Olivia nodded. “A dog-friendly building in pit bull–friendly Golden, Colorado.”
The three of us cuddled together in a small bed. I had on a new, stiff collar. My Lucas blanket was draped over the foot of the bed, but I ignored it and lay right up between them. I stared at Lucas, who started to laugh.
“Almost forgot,” he said. He went into the kitchen and I remained with Olivia, groaning under the touch of her hand. When he came back, I smelled what he had and went on high alert, waiting rigidly.
“This is what she does.” Lucas chuckled.
“It’s such an itty bitty piece of cheese!”
Yes! Tiny Piece of Cheese!
“Right, the point is the ritual, I think. Watch her stare at it.”
They were both so happy to be doing Tiny Piece of Cheese that they laughed. Lucas lowered it slowly and I carefully removed it from between his fingers. The explosion of taste on my tongue lasted only a moment, but it was what I had craved—a treat, hand-fed to me by my person.
I thought back to my hungry days on the trail, when all I could think about was my Tiny Piece of Cheese. It was as wonderful as I recalled.
It really wasn’t very comfortable in the small bed, a little like sleeping with Gavin and Taylor and Dutch, but I did not jump down. I lay there and remembered how hungry I had been, how much that empty ache in my stomach made me miss Lucas. I remembered Big Kitten, how she sat and watched me from the rocks when I last saw her. I had taken care of Big Kitten when she needed me. And I had taken care of poor, sad Axel, gave him comfort the way I had just given Mack comfort. Axel loved me. And Gavin and Taylor loved me. Without the love and care from those and others, I would not have been able to find my way.
It had all been so that I could do Go Home. And now, lying in bed between Lucas and Olivia, I was back with my people, and would never leave again. I was a good dog.
I finally, finally was Go Home.
Acknowledgments
Here’s something I know about myself: I do not like to fail at writing assignments. It has always been something of a point of pride for me that I could turn in a paper on, say, War and Peace, and get a passing grade on it—particularly since I didn’t actually read War and Peace. As most of my teachers eventually learned, I was bluffing my way through school, distracting their attention with good grammar. (It didn’t work all that well in math class.)
This current assignment, however—thanking everyone who helped me in the creation of this novel—seems a nearly impossible task. I am not sure where to start, and I don’t know where to end. Nothing seems too trivial to include when you think about the fact that if, for example, my mother hadn’t given birth to me, I probably would not have become a writer. And what if no one had invented paper? What about the eggs I had for breakfast—without them, I’d be too hungry to write these words. Shouldn’t I thank the chicken?
Yet I suppose it is up to me to try to capture on these pages the people who were most important to A Dog’s Way Home. I am pretty sure I’ll fail and forget somebody. If your name is not mentioned here it is not because I did not think you did something to help, it is because my memory is on vacation. In fact, often I will start writing a sentence and then, in the middle of it … okay, now I can’t remember the point I was trying to make, but I think it was a good one.
First, I want to thank Kristin Sevick, and Linda, Tom, Karen, Kathleen, and everyone else at Tom Doherty/Tor/Forge, who helped birth this book. Initially, I had made a pitch for an entirely different novel and everyone was willing to listen when I confessed that my idea was not that great. I won’t go into the details; it just was unworkable once I began doing research, which is why I try to avoid doing research or, for that matter, anything resembling real work. So, very graciously, they agreed to discuss other ideas and eventually this one, the story of Bella finding her way back to her people, turned out to be a real winner for all of us.
Thank you, Scott Miller of Trident Media, for explaining to everyone that if they stopped publishing my novels it would really hurt my feelings. Scott, you are a true friend and a real champion of my work.
I also want to thank Sheri Kelton, my new manager, for adjusting my focus so that instead of being distracted I’m now just lazy. Thanks, Steve Younger, for d
efending me against the forces of evil.
Thank you, Gavin Polone, for believing in my work and for wanting to see me succeed in this very dangerous business, and for promising not to quit. You always keep your word, which makes people in this town very nervous.
Thank you, Lauren Potter, for showing up in my life and my office and organizing both. Because of you, I actually have time to do all the writing that Scott Miller is promising people I will do and that Sheri Kelton tells me I should be focused on.
Thank you, Elliot Crowe, for letting me keep the title of “independent film producer” while you do all the work. The movie Muffin Top: A Love Story, directed by Cathryn Michon, was our first successful venture, but we have another one in the pipeline—Cook Off!—that should be in theaters in 2017. Simply would not be happening without Elliott.
Thanks to Connection House Incorporated, for all of its marketing and research work that continues to make my life easier. I’m constantly impressed with how everyone working there is so in tune with each other.
Thanks, Fly HC and Hillary Carlip, for maintaining and building my websites: wbrucecameron.com and adogspurpose.com.
Thank you, Carolina and Annie, for letting me be part of your lives.
Thank you, Andy and Jody Sherwood. You continue to be among the most supportive people in my life, in just about every way possible.
Thank you, Diane and Tom Runstrom. You are simply wonderful people.
Thank you to my sister, Amy Cameron, who nearly became Miss America and then went on to become one of the world’s greatest teachers. Emily would be proud.
Thank you, Julie Cameron M.D., for being the person who I can call and say, “I need a disease where someone wakes up in the morning with red hair and no memory of words that rhyme with ‘kismet.’” She’ll name the disease, describe the treatment, and recommend I see a psychiatrist.
Thank you, Georgia and Chelsea, for being so reproductive in 2016, and to James and Chris for doing their part of the process. Thank you, Chase, for being the man you have become, and thank you, Alyssa, for influencing him to stay that way.
Gordon, Eloise, Ewan, Garrett, and Sadie: welcome home.
I do not have a marketing department. I do not need one. I have my mom. Thank you, Mom, for selling everyone in Michigan my books and, when they refuse to buy a copy, giving them one.