Canvas

6: Dog Hair

RAVEN

"Hey, buddy!"

I dart in a goofy fashion towards a beautiful Dalmatian, who has a big heart-shaped spot over his left eye. The dog is unsurprisingly named Spot. Spot wags his tail at lightspeed. Tonight he is getting picked up by his owners, so I hook a leash to his collar and walk him to the front desk.

"C'mon bubbies," I say in the most childish tone.

I'll admit, a job with dogs is what makes the hours worth working in. Well of course, if you're a dog lover. Since I'm unable to own pets at home, I fill the void by taking care of other people's dogs.

"Spotty!"

I release the leash to allow the dog to run to his owner. The man bends down with outstretched arms as Spot "attacks" his face with sloppy kisses. The other owner, who I'm assuming is the wife, leads a coworker carrying a large crate to the couple's car.

"Thank you so much," the man says.

"No problem," I flash a smile, "he was a real treat to have around."

I give one final wave to the Dalmatian as they both exit the building. A quick glance at the clock reveals 5:12pm. So close, yet so far. I have to feed two big dogs, so I tap a coworker, Zoey, on the shoulder.

"You kept Blue and Bell's food in the same room as before, correct?"

She adjusts her glasses and flips through some pages on a board.

"Ah, the Mastiffs, right? Yup!"

"Great, thanks," I open the door and head down a long hallway.

It's so bizarre when I see someone else wearing glasses, by habit, I check to see if I have mine on. When in actuality, I have forbidden myself to wear them at work and have on contacts instead, because that one time a Great Dane busted my old pair became a never-again.

--------------------

Leisure time has turned into a laundry night. One of the dogs I tended to after Spot puked all over my pants. I was told that when Bell gets too excited she retches, right after I return to the break room smelling like acidic kibble.

They say on average you're supposed to do your laundry once a week. To that I wonder how these people have the energy to do full loads on a weekly basis. It's hardly noticeable if you wear the same thing twice when you cover it with a large winter coat, but in any case this is a good excuse to throw the rest of my dirty clothes into the wash.

For some reason this reminds me of the last roommate during my final year of college who dented the cheap dorm's washer. Didn't even pay the damages. To my relief it didn't damage the interior, but now I'm hyperaware; if anyone touches my washer, they'll get an extra set of hawk eyes courtesy of myself and a good set of glasses.

I chuck the load and start up the wash. Suddenly I hear a 'ding'. At first I thought it was the beginning tune of the washer, but then I saw my phone screen light up on the bed.

Upon checking my phone, I noticed I received a text with a picture on it. When I check I see a row of me, followed by the question, "Which one of these sets are OK?". Well, Justice, first of all that's too many of me. All from different angles. One of them is in black and white. I have to be the nice type of honest, though, so after looking at my face enough I answer the first and third one.

As soon as I exit out of the messages, I see a notification from Instagram pop up. It's from Atlas's personal account. The caption reads:

"Work by day, work by night :P"

There's a picture of him sitting by a closet mirror. To his left is a laptop on a small desk. He has the typical selfie pose, except he had the flash on and by God, it's an eyesore. Still, his picture makes me reminisce on our conversation at the bar. I'm pretty sure I had the most shocked face when he casually told me he has been a model for almost a decade. Here I am, a couple years out of college, with a degree collecting dust on a shelf. That's even more of an eyesore.

All of a sudden, I feel something poking at my tongue. I try to catch whatever it is and reel it out. Under the light it appears to be a small white line shape. Oh - shit - it's a piece of dog hair that was caught on my tongue.

Wait...

How??