Paws

Plans

(Partially unedited. Thanks for your patience.)

Simple was the focus of dinner tonight. It was a bit early to be eating, but by the time everything was done I'm sure tummys will be hungry and then, hopefully, sleepy. Speaking of one tummy, the sound of my daughter's paws on the kitchen tile had me turning around, smiling as I scooped her up to sit on the counter.

"Wanna help daddy with dinner?"

She gave a playful cry and immediately took the wooden spoon I offered to her between her teeth to begin chewing on. She usually destroyed one or two each month, but it was worth it to see how much fun she has destroying the poor utensils. While she got busy I got the pot of water ready, glad that my stove worked great and it began to simmer in a minute. While I waited for it to boil I sent a text to my baby sitter, letting her know not to come this week and that I'd contact her when I know what I'm going to be doing. She replied right away with a confirmation that made me smile. It was a simple okay, but that's what was nice about her. She didn't beat around the bush. It was always yes, no, or okay.

She had been Jessica's babysitter for most of her life but with Sam here, I don't really trust him enough to tell her to come over yet. That leaves me in a sticky situation though, besides the random bits of honey on them. My eyes cut sideways to Jess as I thought.

I can either take her to work with me tomorrow and she'll be bored out of her mind all day, or...

"Hey Sam! Can you come here for a moment?"

While I waited for him to appear I got busy putting the pasta in the pot and adding a few simple spices like garlic, pepper, and salt. When the pasta was cooking away I turned around just in time to see Sam tromp in with Coda swaying from between his teeth. The pup's face was definitely set in a pout, obviously upset about his mother suddenly halting what he had been doing.

"I know you won't want me to have a babysitter here tomorrow while I go into work, but that leaves me in a trying situation. I know my daughter won't want to come to work with me so what might you suggest?"

It was too cold outside for me to even think about putting Sam and Coda back outside in the kennel, but I also wasn't sure if I could trust Sam enough with Jess to risk leaving her here. I highly doubted that he'd protect her if she got a little too rough with Coda by mistake while playing. I've already seen him freak out once because of that...

Papa! Sam saids he wach me.

That wasn't a surprise, but still. I had a serious feeling of uncertainty even asking Sam the favor.

He saids is okay. Not hurd me papa.

That wasn't as reassuring as it should be, but it did give me a possibility besides having to make Jess wait in my office for most of the day. Shaking my head slowly, I turned back to the pasta and stirred it so that the noodles didn't stick together, then turned back to Sam and nearly flipped the boiling pot of water on myself when I jumped.

"Sam! Geez! Don't surprise me like that."

He was sitting on the cold tile floor in his human form once more, eyes wide as he fidgeted nervously. I didn't want to rush him to get up or anything like that, but sitting there completely naked will probably end up with him getting a cold soon. So, I very slowly and carefully knelt down and reached a hand out. I knew it wasn't what real dogs really cared about, but I've seen it far too often to kick the habit of offering my hand to a dog. I also averted my eyes, not really worried even if he did bite me. His human teeth were much less threatening over his dog's teeth.