After I took off from the reception desk, I surprisingly knew where the room was located – considering that the rooms here had numbering and the animal shelter only had one floor. I kept on walking until I saw a room with a wooden plate on it that says 105.
Brenda turned out to be really nice. She had small eyes and a thin body frame. I could tell she was Chinese because of the faint accent I heard in her voice. She had jet black hair and light brown eyes that always seemed to look curious. She reminded me of Brenda Song for some odd reason.
“Well, here are the leashes.” Brenda (Song?) snatched the leashes from a wooden cabinet and handed them to me. I took them and breathed out a thank you. I wiped my sweaty hand at the fabric of my t-shirt and while doing so, I asked the mandatory question;
“How many dogs am I going to walk?”
“Just a reasonable amount,” I felt my lips tug into a smile. Yes! Maybe two or three would do it. I mean, I don’t hate dogs… I just don’t like them slobbering their icky saliva on me (or my shoes). “Maybe seven or eight will do.”
As I heard those words roll down Brenda’s lips, I wanted to shout ‘No, it isn’t! That must be the most unreasonable thing I have heard in my life!’ but I didn’t primarily because it was rude and inappropriate.
Maybe it was reasonable for girls who aren’t scared of animals, maybe it was reasonable for an old cat lady, maybe it was reasonable for a thirty year old man who still lives with his parents, but it definitely wasn’t reasonable for me.
I stood silent, waiting for Brenda to smile and say, ‘Just kidding’ but she never did. I felt my smile stiffen so by then I probably looked like that overly attached girlfriend from that Youtube video. When I saw a twinkle of concern in her eyes, I dropped the smile and she just burst into hysterical fits of laughter.
“You should have seen your face!” She was now clutching her stomach, holding on for her dear life. “I don’t think walking that amount of dogs is possible, especially for a newbie like you.”
I looked at her with my ‘okay, it wasn’t that funny’ face but her laugh was pretty contagious so I started giggling as well and then five minutes later, we were laughing at nothing and I can sense that Brenda is going to be a friend.
“No, really, how many dogs?” I asked seriously, knowing that the laughter finally subsided.
“Maybe two or three – we miraculously have a lot of volunteers at this time.”
Is luck finally on my side? I felt myself breathe a sigh of relief.
She pursed her lips and closed her eyes grudgingly, as if she hated herself for forgetting. “Ah, you have to get the collars from Troye. He’s like the head of maintenance.”
Instantly, I thought of a balding man with a lengthy beard. “Isn’t Mario the head of maintenance?”
“Haha,” She chuckled. “He’s the head of collar maintenance then.”
I laughed along and placed the dog collars (realizing that I was still holding it) inside my cheap, velvet, body bag. I actually bought it in a yard sale and the red was slowly peeling away from the surface of the bag.
“We’re not really that strict when it comes to walking dogs.” She walked towards a kennel that I just noticed. “All of the volunteers walk the dogs at the same time, but you can walk on your own after you log on the greennotebook in the front desk.”
“Oh, okay.” I said, nodding.
“So, you can start now and bring the dogs back at, say,” She took a quick glance at her watch and started detaching the padlock connected to the cage. “Before lunch – You think you can handle that?”
CITEȘTI
A Furry Story
Ficțiune adolescențiAllison Summers hates animals. Hate is a strong word but that was what she felt. She just doesn’t hate them; she also reluctantly admits to fear them. Every time she sees something moving that isn’t human, she freaks. What will happen if her parent...
