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"You can’t save every aniht not be optimally happy, you know" Nathan squeezed my shoulder "I wish you could, but you’d run out of room at the shelter before you ran out of ani similar with patients I want to help them all I can’t"
"Time and insurance are cruel masters," I said autoer had stopped and was scolding his pet now, although they were too far away forpulled harder on her leash, and barked, once That sound was loud enough to carry, and several other heads turned toward it Dogs barking in the city wasn’t anything unusual Dogs barking in that much evident distress was
Maybe eren’t the first ones to witness what happened next; maybe other people saw it happen before we did But those people didn’t tell anyone what they’d seen--maybe didn’t understand what they’d seen--and we did That er dropped the leash It fell to the grass, and the dog ran several yards before turning back to face herI could tell she was a good dog, even without knowing her na would have run as soon as she had the chance This dog looked back to her o away and leave things the way they were supposed to be I abandoned all thoughts of a dognapping when I saw the look the dog was giving to that s to fix themselves
The man didn’t move For several seconds, he didn’t move at all Then all the tension went out of his shoulders and neck, leaving his head to loll lihtened on my shoulder
"I don’t like this, Sal," he said "Whatever this is, I don’t like it We should get out of here"
"But the dog--"
"Will be fine"
"What if he’s having a seizure or so? Shouldn’t you see if you can help?"
Nathan shook his head "This doesn’t look like the start of a seizure I don’t knohat it is, but it could be viral, and it’s not so I’ iainst her head and her posture going rigid, son that she was about to attack Without thinking about it, I put two fingers inback up, and she broke into a sudden run, heading straight for us
"Oh, crap, she’s going to attack!" said Nathan, and pulledetting savaged
I pulled rasp "No, she’s not," I said, and dropped into a crouch just as the dog reached us She practically flung herself intofrantically She stank of urine, a hot, acrid s the confrontation with her master, she must have pissed herself
"What did he do to you?" I ’s owner a piece ofaround the still-whiainst ht she could sohly
Thetoward us with his arms held out for balance, a blank look on his utterly slack face He looked like the people Joyce and I had seen at theAll around us, people were shouting and pointing at hi approach with their phones The footage would be all over the Internet before the news crews even showed up
This time, when Nathan pulled on my shoulder, I didn’t pull away Instead, I scra’s leash at the saly as the three of us turned and ran, as fast as we could, away from the Embarcadero
We arrived back at the hospital winded and sweaty, having run the first two blocks and walked the rest Only the dog seeer--keeping up with me and Nathan had to see the word "park" ered to a stop just inside the lobby, catching asped for air The dog sat down byposture that has been the characteristic of the Labrador retriever since the breed was born
Nathan stared at the closed door, and then turned to stare at me "Did you see that?" he asked needlessly I looked at hirimaced "I’m sorry, I know you saw that, of course you saw that, but that was--he was perfectly normal, and then he was just…"
"Gone," I whispered I pushed away fro She had a full set of tags I dug through theone, and Beverly here was all alone Weren’t you, Beverly?"
The dog--Beverly--looked up atbrown eyes I was a huoing to
"I have to notify the ER They need to send soh his hair before whipping around to look at me "Can you wait in my office for a few minutes? I promise, I’ll be there as fast as I can"