Girl's Best Friend

Chapter Six: Taming

"So if I train him and put him in a show we might get lots of money!" I finish. I have just told Mom my idea about putting Jake in a show.
Mom rubs her temples. "Hannah, Hannah. I appreciate your concern, honey, but we just can't afford it." Can't afford it. I have heard that so much lately. "First the dog needs expensive training. Then it costs money to try out, and if you make it to the finals, it costs even more. Not to mention the cost to fly or drive to the tryouts and finals."
My smile fades. She's right. We can't afford it. The reason I want to do it is to get money. What a horrible idea.

Jake looks at me with half-frightened eyes. I'm holding out some steak fat to him and he doesn't know whether to take it or run away. I hold as still as possible.
Finally, he timidly steps toward me. His head waggles up and down. He takes another step. Then he dashes toward, snatches the meat, and runs to the tarp where he eats it.
I take another piece of meat out of my bag and hold it out.
Jake comes toward me less cautiously and this time runs just out of reach after he takes the meat.
With the next piece he just eats it, right out of my hand, and looks up hopefully, begging for more.
I feed him the rest and he lays down next to me. He licks his lips and stares at me. I stare right back.
I have tamed Jake!
It seems so sudden! One minute he was a half-wild creature, the next, a tame puppy! I slowly reach my hand down to pet him. As soon as my fingertips brush his fur, he's off, hiding under the tarp. All I see is his unmoving tail. I want to go after him, but it's probably a bad idea. So much for him being a tame puppy.
I go toward the house and into the kitchen. It's hot and steamy; Mom is canning green beans. She's making pumpkin pie at the same time. She hurredly stirs the pumpkiny mix and then hurries to the huge pot where the mason jars of beans are canning. She fills another jar half full of water and drops a handful of beans inside. The oven beeps, and Mom puts the jar down and pulls a pie crust out of the oven. I realize that she's talking on the phone at the same time.
"Well, Anita, I don't think Hannah'd do a thing like that... yes, she's a very good girl... well, you know that Kristine always seems to overreact... mmm hmm... oh, here's Hannah now. Give me a minute. Ok."
Mom turns to me and puts her phone on the counter. "Hannah, did you hit Kristine Angelico?"
I immediately start talking. "No, Mom, you see, she made fun of me, and I just started toward her. I wasn't going to hit her!"
Mom just rubs her temples. She sighs and turns back to the beans.
"Mom?" I say.
"What." Mom kind of sighs the word.
"I guess this is a bad time to mention that you put your phone in the pumpkin pie mix?"

Over the next few days, Jake warms up to me. He still runs away when I first get near, and he still jumps when I make sudden movements, but he's begun to wait for me to come with the food. I make a list of food he likes and doesn't like.

LIKES: PIG INTESTINES, CHICKEN FAT, STEAK BONES, PUMPKIN PIE, MACARONI AND CHEESE
DOESN'T LIKE: CANNED GREEN BEANS

He really eats anything, but when I brought him canned green beans, he sniffed it snd looked up at me, as if to say, "Is that all?" But the pumpkin pie was a hit. I never knew that dogs liked pumpkin pie!