Amnesia

37. Leon

So the next day, that's what they went to do. They returned after supper with supplies for a dog, and a cage.

"Guys, meet Leon!" Melly announced and opened the cage to let out the puppy.

The little German Shepard bounded out, running to each person to check them out.

"He's so cute," I said. "He's like a little fur ball."

"He's already a month old," Melly informed us. "And he'll grow fast."

"You named him Leon?" Kyle asked.

"Mhm."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to name him Leo, but Devan said it was a wimpy name, so I put an N on the end. Leon."

"I like it. I think it fits him," I said.

The four boys left for the night and Devan set up where Leon was going to be sleeping in the kitchen. He set down the bed, bowls, and a few newspapers. Leon was supposedly house trained already, but just to be careful, we still took the precaution.

But as we lay down to sleep, Leon began howling. He howled until he fell asleep, which wasn't until past midnight.

Devan woke up grumpy from lack of sleep. I wasn't in a very good mood either, and neither was Melly. Melly let Leon outside in the backyard to do his business and then brought him back in and fed him. While we ate breakfast, Leon lay beneath Devan's chair.

When Devan went upstairs to his office, Leon followed him. But when Devan closed him out in the hallway, Leon began to howl again. As soon as Devan opened the door to yell at the puppy, Leon stopped and tried to get in the room. Devan closed him out again, and the howling began again.

"Why don't you let him in the room?" I asked Devan the next time he went to yell at Leon.

"I don't want the howling any closer to me," He said.

But before he could close the door again, Leon slipped inside. Devan rolled his eyes, but closed the door with Leon inside. No more howling.

The next couple days all Leon did was follow Devan everywhere. Literally everywhere. Whenever he was shut out of a room away from Devan, Leon would begin to howl. Devan quickly learned to let Leon in the room with him, except for the bathroom where he would just deal with the howling for the couple minutes he was in there, thought he was slowly growing out of that. Leon also joined us in Devan's room, sleeping by the door.

All through the day, every so often you would hear Leon yelp and Devan shout or swear at him. I asked Devan what he did to Leon and he told me that he kept tripping over him.

"He is literally right on my heals all the time," Devan said. "So whenever I stop or turn around, he runs into my feet or I almost step on him."

I did my best to not laugh, but I couldn't help it.

"What's so funny about it?" Devan asked.

"It's just so cute. He adores you, Devan."

"He's not supposed to be my dog."

"No, but you're probably going to have to be the one to train him."

So that's what he did. The next month was like boot camp for Leon, and he learned very quickly. All the basic commands were down and the howling habit was broken, and now it was time to teach him to protect me and Melly.

So what Devan did was pretend to be about to hurt us, and teach Leon to attack him whenever we felt threatened. At first Leon thought that it meant that Devan couldn't touch us at all, but soon he learned the difference between hurting and other contact. Devan brought in the other boys to do the same and other random people so Leon knew to go at anyone who tried to hurt us.

Melly was right about him growing fast. He already just about doubled his size in two months. He was cautious of anyone who came through the door that he didn't recognize, which was anyone besides me, Melly, Devan, Kyle, Nate, Will, or Owen.

He was definitely the guard dog that we wanted.

Leon still liked to follow Devan everywhere and even went with him to a couple of his meetings, which were meetings that I went along to. Leon sat obediently next to us, not needing to be on a leash and he growled whenever the other person started to get angry.

I still couldn't tell Devan that I remembered. I didn't know when I could. I was worried about what he would do when I told him.

I almost didn't want to admit it, but I had fallen for Devan. But did he feel the same way? He always likes to hold my hand and cuddle with me and compliment me, though he's not the same when other people are around. I understand why, but I still question it. Does he feel the same way about me?