Bücher online kostenlos Kostenlos Online Lesen
Rachel Alexander 03 - A Hell of a Dog

Rachel Alexander 03 - A Hell of a Dog

Titel: Rachel Alexander 03 - A Hell of a Dog Kostenlos Bücher Online Lesen
Autoren: Carol Lea Benjamin
Vom Netzwerk:
need to separate one of the women from the boys, I tapped my leg for Dashiell. I wanted to take a quick walk before Martyn’s talk.
    I hadn’t waited for Bucky to answer my question because I already knew the answer. Whatever reasons any of us had for coming here, having our opinions about dogs changed was not one that made anyone’s list. Besides, as far as I could tell, the reason you choose to do something in the first place can change, especially when circumstances conspire to make you mad enough to kill.



HOW ABOUT YOU? SHE ASKED

    W hatever you have heard about pit bulls, please forget that now.”
    Martyn as a speaker was a cranked-up version of the man I had talked to at breakfast. His voice was stronger, strong enough for us all to hear him out-of-doors and without a mike, his inflections were more dramatic, his posture straighter, his command of the audience complete. No wonder he had chosen to spend most of his time lecturing about behavior all over the United States rather than spaying and inoculating pets back home in merry old England. As an added bonus, when he was here, no one was going to ask him to tidy up or take out die trash. Or expect him to sleep with the same woman every night.
    Dashiell stood at my side, content to wait and see. He too stood in a commanding way, his legs apart, his eyes benignly scanning the audience spread out before him in the grass of the Sheep Meadow, quietly ready for whatever might come his way.
    “First of all, we are going to test the dog’s reaction toward strangers, beginning with a neutral stranger who will approach Rachel, shake her hand, and ignore Dashiell. Next a friendly stranger will approach in an animated way and pet the dog. I have asked this audience for experienced assistance, and two of you volunteered”—he turned to look at two men who stood quietly to one side—“both of whom are strangers to this dog, and so can help us in the performance of this test. You have both worked on this test before?” The young bearded man nodded; the older man, who was stocky and balding, lifted one hand as a reply. “Excellent, gentlemen,” Martyn said. He walked over to them, and they conferred quietly for a moment, Martyn occasionally pointing toward me and Dashiell.
    I could see Cathy Powers sitting halfway back in the group, Sky lying down alongside her, a tennis ball in his mouth. There was room next to her, and I hoped it would stay that way, because it was where I planned to be after Dashiell’s test.
    “Let’s begin,” Martyn said. With that, the older man came over to where I stood with Dashiell, calmly reached out and shook my hand, exchanged a few pleasantries, and left. Dashiell sat at my side doing nothing more than absorbing the smell and sound of the benign stranger.
    After a moment, the second man approached. He was smiling, and he waved at me. When he got close enough, he bent and began to pet Dashiell. Dashiell remained sitting, but his tail swished back and forth on the cool grass.
    I could see Sam way in the back of the group, flanked by Woody and Chip. Betty was behind them, her tail sticking out at Chip’s side. Rhonda had backed up and was sitting on Woody’s thigh, as if he were a chair.
    Audrey, Tracy, and Beryl were together, close to the testing area but off to my right. Jeff was sitting in front of Tracy, watching the test. Cecilia, on Beryl’s lap, was trying to bite on his ears. I couldn’t see Magic. She must have been asleep on Audrey’s lap, perhaps with a napkin over her head. Now that I’d tried meditating Audrey’s way, I couldn’t blame Magic for being so cooperative.
    Martyn was getting ready to test Dash’s reaction to noise. As a city dog, he’d slept through sirens, car alarms, and the Gay Pride parade. There was nothing Martyn could do that would startle Dashiell.
    He flew through the ten subtests, acing every one, reacting where he should have, to the hidden decoy threatening him with a riding crop, and as calm as Balto, the statue of the great sled dog in Central Park, when the younger of the two assistants snapped open the spring-loaded umbrella and lowered it onto the path we’d been asked to traverse. I looked out into the audience for Bucky, who was shaking his head, but Dashiell had not been traumatized by the sudden appearance of a large object in his path. He had gone, as he should have, to investigate and, finding the umbrella to be harmless and inedible, went about his business as if it

Weitere Kostenlose Bücher