Chapter 7

Walt waits until Melinda has gone to school and Kristen has gone to work, and then he starts making calls.

Little Zoe sleeps on the carpet near his chair. Every once in a while, she picks her head up and looks in his direction, and in a soft voice, he says something to her, and she wags her fluffy tail and curls back up and sleeps.

Walt wishes beyond wishing that his girls hadn't brought this dog home. There's nothing but heartbreak here, and now it's for all three of them. He's fallen for little Zoe, fallen for her totally and completely, in spite of knowing how impossible it is.

He makes the calls, but he doesn't want to make them, and as he dials, he hopes for an answering machine and the certain delay it means.

He starts with the shelter in Charlestown, and leaves a message. He leaves a message at the shelter in Westerly, but as soon as he hangs up, the phone rings, and it's the animal control officer from Charlestown, calling back.

"She looks like a lhasa apso," Walt says, "or maybe a shih-tzu. One of those dogs. She's brown, and black, and she's blind, or pretty close to blind."

He tells the shelter person the story of how Kristen and Melinda rescued her. And no, he says, no, they can't keep her. And they don't think she should go back to whoever owns her, but maybe she should. Maybe it was just a big mistake. Maybe she got caught on something. Has anyone called, asking for her?

No, says the animal control officer in Charlestown.

No, says the animal control officer in Stonington.

No, says the animal control officer in Groton.

But the animal control officer in Old Mystic stops him.

"A little brown dog?" she asks.

"Yes," says Walt, his heart sinking a little.

"Does she answer to 'Zoe'?"

"Yes," says Walt, "yes, she does. It's on her collar."

"Let me make a few calls," the woman says. "I'll call you back."

Walt hangs up, and picks up the little dog. He holds her close, and pushes his nose deep into her fur. She smells like Kristen's shampoo, and he can smell the little dog's own smell, too. He rubs his face against her coat, and hugs her close to him, and she licks his ear, and Walt feels like his heart is breaking, like losing this dog is just another loss in a string of them, and somehow, this one means the most.