This was completely crazy! I needed time to think about what was going on, but I couldn't just leave her here. This place was the epitome of decay. It was not fit for man nor beast, so whichever she was I couldn't just leave her here.
It was harder to get her to leave the shop then I had expected. To me it was run down and decrepit but to her it was the only home she knew. Still, I couldn't let her stay here by herself and I surely wasn't going to stay any longer then I had to. Thirty minutes later, after lots of quiet convincing and softly stroking her ears, I got her to get into my car. There was only one thing I hadn't accounted for...
"Grrrrrrr..."
I had just had my car into the repair shop two weeks ago, there was no reason for it to be making that noise, but every time I tried to turn over the engine it made that noise. Then it became clear what was really going on.
When I turned and looked at my passenger I noticed she was lurched forward and trying to intimidate the engine as if it were a beast prepping to attack us.
"You've never been in car before, have you?"
"Grrr.... What?" She said as if I had awoken her out of a trance.
"You've never been in a car before?"
I could tell from the confused look on her face that she hadn't ever seen a car before, let alone been in one.
"Don't worry; it's not going to hurt you. It's just a machine."
As the car started to move down the street she stopped growling but as I watched her out of the corner of my eye I could tell she was scared. She obviously felt foolish for trying to scare off an inanimate object and was terrified by the concept of moving so fast even though she was not herself moving.
"If you're scared you could lean your head up against my shoulder if that would make you feel better."
Before I even finished my sentence I could feel her rubbing up against me.
"I'm not scared master." She said with a trembling voice that made it clear she was lying, "Where are we going?"
"I already told you that." I said, trying to talk in as calm a voice as possible. She was scared and confused and even though I was even more surprised then she was I had decided I would take control of the situation and decide what to do.
"I know.... But I forgot."
"We're going back to my apartment."
"Apartment?"
"My home."
"Oh!" She said while trying to move herself even closer to me, "You're taking me home with you."
-----------
It was a two hour ride from the pet store back to my apartment and she had fallen asleep long before the trip was over. I had wrapped her up in my coat when we first left the pet store just in case anyone happened to look our way. Now she had curled herself up into a ball on the front seat and wore my coat like a blanket. She was so beautiful lying there completely still that I wanted to just watch her. Still, we had finally made it home and I was tired.
"Wake up," I whispered in her little dog ear, "wake up. We're home."
As soon I said home her ears perked up and she leaped into an upright position so quickly my coat feel off her.
"I'm home? We're here? Can I see it? Please! Please!"
I could hear her tail swishing back and forth at lightning speed as it rustled up against the jacket that had fallen behind her. Obviously I had not fully realized what was going on with her. I had brought her home so I could figure out what to do about her. It was clear now though that when I took her out of the pet shop she saw herself as mine and even if I wanted to get rid of her I couldn't.
Still, she was cute loving and loyal. Why would I want to get rid of her?
"You have to put the coat back on in case any of the neighbors see you."
Her tail suddenly stopped waging and she looked like she was about to cry.
"You don't like me? Am I ugly? Are you ashamed to have other people see me with you? What ever is wrong with me I can change it! Just tell me what it is you don't like about...."
I put my finger over her mouth to silence her like you would a little child.
"Shh, you misunderstand me. I like the way you look, it's just illegal for women to be naked in public. If they saw you without the coat on you might get in trouble."
