Bloodlines

it does seem like she told Coakley she was giving the dog away.”
    “So he took one look at her and decided—”
    “Yeah. That she didn’t know which way was up.”
    “Jesus,” I said. “Neither do I.”
    “You and me both. We should’ve taken that dog. We shouldn’t have waited.”
    “I should’ve taken her on Friday,” I said miserably. “Why the hell did I leave her there?”
    “It seemed all right,” Betty said. “Didn’t it?”
    “Yes. It seemed fine. I mean, how was I supposed to know she had this gentleman friend? All she talked about then was the dear departed Edgar, for God’s sake, her husband. She didn’t seem like...” Enid Sievers had seemed sexless. My mistake, of course. No one is immune to passion. “God damn. I am so sorry. I should’ve just grabbed Missy and got her out of there. Shit! Rowdy didn’t even qualify on Sunday. I should’ve taken Missy and kept her with me and stayed home. And, Jesus. It gets worse. The puppy at Puppy Luv?”
    “It’s—”
    “I think she’s okay. I’m not positive, but I think so. But the woman’s dead. Diane Sweet. The woman that runs the place. She was murdered. Someone broke into Puppy Luv last night and murdered her.”
    Almost all real dog people are world-class talkers. Maybe it’s because we’re used to the constant presence of beings who love the sound of our voices. Maybe it’s because we have a lot to say: whose dog went B.O.B. where, whether that second testicle has dropped yet, how many points the new bitch needs to finish. The fact is that we’re exceptionally chatty. The most expensive item on any real dog person’s budget isn’t dog food, club memberships, vet bills, entry fees for shows, the cost of hiring handlers and groomers, or anything else obviously dog-related. It’s the phone bill. Always, always. For what I pay to NYNEX, I could campaign a specials dog. You know what that is, right? A dog with a championship who’s entered in Best of Breed. Am I running on? Well, I hate to say I told you so, but... Maybe if we’d been two bird-watchers, stamp collectors, or fanciers of Vietnamese potbellied pigs, the silence on the line would have been normal. Maybe it wouldn’t. I don’t know. But I assure you that dog people never let the air go dead.
    “Holly?” Betty finally said. “Are you thinking...?”
    I hadn’t been. If I’d been thinking about anyone, it had been Gloria Loss, and she’d barely crossed my mind. Betty didn’t know Gloria Loss, though. But Betty and I both knew Lois Metzler.
    “Forget it,” I said. “Lois was upset, naturally, but... Look, I don’t know the details, really, but I think it wasn’t... It just wasn’t a woman’s crime, I think. What I heard was that a guy broke in. It did cross my mind that it might’ve been someone who’d bought a puppy that turned out to be sick. You know? Someone had humongous vet bills and tried to get Puppy Luv to pay, something like that. But Lois? I mean, yeah, of course she was... Her reputation and everything?” Betty, the human Kimi, overrode me. Alpha and beta. “You know what my mother always used to say? She used to say it all the time. It drove me and my sisters crazy. ‘Remember, girls, your reputation is priceless.’ ”
    “Everyone’s mother used to say that.”
    “Everyone’s mother was right,” Betty said.
    My own mother, Marissa, was positively vituperative on the subject. She banned any behavior even remotely suggestive of such gross improprieties as double handling, altering a dog’s natural color, sneaking food into the obedience ring, and stepping on the toes of a competitor’s dog. Fortunately, she considered human love affairs a personal matter, governed by the American Kennel Club only in the sense that “all participants should be guided by the principles of good sportsmanship both in and outside the ring.” At least I think that’s what she thought. She died quite a long time ago. There was one... Well, I’m not sure what she meant. The remark was a direct quote from the AKC Obedience- Regulations, but Marissa definitely said it about people, not dogs. What Marissa said was that smoothness and naturalness should be given precedence over military precision and peremptory commands. Make of it what you want. Myself, I think it’s good advice.
     

13
     

     
    As I’ve mentioned, Weston, Westford, West Brookfield, and lots of other Wests and Brooks appear in big gold letters on the Dog Lover’s Map of