Animal Kind - Emma Lock

Скачать книгу

the puppy used all of his upper body strength to heave himself up onto the bed. Heather held her breath as she watched him disappear under the duvet where her feet would normally be and silently began to panic as Zak began to belly crawl under the covers, up over her knees, past her hips and up toward her chest. A moment later, the duvet rose up by her neck and fell backward to reveal Zak’s huge, smiling face. His smooth, round liquorice nose was touching her own. Each time she breathed in, she inhaled his light, comforting scent. A scent which she had often faintly smelled on her father. Without warning, Heather felt her eyes begin to prickle. She had tried so hard to be strong for her family, but lying in the darkness with her father’s familiar scent floating around her, she finally dropped her guard and allowed herself to cry. Like a warm summer rain, the tears began to fall, leaving salty, wet trails on her cheeks. With each tear, stifled sob, and grit of her teeth, Zak gently licked her cheeks and ear, laying his body on her chest, his warm weight comforting her. His eyes were gentle and full of understanding, almost as if to say, “I miss him too.”

      ***

      The distant rumble of snowploughs startled Heather. Scattered in the distance, the headlights of cars reflected off of the snow, casting eerie shadows over the hills. Had she fallen back asleep? She glanced outside. It had stopped snowing.

      Heather had was still absentmindedly holding her mug of chai tea in her hand, though now it was lukewarm, and its sweet aroma had dissipated.

      Nestled against her thigh, Zak stared up at her lovingly with his dark, cacao bean eyes. He licked his lips contentedly as she gently kneaded and massaged his greying scruff.

      Less than twenty minutes later, Heather, now bundled in copious amounts of warm layers, complete with snow boots, a thick scarf, and earmuffs, was blasting the heat in her car as high as it would go. The snow melted off her ice scraper and was creating a sludgy puddle of water on the floor in front of the passenger’s seat.

      Heather’s phone chimed once and a message from one of her colleagues lit up its screen: “Hi H.! Someone just dumped a box of Staffie puppies outside the shelter. Could really use some reinforcements. Drive safe, the roads are mad!”

      Heather secured her phone back into its dashboard cradle and looked out at Zak. His robust body was protected from the cold by a Christmas-themed dog sweater she had dressed him in. He was panting hard from having galloped at full speed through the driveway snow, his hot breath turning the air around him into mist.

      “Are you coming, then?” she called as she opened her car door.

      In one bound, Zak enthusiastically leapt into the car and onto the passenger-side seat where he immediately settled himself into a ball shape. With his red and green sweater, he almost resembled a Christmas pudding. She smiled at his willingness to follow her wherever she went, and she wondered if he was aware that the dog rescue she now managed was the same place they had first met all those years ago.

      As she carefully steered her way through the snowy landscape, she thought of her family and how they had built snowmen together, her father lifting her up onto his shoulders so that she could place the carrot on the snowman’s face.

      She would always miss and yearn for her father, but, in many ways, she felt that he was never truly gone, having left behind a most precious Staffordshire Bull Terrier to love and protect her. Zak had walked faithfully by her side as she grew out of her overalls and into makeup. He watched proudly from the sidelines as she tore open the envelope containing her exam results and both she and her mother jumped and cried out with joy. And when the hard day finally came for Heather to leave the safety of her family’s nest and grow in her own space, Zak was sitting by her side as the real estate agent handed her the keys to her home.

      Zak was the most wonderful and comforting gift her father could ever have left for her, and she would be forever grateful to him for the love and lessons he taught her in their short time together. Above all, she loved him for having the wisdom to leave her with the greatest gift of all, unconditional love.

      Dog Facts

      •Staffordshire Bull Terriers are known for being a robust, versatile, and generally healthy dog breed, but the breed can be prone to hip dysplasia. On average, Staffordshire Bull Terriers can be expected to live between twelve and fourteen years.

      •In 2019, the Staffordshire Bull Terrier was listed as Britain’s most popular dog breed.

      •A Border Collie named Chaser has learned over a thousand words and has the ability to pair colours with familiar objects and toys to make accurate selections when asked to fetch.

      •There are over 340 dog breeds, but only around 190 are recognised by the American Kennel Club.

      •Dogs used to be bred for function, such as herding or guarding. Victorian aristocrats made dog shows and selective breeding fashionable, giving rise to dogs being bred for aesthetic. The Victorians are the reason we enjoy so many different breeds of dog today.

      •A Neapolitan Mastiff named Tia holds the world record for the largest litter. In November 2004, she gave birth to a litter of twenty-four puppies.

      Shereena anxiously tapped her chipped fingernails on the dining room table as she glanced at the clock on the wall. It was 11:30 p.m. on a Thursday and her fiancé, Chris, should have been home hours ago. He was supposed to come straight home after work to take over the care of their three-year-old daughter, Aila. This routine would normally leave Shereena free to head out to her night job, but instead she had waited for hours for Chris to arrive home. Eventually, she had to reluctantly call her manager and inform him that she wouldn’t be able to make it to work that night for her shift. She felt hideously guilty as she fibbed down the phone, explaining that her daughter had developed a fever and that if it got much worse she would have to take her to the hospital. Her manager had been understanding of her fabricated crisis, but Shereena still hated lying or letting anyone down.

      The UK was experiencing its hottest July on record, and, despite running swivel fans in every room of the house, the heat was still brutal, even at night. Shereena huffed uncomfortably as she felt a bead of sweat run down her neck and soak into her tank top.

      Every possible scenario to explain Chris’s absence raced through her mind as she tucked Aila into bed and kissed her goodnight. Had he been hurt in an accident? Perhaps he had a family emergency and was so preoccupied with worry that he didn’t think to call home or check his phone for her voicemails and worried text messages.

      The delicious roast chicken which she had meticulously prepared that evening was now sitting on the dining table, cold and untouched in a foil tray covered with cling-film.

      On the table, she had set out their best dinner plates and silverware, hoping for a quick, somewhat romantic dinner before she’d have to set off for work. Shereena and Chris had both been so busy with their respective jobs that they rarely had time to enjoy a meal together. Dinner plans had become brief back-and-forth text messages about which frozen dinners to buy, and the longest interactions they had with one another were only to relieve each other of parenting duties so that one of them could make it to work on time.

      Shereena checked her phone again to see if Chris had replied to her worried messages; nothing.

      Shereena extended her arms up above her head and twisted her back slightly. Her elbows and the middle of her spine both clicked as she stretched. From the corner of the room came a muffled grumbling sound. Buddy, a young Pineapple Green Cheeked Conure eyed Shereena in a suspicious fashion, the

Скачать книгу