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He had also inserted a needle in one of the dog’s leg veins and had hooked him to an IV drip to counteract dehydration

When the vet tried to put a muzzle on Einstein, both Nora and Travis objected strenuously

"It’s not because I’m afraid he’ll bite," Dr Keene explained "It’s for his own protection, to prevent hith, he’ll do what dogs always do to a wound-lick and bite at the source of the irritation"

"Not this dog," Travis said "This dog’s different" He pushed past Keene and reether

The vet started to protest, then thought better of it "All right For now He’s too weak now, anyway"

Still trying to deny the awful truth, Nora said, "But how could it be so serious? He showed only the mildest symptoms, and even those went away over a couple of days"

"Half the dogs who get distemper never show any symptoms at all," the vet said as he returned a bottle of antibiotics to one of the glass-fronted cabinets and tossed a disposable syringe in a waste can "Others have only a o froet very ill It can be a gradually worsening illness, or it can change suddenly froht side here"

Travis was crouched beside Einstein, where the dog could see hi his eyes, and could therefore feel attended, watched over, loved When he heard Keene ht side? What do you ’s condition, before it contracts distemper, frequently determines the course of the disease The illness is most acute in animals that are ill-kept and poorly nourished It’s clear to ood care"

Travis said, "We tried to feed hiot plenty of exercise"

"He was bathed and groo approval, Dr Keene said, "Then we have an edge We have real hope"

Nora looked at Travis, and he could meet her eyes only briefly before he had to look away, down at Einstein It was left to her to ask the dreaded question: "Doctor, he’s going to be all right, isn’t he? He won’t-he won’t die, will he?"

Apparently, Ja eyes presented, merely in repose, an expression that did little to inspire confidence He cultivated a warrandfatherly enuine and helped balance the perpetual gloom God had seen fit to visit upon his countenance

He came to Nora, put his hands on her shoulders "My dear, you love this dog like a baby, don’t you?"

She bit her lip and nodded

"Then have faith Have faith in God, atches over sparrows, so they say, and have a little faith in ood at what I do, and I deserve your faith"

"I believe you are good," she told hi beside Einstein, Travis said thickly, "But the chances What’re the chances? Tell us straight?"

Letting go of Nora, turning to Travis, Keene said, "Well, the discharge froet Not nearly No pus blisters on the abdomen You say he’s vo," Travis said

"His fever’s high but not dangerously so Has he been slobbering excessively?"

"No," Nora said

"Fits of head-shaking and chewing on air, sort of as if he had a bad taste in his mouth?"

"No," Travis and Nora said simultaneously

"Have you seen him run in circles or fall doithout reason? Have you seen hi? Ai and twitching-anything like that?"

"No, no," Travis said

And Nora said "My God, could he get like that?"

"If he goes into second-stage distemper, yes," Keene said "Then there’s brain involvement Epileptic-like seizures Encephalitis"

Travis caered toward Keene, then stopped, swaying His face was pale His eyes filled with a terrible fear "Brain involvee?"

An oily nausea rippled in Nora She thought of Einstein with brain dah to reme had been lost, and to know that he was now living in a dullness, a grayness, that his life was somehow less than what it had once been Sick and dizzy with fear, she had to lean against the exae distemper don’t survive But if hethat would require he be put to sleep Hechorea, for instance, which is involuntary jerking or twitching, rather like palsy, and often limited to the head But he could be relatively happy with that, lead a pain-free existence, and he could still be a fine pet"

Travis almost shouted at the vet: "To hell hether he’d make a fine pet or not I’e What about his nize his masters," the doctor said "He’d know you and reht sleep a lot He ht have periods of listlessness But he’d alet that training-"

Shaking, Travis said, "I don’t give a da as he can still think!"

"Think?" Dr Keene said, clearly perplexed "Wellwhat do you , after all"

The vet had accepted their anxious, grief-racked behavior as within the parameters of normal pet-owner reactions in a case like this But now, at last, he began to look at thee the subject and dampen the vet’s suspicion, partly because she siht, but is Einstein in second-stage distemper?"

Keene said, "Froe And now that treatun, if we don’t see any of thethe next twenty-four hours, I think we have a good chance of keeping hi it back"

"And there’s no brain involveain caused Keene to furrow his brow

"No Not in first stage"

"And if he stays in first stage," Nora said, "he won’t die?"