I Fare Thee Well, My Love

    She stands in the entryway. 
    "You can come in," I say, pointing to the drop-off area.
    She slowly walks in. Her old yellow lab follows her even more slowly. I watch her silently,feeling the woman's own sorrow start to enter me. Suzi* comes and stands next to me.
   "I-the-I called the vet," tears start running down the woman's face as she speaks. "he said that-it-he has liver and bladder failure and I-"
    Suzi jumps in, cutting the woman off to attempt to save her more tears. "I spoke to you on the phone, right?" The woman nods miserably. "You want to put him down, yes?" The woman nods again.
    I watch as Suzi tries to fill out the paper work as quickly as she could. When she was done, Suzi carefully takes the lab on her leash. Suzi takes a couple of steps and gently tugs on the leash for the lab to follow her. It stiffly follows Suzi to the Back. Suzi comes back and holds something out to the woman. Her eyes filling ever more with tears, the lab's woman takes her fated friend's collar in her hand. I watch as Suzi -Suzi who always acts like she hates people, Suzi who plays the mean role, Suzi who always acts strong for the rest of us-walks to the other side of the counter, reaches out to touch the lab's woman's shoulder, hesitates for a fraction of a second and finally wraps both arms around the lab's grieving woman. And I am not the least bit surprised.
    After the lab's woman leaves, Suzi wipes her own tears from her eyes and looks at me. "I hate to do that. In this place, you can't do hat for anyone, or you can't be here. But... But she got to me."
    "Alas, my love, you do me wrong,
    To cast me off, discouresously,
    For I have loved you well and long,

    Delighting in your company."

Another Depressing Ending

*Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

We All Love Our Family

He was old. Well, old to me anyway; he was maybe 45 or 50. He walked up to the counter causing me to glance up.
      "Can I help you?"
      "Yes," he answered dully, "I'd like to go back there." He was pointing to the Petting Farm.
      "Um...I think it's closed, sorry."
      "Well, I'd just like to go take pictures."
      "Pictures?" I asked, puzzled.
      "Yeah. I'd like to take pictures of animal excrement," he stated, straight-faced.
      I jerked to a stop. "You want to take pictures of what?" The man just smiled at me. He was totally serious. "I-uh-we-um... Suzi?*" I turned to one of the caretakers for help.
       Suzi glanced up. "What?"
       "He..." I coughed. "Wants to take pictures of-um-animal droppings."
       Suzi froze, stunned. "Really?" The man nodded, smiling and completely serious.. "Really?" Suzi repeated. the man just smiled.
       Suzi 2 and Suzi 3 stopped typing on their computers and swung around towards us.
       "Why?" asked Suzi 2.
       Always one for asking the tough questions, she was.
       "I need them for my family tree," answered the man.
       "You want to take pictures of excrement for you family tr-" Suzi 3 dropped off as she realized what the man meant. (Give it a second, you will too.)
        Suzi 2 finally spoke up after a highly uncomfortable silence. "By all means, take the man to his poop."
       "I... Sure," I said. I slowly walked to the cabinet that held our keys. I grabbed the pink key from it rack, an idea beginning to form in my head. I whirled around to face Bob, who until now, had said nothing. "Would you like to take the man out to help him with his family tree or shall I?" I asked, grinning.
         Bob stared at me for a moment. "I...might as well." Slowly, Bob took the key from me.
        "Have fun!" I said cheerfully.
         I watched from the window as the two men walked out to the barn. The older man pulled out a camera from his pocket. He said something, laughing and Bob nodded,warily. Without turning around, I said: "That was-"
         "Really weird," finished Suzi 1 coming over to join me at the window.
                                                     Another Weird Ending

* Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Big Love in a Huge Man

Tats ran up and down his muscular white arms. His military-haircut cropped head caught the light as he walked up to me. I glanced up, up, up at him from the newspaper pile I was sorting.
        "Can I help you?" I asked.
        "Ah, um, yes..." He looked slightly uncomfortable- embarrassed. They all do when you talk to them, as if they're wrong to be here.
         "I'd like to see the puppy in cage one?" A question. He's uncertain.
         "Sure." I hopped up off my chair and trotted over to the leash rack, selecting a lovely pink and brown leash. I followed the muscle bound Marine through the kennels, to the first cage. A small beagle-lab-mutt puppy leapt up at the cage gate.  The brick wall of a man stopped in front of me, just short of the gate. I glanced up at the back of his hulking head.
         "Ah..." I mumbled.  The Marine glanced behind himself at me.
         "Oh! Um..." Carefully, we maneuvered ourselves so that I could reach the gate and release the puppy.  I leashed him (the pup, not the Marine) and took him to the outside visitation runs. I let the puppy off his leash and shut the door behind Tattoo Man.
           All of a sudden, the serious, cool, collected facade dropped from his face.  I watched as the Marine dropped to his knees and started coddling the puppy. He picked it up and tossed it up in the air. He put it down and got down at it's level.  I watched as the Marine crawled around on the cement with the pup. After about ten minutes, he looked up at me with those puppy dog eyes. Please? he begged. I grinned and laughed.  
          "I think you do those puppy dog eyes better than the puppy does." I took the Marine up front and drew up the pup's adoption contract.
                                                        Another happy Ending