Country Mile

HER SISTER

Delilah's annoying voice raising in octaves only a guilty person can reach drew Genna out of her thoughts. She could hear the rumble of Adam's deep toned responses but couldn't make out any words. She shook off the feelings that had previously been trying to creep in and instead turned around to head back outside because whatever was going on upstairs was of no concern to her. Those two people will never be of any concern to her. She held tight to her resolve: no more feelings. Ever.

She took a seat on the bottom step while googling the closest vet's office near her location. Paul's Paws N' Claws Clinic came up as number one so she hit the call button and hoped someone would be able to help.

The phone rang three times when a soft southern voice came over the line. "Thank you for calling Paws N' Claws, this is Sara, how can I help you?"

"Um, hi Sara, so, I found a mama dog with newborn pups out in the woods by my house. I'm afraid they're going stroke out in this heat. What can I do for them?"

"Oh honey, your best bet is to call animal control and they'll come and take care of them for you."

"But won't animal control just euthanize them? Especially in areas where there is a high volume of animals already in shelters? I mean, I don't want these poor dogs to die."

"Well, sweetie," she said with a slight tone of annoyance, "in this heat, they'll die either way then won't they? At least with animal control they may have a chance of getting adopted. Don't you think?"

Really bitch? "No, Sheryl, I don't. You and I both know that won't be the case."

"It's Sara."

"Whatever! Thanks for all of your non helpful rhetoric. I'm not calling animal control."

"Excuse me, I—"

"YOU'RE EXCUSED."

Genna tapped the end call icon and had to restrain herself from chucking her phone across the damn yard. She felt like looking up their fax number and sending them all of the percentages of dogs killed each year in shelters with ATTN: DOUCHEBAG SARA in big bold letters on top. Give her some food for thought.

Food for thought. FOOD! Genna face-palmed so hard at the realization of how she could easily coax mama dog into trusting her so she could save her and the pups. Her friends used to scoff at her but honestly, food solved all of Genna's problems. Sad? Eat ice cream. Mad? Get pizza. Happy? Tacos.

She ran back inside and straight to the fridge to see what kind of meat there was. A pound of hamburger sat right on the top shelf. Perfect. She searched the cabinets for a small pan, found a wooden spoon in a drawer, and quickly went to work on browning the beef. The aroma was going to be irresistible to mama dog, in her heart she just knew this would work. Once it was sufficiently browned, she grabbed a large bowl and spooned the beef into it.

She put all the dirty dishes in the sink, grabbed the bowl off the counter and turned around to unfortunately face a teary-eyed Delilah and a confused Adam. He had his hand on Delilah's shoulder and she had her arms wrapped tightly around her middle.

"What's this?" Adam asked.

Genna looked down at the bowl. "Oh this is.. um.. well I was hungry so... but I didn't wanna interrupt you guys.. and now I'm just gonna sit outside and.. eat.. this... snack." She closed her eyes in exasperation at herself. Her own ears disbelieving the very words she spoke. She could either be an impeccable liar, or a real shitty liar. For some reason, there was never an in between for her. And this time, it was shit.

She opened her eyes and looked back up at Adam whose irritated face clearly said, bullshit, but his voice said, "Oh really?"

Genna's internal alert system went off and the word, Redirect! Redirect! Redirect! kept blaring on repeat.