“Is he always this subtle?”
Claire laughed.
“Very.”
June sat nearby and waited for Benny to approach on his own. When he eventually moved toward her, she scratched gently beneath his chin.
Claire told them his history.
Not as a sales pitch.
She explained that Benny still preferred sleeping in physical contact with another dog or person, that he could be cautious around sudden movements, and that new environments sometimes required patience. She also told them about the stuffed dog, the possible litter beneath the maintenance building, and the way his sleeping behavior had changed after he began trusting Walter.
Robert and June exchanged a look.
They already had another dog at home, a calm seven-year-old retriever named Sadie.
“What happens if he doesn’t like her?” June asked.
“We find out before anybody makes a decision.”
The introduction happened several days later.
Sadie entered Claire’s yard first.
Benny approached cautiously, stopped, and allowed her to smell him.
For the first few minutes, he maintained distance.
Then Sadie found a tennis ball.
Benny forgot to be nervous.
By the end of the meeting, he was following her through the yard.
Two weeks later, Benny went home with Robert and June.
Claire worried about the first night more than she admitted.
The following morning, her phone buzzed with a photograph.
Benny was asleep on a large dog bed near the Carters’ couch. Sadie lay beside him, and Benny had pressed his entire back against her ribs. One of Sadie’s hind legs rested loosely across his paws.
Claire sent the photograph to Diane.
Diane sent it to Helen.