dental assistant. They were very much a May-December, opposites-attract couple. Ross was steady and serious and had only come out after he’d retired early from the police force thanks to bad knees, and Tony, an excitable twenty-three-year-old Grindr-hook-up-turned-boyfriend, was his first long-term male partner. Despite the differences, they were a perfect match. While they were friendly with Sean and Brett, they sadly weren’t in their closest social circle. Sometimes Sean wondered if it was because they didn’t fit into Brett’s upwardly mobile, nouveau riche niche.
Still frowning at the note, Sean trotted around to the side of the house, and sure enough, there was his baby. In the shade under the eaves and between the brick wall and the wooden fence palings, with a large bowl of water in the deepest shadow to keep it cool, was Reginald.
The Cavalier King Charles jumped up, straining his lead. He whined, but it was his “OMG it’s you, it’s my person, I’m so happy to see you, feed me” whine, not a “Save me from this interminable torture” whine.
“Oh, my poor baby.” Sean crouched and was nearly knocked over by seven kilos of overexcited Cavalier. “Why did Ross tie you up out here? Were you playing rough with the other puppies again?” Ross’s dogs were a German shepherd and a Rottweiler, and the only time Reginald ever got the better of them was when they were asleep and their ears were exposed and tails unguarded.
Reginald panted and snuggled in further between Sean’s knees.
Sean checked him over, finding no injuries, so he hadn’t been tussling with the other dogs. Besides, if there was ever an issue, Ross would phone Sean immediately. So what had happened today to warrant this? And to be told to find another sitter? Suddenly, Sean’s choice to pick up Reginald and go straight home felt more like prescience than reluctance to study. Who knew what sort of mess his baby could have got into if he’d been left alone for another couple of hours? Sean would never have thought Ross capable of something like this.
Ross’s dogs knew Sean, so they’d stopped barking and sat just on the other side of the fence, panting heavily. Thin slices of black muzzles and pink tongues were visible through the gaps between the palings.
“Hey, Zena,” Sean said to the one closest to him, and the Rottie pushed her nose against the gap so he could scratch it with a finger. “Where’s your daddy? Did he have to go out or something?”
While Reginald settled down, contentedly leaning against Sean’s thigh, Sean swung his backpack off and fished out his phone. No missed messages from Ross, so he called him, only for it to go directly to voicemail. Sean hung up and scratched Reginald’s head. “Maybe your father knows what’s going on, eh?” He called Brett, not surprised when it too went to voicemail. Brett usually had his phone on silent during work hours. Sean left a slightly frantic message, hung up, then sorted Reginald out so they could go home.
Leash in hand, Sean jogged away from Ross and Tony’s place, Reginald trotting along just behind him. A couple of blocks along, the lead tugged in Sean’s hand, and he stopped to look back at Reginald. The dog sat on the grassy verge, tail flat on the ground, head hanging. They went through this every day. Biting back a sigh, Sean pulled gently on the lead. “Come on, Reginald. It’s only a couple more blocks.”
Reginald’s tail curled up, and his head lifted.
“Yes, that’s it. You can make it.”
The furry butt lifted off the grass, and Reginald took a couple of steps, tail wagging.
“Good boy! Who’s getting a treat when we get home? You are!”
Sean set off again, and they got to the end of the block, where they had to stop for the light, before Reginald baulked at more physical activity. This time, he went so far as to lie down in the gutter, big eyes round and soulful as he looked up at Sean. His whine this time was the “Go on without me, save yourself” one, and he sagged even further. If only Sean could blame this on the trauma of being kicked out of doggy day care, but they went through this routine more often than not.
In the end, he had to pick Reginald up just to get them across the street before the lights changed. “You’re so embarrassing. You can make it all the way home, you know. It’s not that far.”