Joey is in the corner with a grasping pole out in front of him, while another man, who I’m guessing is Cesar, is holding a bleeding arm with one hand and using the hand of his injured arm to point a fucking thirty-eight at a growling blue pitt.
I keep an arm out to my side, to keep Mindy behind me. The pitt has blood around her mouth, and she’s in a protective, angry stance. Something caused the dog to flip out. No telling what, but it must have been bad. In all my years working with these dogs, and pitts in particular, I’ve never seen one lash out without being provoked. There are bad people, but there are no bad dogs.
When I move farther into the space, I have a better picture of what’s going on. The angry pitt looks like she gave birth just recently. Her teats are swollen, and her belly hangs low. Fuck. Just seeing her from this angle, I can tell she’s been bred too many fucking times.
Cesar raises the gun in his hand and points it at the dog in front of him. His hand shakes, like he can’t believe he’s about to do this. His eyes dart back and forth to Joey, visually pleading for help.
“Fucking shoot her!” Joey shouts.
Mindy gasps from behind me and moves to her left, heading right for the angry dog. I pull her back behind me and create a wall between her and what’s caught her attention. My eyes follow her line of sight to the little ball that’s huddled in the corner with half-closed eyes and a bloody ear. There’s a needle sticking out of its side and its crying out. Cesar stands between the puppy and the bitch who I assume is its mother. Fuck. No wonder she’s flipping out.
“Get out of here, man. Your woman doesn’t need to see this,” Joey says, half-mad with rage. He moves in closer to the angry mother and hooks her around the neck with the loop of the pole. She fights him vigorously, nearly getting a hold of his shoe in the process. If she’d been successful, his toes would be gone, no doubt.
“What the hell happened?” I ask. I can’t leave this room without knowing what the fuck is going on in here, especially with Mindy here with me.
“Pup’s defective. The bitch can’t birth a good litter anymore,” Joey says. I come to the realization that they were trying to destroy both dogs about half a second too late. Mindy darts around my other side and approaches the tiny dog carefully. Its mother is distracted by the harness around her neck and doesn’t notice what Mindy’s up to until the puppy yelps in Mindy’s arms. Immediately, she pulls the needle full of what I’m willing to bet is a serum that will stop its heart, out of its side and tosses it across the room. The mother redirects her anger at Mindy, but Joey controls her, and Mindy makes it back to me safely. It all happens so fast that I could no more stop her than I can stop what’s about to happen. I can feel it in my bones, the direction this is headed.
“Put the pup down, lady!”
“No,” Mindy says, still cradling the tiny thing in her arms. Her eyes land on me, and there’s no mistaking the desperation in her eyes.
Well, it looks like we have a puppy.
“Does she have a history of violence?” Mindy asks.
“Not until asshole tried to destroy her pup in front of her,” Joey spits the words in Cesar’s direction.
“Then I’m taking them both home with me,” she says firmly.
“No, they’re being destroyed,” Joey shouts at Mindy, raising the hairs on the back of my neck. I used to like this guy. He’s never really pissed me off until now. I got no reason to get my nose in his business and he has no reason to put his in mine, and that’s how I like it, but fighting with my woman over a pair of dogs he was about to kill is a surefire way to get my attention.
The next few minutes happen so fast that it’s hard for me to figure out what’s going on around me. Mindy moves to put the puppy in a travel crate that’s on the floor behind us, when the mother notices and lunges for her. With the sudden change of direction, Cesar gets slammed into the cabinet behind him, knocking the gun free from his hand and knocking Joey off his feet. The dog runs at Mindy full force, and I dislodge my gun, clicking off the safety and getting in position just in case. Jumping up on one of the counter tops, Mindy lets the mama dog get into the kennel with her pup. With my girl safely away from the angry dog, I place my gun beside Mindy and pick up the pole. It takes some work, but I eventually get the loop out from around her neck and use my steel-toed boot to close the door shut behind the two.
“Guess you got your puppy after all,” I say and lock the door to the kennel shut. “Kind of a two-for-one deal.” The crazy woman grins at me and bites at her bottom lip.