Altered

Chapter 7-2

"No, I don't want to buy your stuff, please leave and goodnight."

"Joanna? It's me. From next door?" Louise called over Joanna's front door.

The door swung open, and Joanna's friendly face came into view. "Louise? What's the matter? Come on in!"

She led her to the kitchen table, which was covered with a tablecloth that had paw prints and toy bones all over it. Charlie was sleeping in his dog bed in the hallway next to the kitchen, unaware of the new visitor that had just come in. Joanna turned on the kettle and turned towards her.

"Tea?" she asked.

"Oh, no, I'm alright. Thank you though." Louise declined politely.

"Suit yourself." She took out a bag of tea leaves and placed it into her mug, which again, was full of dog patterns. "So you were asking something about Charlie when he was a pup?" Joanna went over to the kitchen table and sat next to Louise.

"Yes. I know this is strange, to be knocking on your door at this hour of the night and wanting to talk about your dog, but it's kind of important." Louise started.

Joanna laughed. Just when she did, one of Charlie's ears pointed towards the kitchen from its resting position. But just as quickly, it went back down.

"It's not strange at all! I mean, look at who you're talking to! I'm all for a dog discussion, especially if you're talking about my Charlie."

Louise asked her about how Charlie was before his alleged runaway, and how exactly did she notice he had changed after the event. Joanna explained that Charlie was actually not the only dog who ran away and came back an absolute angel.

"I work at the shelter here, and most of the dogs were picked up from the streets. I didn't think much about it after they, too, ran away one night from their cages. I thought that one of our staff, he was a new intern by the way, forgot to lock them in and so they got the chance to roam free. Sam denied that of course, but I let it go after we found them dogs back in the shelter a few weeks later."

"So the dogs were gone together at once, on that same night?"

"Yep."

"And was this before or after Charlie's runaway?"

"Come to think of it, it was around the same time. But before."

"How were the dogs behaving before that night? And how were they after coming back?"

"Well, they were your usual typical stray dogs. Most of them were abused by their previous owners, or were living on the streets, so they barked at anyone and anything all the time, especially when strangers were around. We had to put up red stickers on the kennel doors for the meaner ones, just in case that people shoved their hands into the cage and get bit. But then, when Sam and I spotted them all back in the kennels, it was almost as if they were waiting for us to give them treats. You know, being all good and stuff. They were wagging their tails, sitting down, and none of them barked at all."

Joanna went over to the boiling kettle and poured the water into her cup while continuing.

"We thought that maybe they were tired of the streets, and figured that the shelter was where all the food and water were and so decided to come back. It makes sense, especially for strays, because they have the strongest survival skills. They know where the food is, and how to get back to places they have been before."

"I see. And were any of them ever adopted?" asked Louise.

"Funny you asked. Every single one of them angels got adopted one by one the following weeks! It was like they knew what to do to get people's attention and be adopted. That's what I meant when I say they have strong survival instincts. Same with Charlie here, you know what to do to make me happy, don't you?" At the sound of his name, Charlie opened his eyes and looked over to Joanna, his tail making contact with the bed from swinging back and forth, going flap flap flap each time it hit the bed.

"He was such a naughty boy before. Always barking and doing his business on the carpet. But now it seemed like he had grown out of it."

"Thank you so much for the insights, Joanna. And I'm happy that there was a happy ending to the dogs' story."

"Is this related to the children's case that you're working on? God bless them." asked Joanna.

"It's complicated. But I'll tell you when I learn more about it. Thank you so much again." Louise stood up and was ready to head to the door.

"I look forward to it. And no worries at all, you're welcome here any time. Goodnight!"