A Dogface Soldier’s New Mission
I’d finished running errands, but I was taking my sweet time getting home. The dog we’d agreed to foster—our first—would be there by now. No doubt already stinking up the house. Chewing stuff. Shedding everywhere. God, what am I getting myself into?
Dogs were my wife Nicole’s thing. I didn’t need a fur ball around to make me happy. Just the opposite. For years I’d told myself I’d never get serious with a woman who owned a dog. Then I met Nicole, a waitress at one of my favorite restaurants. We started dating. It was a few months before she introduced me to Lotus, her big slobbery Olde English Bulldogge.
“I would be a mess without her,” Nicole said. “She’s gotten me through so much.”
By then I was crazy about Nicole. If she loved Lotus, then I could learn to live with the dog. Lotus was six. Not an unruly puppy, at least.
