Read Raining Cats & Dogs (A Melanie Travis Mystery) for Free Online

bothered her more than anything else. It seemed pretty clear that if Boss got it into his head to do something, none of us would be able to stand in his way.
    “The second episode happened last month in the sunroom. Boss was standing beside a woman in a wheelchair. She always likes seeing the bigger dogs, the ones she doesn’t have to lean over to pat. Minnie and Coach were there, too, and I guess the Schnauzer got a little too close for Boss’s comfort. He was feeling very protective of ‘his’ patient and growled at Coach.”
    “What did the woman do?” I asked.
    “She laughed it off,” Paul replied. “Said she liked her dogs the same way she liked her men, with a good dose of spunk. But I’m afraid my Aunt Mary wasn’t nearly as amused. She feels some responsibility, you see, since I was the one who started the program. She complained, and Steve had to step in and smooth things over. That’s why Kelly and Boss have joined this class. Steve told her if she didn’t continue with Boss’s training, she wouldn’t be allowed to go to Winston Pumpernill anymore.”
    “She doesn’t look entirely happy about it,” I said.
    “She doesn’t have to be happy, she merely has to comply. There’s no way we can include anyone in our group who runs even the slightest risk of endangering one of the patients. Obviously we want the residents to enjoy our visits without reservation, but aside from that, just think of the potential liability.”
    Steve strode to the center of the room. “Back to work, everyone,” he said. “Time to see how much your dogs like you. Let’s work on the recall next.”
    We pulled ourselves back into a semblance of organization. Over the next forty-five minutes, Steve ran us through the rest of the basic obedience exercises that would be expected of a dog competing for its Companion Dog degree. After the recall, we did two long stays—one with the dogs sitting in a long row, then another one with them lying down. We heeled in a figure eight pattern, then practiced the stand for examination.
    Due to her experience in the conformation ring, Faith, who was clearly behind most of the others in the majority of the exercises, was a star at this one. So much so that Steve pulled us out into the middle of the mats to demonstrate how it should be done. I knew we weren’t showing the other handlers anything they hadn’t already known and guessed that the trainer had singled us out to boost our confidence. Even so, it was nice to know that we could do one thing exactly right.
    The class, which was scheduled to last an hour, ran closer to two. And as I was gathering up my things, I saw that many of the participants intended to stay even longer. Julie and Steve were pulling equipment out of a corner to set up broad and high jumps on the mats. Stacey had a petite, Papillon-size dumbbell in her hand, and Minnie had gone to get her scent articles.
    Faith had a long way to go before she’d be ready for the exercises they were about to work on. Still, I was willing to bet they’d be fascinating to watch. Another night, when Sam wasn’t already expecting me, I intended to stay late and see how it went.
    Kelly had headed straight out the door the minute Steve declared the end of our part of the class. But Paul and I ended up walking out together.
    “That’s a really nice Poodle,” he said. “Is she a show dog?”
    “She was. She’s retired now.”
    “If you have any interest…” He paused, then frowned. One hand reached up and brushed back the hair that had fallen into his eyes. “When we were talking about the therapy group earlier, I hope I didn’t give you the wrong idea. The staff at Winston Pumpernill really enjoys our visits. And so do the participants. Lots of the older people we see…well, they talk about Poodles. That breed was popular for so many years, it seems like half of them owned one at some point in their lives. You probably haven’t given this any thought at all, and I