Feces covered the floor along with the remains of several empty dog food bags. Metal cans, probably dog food littered the room. There were signs of the dog’s attempts at opening the cans. A couple punctures at one end were too small to get more than a bit of juice.
“Start looking in the cabinet over there. Put everything that even looks slightly medical. Be sure to get the thing that looks like a microwave, it’s an autoclave. I’ll help as soon as I get one of these cans opened.” Randy announced.
Miguel flicked his light to the back of the room and saw the cart. He rolled it to the medical cabinets and immediately unplugged the autoclave and put it on the top of the cart. He opened cabinets and piled full boxes of supplies on the cart.
Randy used his knife to open a can of some wet food and dumped it into a shinny metal bowl. He walked to the cage and set the bowl at the door. In a second bowl, he dumped a bottle of water from his pack.
He turned and crossed the room a stack of plastic tubs that contained towels. He found a box of trash bags and dumped the contents into the bag. He passed the tub with it’s lid to Miguel to put supplies in. He repeated the process and then tied end of both bags. He set the second tub on the floor in front of him and began emptying the drug cabinet. He grabbed everything in the cabinet. He opened drawers and found prepared and sealed surgical trays. Those went in the tub as well. The last of the tubs was used for odds and end from the examination rooms.
Randy glanced around the room one last time. “Let’s go.”
He tossed two of the bags on top of the cart and Miguel opened the door to the front of the office. Randy turned at the sound of soft foot fall behind him. He turned to see a dark shadow following him.
“Shit.” Randy sighed. “Keep going. I gotta do something about the fucking dog.”
Randy stopped and held out his hand and the shadow slowly approached. When the damp nose nuzzled his hand he sighed. “I guess you’re coming with us.”
The animal seemed to make a decision too and walked closer. Randy saw a gray merle Australian Shepard. The poor animal was a mess. The hair was matted, the feet covered in muck.
“Stay.”
Randy returned to the back room, found a box and picked up the whole cans he could find, a couple leashes, a brush, comb, nail clippers and a ball. He hurried after Miguel in time to see the last of the supplies being loaded into his truck.
When he stepped into the sunlight he realized everyone was looking at him. He shrugged. “What?” He growled. “I couldn’t leave the mutt.”
Liz turned at the sound of the kids running from the camper.
Trace squealed. “Can we keep her?”
“We know how to take care of her. We had a dog.” Cody added.
Randy threw the end of the leash to Liz. “You’re good at taking in strays. Here’s another one.”
Liz started to protest but the kids and swooped in and began petty the dog.
Harry cleared his throat. “Hate to break this up, but we need to get moving here.”
“Everything gassed up?” Randy asked as he helped Miguel throw a net over the supplies in the back of his truck. “Let’s move out. We go to the drugstore then head out. We gotta meet the old man and his family this afternoon.”
“We can’t take the dog.” John protested. “It stinks like shit.”
Randy laughed. “Yeah. You can tell the kids that.” He dropped the box in John’s arms.
“Son-of-bitch.” John growled as he followed the kids, dog, Liz and Harry into the camper.
“We can give her a bath….” Trace began.
Liz covered her face with her hand. “Not right now.”
Harry cranks the engine and called over his shoulder. “Open the windows until you get the shit cleaned off that dog.”
Liz complied with a chuckle while she directed the kids to the table to sit down. “Stay where you are until we get outta the town.”
Charlotte Hoaks. . . .(C. A. Hoaks) 