Celebrating Pet Rescue Part Three

This month I've been spotlighting some of my readers who have made rescuing pets part of their lives. I've always loved the indescribably awesome feeling that comes with giving a home to an animal that needs it desperately. I asked folks through my newsletter to submit their stories and photos to my email at rlmerrillauthor@gmail.com and I've been posting the ones I've received right here.

Today I'll start with Lela and her story about Mikey:

Mikey is a rescue dog. The lady who saved him said she found him further south here in Texas, chained to a tree with food & water bowls out of reach. He was only a couple months old when she rescued him. Mikey was very skittish around people and to a point, he still is. Over the course of about 3 years his rescuer said no one wanted Mikey. He did go home with 1 family only to be returned after a few days. That one wasn’t a good fit. When I got him I fell in love. He’s got his moments where he is loudly barking at people he doesn’t know. He still doesn’t like my brother-in-law after 4 1/2years. Mikey does get along with cats. He also is a lover of anything warm, sweaters, Beggin Strips, eggs. Lol! I’d be lost without him.

Thanks for sharing Lela! Lela is one of my very first readers and is FINALLY being settled into her new home as I write! So happy Mikey will have his own digs and no more hotel stays!

The next story is a family story. Lynn has been a part of my family for over twenty years now and I absolutely love Dani, as well as all the pups that have come before her! When your daughter goes to work for an animal rescue, you end up with more babies... Wait. My daughter is going to work with animals. Am I going to be next, Lynn?

We rescued Danica (Dani) about 10 years ago when she was 9 months old from the Nevada Humane Society in Reno, NV. We were not looking for another dog as we already had two dogs. Also, she was a pit bull mix and I was hesitant to get a pit bull. But then we heard Dani's story. She had a bad leg; they believed it had been broken at some point and did not heal properly. The vet recommended her leg be removed. Our daughter worked for the Humane Society at the time and fell in love with Dani. She wasn't in a position to adopt her, but wanted her to have a good home. She knew we would take care of her. She drove her 8 hours to our home on the Northern California Coast.

We immediately fell in love with Dani. She had a cast on her leg and had a very sweet personality. She got along well with our other dogs and at once felt at home with us. We took her to our vet who agreed her leg had probably been broken, but did not agree it needed to be amputated. We were so excited!

Dani is truly one of the sweetest most gentle dogs I have ever had. She proved me wrong about being worried about pit bulls. She is loving and patient around our young grandson and is a friend to everyone she meets.

Unfortunately, she is our only dog now. We have never had a minute of regret in rescuing Dani- Lynn T.

**And my kids grew up around her as well and miss her to pieces!

I'll be announcing the winners of the signed Father F'in' Christmas paperbacks just after the holidays, when hopefully I'll be able to get to the post office and mail out the backlog! For those who haven't picked up the story, it's available on Amazon. It's a fun story about a crazy cat lady who finds love in the most miraculous of ways!

Here's a snippet from when Tommy follows his widow to work with Louis in tow:

Five years. She’s been alone for five years. Wait…

“She’s still alone. And quite broken up over your demise, surprisingly.”

“Hey, you watch yourself. I used to be quite a looker before shit—”

“Right. Anyhoo, she lives in this building with several hairy beasts. Lucky for her, you had a sweet life insurance plan so she could afford to live here. She’ll be leaving for work…now.”

I followed his line of sight to see a woman leaving the building and walking away from us. Without thinking, my feet followed, but this didn’t seem like my Kimberly. This woman, from what I could see of her through her bulky clothes, looked too thin. She also didn’t have Kimberly’s telltale meander. I used to tease her all the time because when we’d walk together, she’d run into me constantly. She walked like a fucking drunk, never in a straight line, and rarely with any sense of what was around her. What’s worse was that half the time, she’d have her nose in a book and wouldn’t be paying attention, even walking down the street back home in Jersey. She got clipped by a cab once, broke her damn leg. I’ll never forget the panic I felt when my chief told me and rushed me to the ER to meet her…

“Wait up,” Louis called out to me. His long legs ate up the space between us in three strides.

“You sure that’s her? She don’t look right.”

“Being a grieving widow will do that to a woman,” he said.

I turned on him, my hands balled into fists. “You this much of an asshole all the time? Because I’m getting sick of your fucking mouth.”

Louis shrugged. “Pretty much. You’d better get used to it, as we’re stuck together until you figure out how to fix this mess.”

Up ahead of us, Kimberly caught a trolley and we hurried to hop on before it pulled too far from the stop. It fucking hurt knowing she couldn’t see me, that I couldn’t just go up and approach her. Sure enough, she pulled out a book, one of her mysteries. My lip twitched up in a smile as I counted how many times she pushed her glasses up her nose. Five…six…seven…

Soon the trolley stopped and she got off. A few more blocks of walking and we watched as she entered the San Francisco Animal Care and Control building. Louis gestured for us to follow her inside. It was weird that we just walked right in and nobody seemed to notice the door opening and closing by itself.

“People see and hear what they want. No one will notice us unless it’s time.”

“Right. Like ghosts and shit.”

“Whatever.”

Kimberly went behind a counter and took off her heavy wool coat. I recognized it as the one I got her for our first Christmas being married. She’d acted like she was in love with it, but then her mom let me know she was allergic to wool. She’d still worn it, said it didn’t really touch her skin or anything. Was I such an asshole that I didn’t notice she scratched at her neck when she took it off, like she was doing right now?

“Yeah, you really were.”

“Shut up! How the hell are you doing that anyway?”

Louis rolled his eyes. “Some people broadcast more than others. You’re an open book. It’s quite an annoying character flaw you have there.”

Kimberly’d left the office area and was climbing a set of stairs, so I followed her, or else I would have chewed old Pin Cushion out.

We spent the whole day watching her take out the cats and play with them, checking their charts, feeding them and cleaning up their litter. Even the most skittish ones came right up to her. She’d always had a magic touch with animals. I’d only allowed her to have one cat, Johnson, when we were married. I couldn’t stand the damn things, but I hated to say no.

She only smiled when she talked to the cats. Her co-workers were all very nice to her, but I watched them as they walked away, giving her that look I’d always hated. She was awkward, sure. She never quite fit in anywhere, but from the moment I’d lain eyes on her at school when she’d transferred in our senior year, I knew I had to have her. She was so quirky and adorable, she’d had no idea how beautiful she was.

And she’d hated me.

No one hated me. I made it my mission to make her fall in love with me because I knew she’d make a good wife, wouldn’t ever cheat or be a pain in the ass about shopping and spending too much fucking money. And frankly, I was tired of banging cheerleaders and party girls. Turned out, once we got married? She was insatiable. I never went without. Until I became a drunk, that is.

I realized on the ride back to her apartment that Kimberly had never eaten lunch. I used to have to remind her sometimes to eat because she’d get so involved in whatever she was doing. With no one to remind her, she was wasting the fuck away. Her face had once been round and bright, with rosy patches on her cheeks. Now? She was pale and bony, her eyes surrounded by darkness.

“She’s not well, your widow. We are intervening now, before…”

“Before what? What the fuck aren’t you telling me?” I’d wanted to punch this fucking guy a million times already, but this time I was ready to throttle his scrawny ass.

He seemed to be working up to something, but I was distracted by her movements in the kitchen. I turned him around so he wouldn’t watch as she stripped out of her work uniform and threw her clothes into a stackable washing machine. My heart broke at seeing her too-thin body. She hadn’t just lost weight. She was seriously wasting away.

“It’s true what they say, that people can die from a broken heart.”

His words slammed into me like that damn gas explosion.

Broken heart.

My fault.

My responsibility to fix it.

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