The dog stopped in midair, spinning around like he’d hit an invisible wall. Then he bounded over to Dolly and sat down right in front of her. The child was an angel from heaven, sent down to save me. I was sure of it. In the few seconds it took me to reach Buster, Dolly had him eating out of the palm of her hand. Literally.
“Dolly, you’re a lifesaver.” I wrapped an arm around the little girl and pulled her in for a side hug. “Thanks so much for catching Buster.”
“He likes cotton candy.” Dolly smiled up at me, her mouth covered in a mix of pink and blue spun sugar.
“How did you know that?” I bent down to make sure the leash was securely attached to Buster’s collar.
Dolly looked at me like I was the dumbest adult on the face of the planet. “Everyone likes cotton candy.”
Alex let out a nervous laugh. “Who knew?”
“Thank goodness Dolly seemed to.” With the crisis averted, my attention moved to the number of crates the truck driver had lined up on the driveway. “What are you going to do with them? You said six. There are more than six there.”
“There was a little miscommunication about the number.” Alex’s foot tapped on the gravel drive. “Give me a minute. I need to go inside and make sure the dome is ready.”
“You can’t leave me out here with . . . with . . .”
“Ms. Baxter?” Cyrus Beasley, photographer for the local paper, stood next to me, a camera hanging from his neck.
I wanted to follow Alex into the building. Maybe together we could figure out what was going on and how to salvage the adoption event. But instead I stood in the center of the chaos and turned toward Cyrus. “Yes?”
“Is it true your dogs are going to be sharing living quarters with some penguins? How long do you expect them to be in town?” He held his phone in hand, waiting for me to respond.
I stared at him as the question sank in. Dogs. Penguins. Living together. This couldn’t happen. The penguins weren’t supposed to arrive for another week at least. I was supposed to have time to find the dogs homes before then.
“Ms. Baxter?” Cyrus lifted his phone, holding it closer to my face. “The residents of Ido want to know what’s going on right under their noses here. Are the penguins going to be safe sharing quarters with your pit bulls?”
CHAPTER 21
ALEX
“I didn’t knowthey were coming.” I paced the length of the kitchen.
Zina uncrossed her legs and then recrossed them the other way. She didn’t believe me. I could tell by the way her jaw set. The softness I’d seen in her just last night was gone.
“I’m sorry. We’ll figure this out.”
“No, you’ll figure this out.” She finally spoke. “And by the way, why is the parrot here?”
I glanced toward the bay window where the girls had insisted I set up Shiner Bock’s cage. “Char thinks Dolly might be allergic and wanted to see if moving him out here would make a difference. As for the penguins, fine, I’ll figure this out on my own.” So far all I’d been able to do was put the penguins up in the front half of the warehouse. I’d had to use the shelving units to separate them from the dogs. The old Phillips warehouse was turning into a bit of a zoo.
“All the time we spent planning the adoption event.” Zina let out a loud sigh. “Wasted.”
“It’s not wasted. You still found homes for a few of the dogs, right?” I tried to remind her of the good that had come out of the day.
“Buster. We found a home for Buster and that’s it.” She held a puppy in the crook of her arm. I’d never meant to make more work for her. All along the only thing I’d wanted to do was help her out.
“Well, at least that’s one dog who’s going to a good home.” I gave her my best winning smile.
She frowned back. It had taken all afternoon and into the evening to get the penguins and the puppies settled. Gramps had gone to bed a couple of hours ago while Zina and I had still been shuffling kennels around in the warehouse.
“You hungry?” I asked. “I can whip up something for us to eat.”
The look she gave me let me know she had less faith in my ability to make dinner than she did in my ability to remedy the penguin and puppy situation.
“What? I’ve been feeding myself for years. I think I can handle it.”
“You burned macaroni and cheese.”
