A Happy End

 Dan anxiously tapped his fingers against the gearshift with his other hand wrapped tightly around the steering wheel. Phil was sat to his right, speaking quickly in a feeble attempt to calm down a young woman over the phone. Even though Dan wasn't the one on the phone, the woman sounded anxious and disheveled, tripping on her own tongue and blurting out words.

"Yes ma'am we'll be there in a couple minutes. Yes, thank you." Phil set his phone in the cupholder, and rolled his neck out. "Turn right here," he said whilst pointing towards their destination. Dan flashed his blinkers and spun the wheel around, turning right onto the street with a copious amount of potholes. Houses lined the road, most of them looking surprisingly well managed. Usually when they received calls for a rescue the neighborhood was trashed, especially the houses. Instead, shortly cut grass, freshly mulched flower beds, and neatly trimmed shrubbery surrounded their peripheral vision. Ohe house up ahead caught Phil's eye though, windows boarded up and weeds overwhelming the grass. It was definitely more of what he was used to. He searched intently for the woman that he'd been on the phone with, pointing out the house to Dan in the process. A shout filled the air as a woman ran onto the cracked driveway in front of a decaying house. She waved her arms and squinted her eyes to defend them from the harsh fluorescent headlights. Dan turned a harsh left into the driveway, jumping out as soon as he was in park, retrieving a leash and treats from the trunk. Phil had already gone off to the side to try to comfort the anxious woman.

"Hello ma'am, I'm Daniel Howell," Dan strolled over calmly and offered his hand.

"Adeline," she spoke while shaking his hand, Phil had seemed to have already introduced himself.

"Phil might have already told you but thank you for calling us, we really appreciate it." Dan smiled. "Can you describe the dog to us? Just so we have a general idea of what we're going to be dealing with."

"Of course, he was pretty big, I'm not actually sure if it was a he though. I'm pretty sure it was a pitbull or a bulldog, one of the two. He was white but had some pink rash looking spots. I don't think he was aggressive but you see I'm a bit frightened by dogs, especially when one starts barking and growling at me in the dead of night, but I felt bad for it. It was definitely on a chain and no one lives here so I didn't want to just leave him here." It was simple to see that Adeline wasn't a huge fan of dogs, she clearly looked disheveled. Eyes wide open and her brown pixie cut was pushed back from running fingers through it.

"I totally understand why you were scared, but honestly we can't thank you enough for not leaving the poor guy alone back there. We'll try to get him out as quick as we can." Dan smiled and Phil patted her on the back, thanking her once again. "Also if you're comfortable with it, could you hold this flashlight for us? If not that's okay but it'd be helpful. You don't have to go near the dog." Dan laughed a little bit, extending the flashlight to Adeline. She looked hesitant but grabbed it anyway, clicking it on and holding it behind Dan and Phil as they moved towards the backyard.

Rowdy barking began as they reached the weed engulfed yard, a chain rattled noisily as the dog attempted to run towards its soon to be rescuers. Phil stepped forward slightly, crouching down onto his knees in order to lessen the intimidation the dog may have felt towards his tallness. He gripped the bag of treats in one hand while the other was extended to offer the bacon cookies to the animal in front of him. The flashlight didn't show much but it clearly showed two things, the dog was a pitbull and the pitbull was very scrawny, hungry too. The loud barking stopped momentarily as the dog sniffed Phil's treats. It began to eat them from his hand, giving Dan his chance to swoop in with the leash, tying it around the dog's neck in one quick maneuver and to also unclip the chain from the animal. Surprisingly, the dog had a collar, there were no tags on it though, which made it seem as if the only reason the owner had bought it was to tie the animal to the metal lead. Dan firmly gripped the nylon leash, bracing his muscles for resistance, but the dog already seemed more than willing to go with them. It walked in front and swiftly leapt up into the open trunk of the car, squinting it's eyes and then scratching itself as if nothing had happened.

Dan and Phil performed a quick checkup, noting down features and little warning signs of possible illnesses or injuries. Overall the pitbull seemed healthy, some small issues, but those were easily curable.

"Well, this little girl got lucky." Dan said while petting the dog, "she seems to have mange, but that's easily curable. Oh yeah, she's a girl too." He laughed at the forgetfulness.

"I'm glad she's okay," Adeline said, raising her hand to pet the dog but hesitating in mid-air. "Where is she going to go?"

"She'll go back to a vet, and then probably to a rescue center, or a foster home, or maybe she'll be adopted. Hopefully. You want her?" Phil answered, joking around.

Adeline laughed, "she seems very sweet thank you, but I'm not a dog person. Although I may think about getting a tinier one if I do."

"It's fine, I don't doubt someone will adopt her." Phil shot a quick glance towards Dan. "I think her name should be Adeline though."

"I'm flattered," Adeline laughed.

"I like it," Dan shrugged.

"Adeline it is!" Phil gently hugged the pitbull sitting on his left, "we better get going though. Once again, thank you for calling us and staying with her!"

"Goodbye! Thanks for coming, good luck!" Adeline waved goodbye as Dan and Phil got into the car with the dog. Their heads laying backwards as they breathed deeply, Phil turned his head towards Dan, being the first to break the silence (aside from the dog panting in the back of the car.)

"We're adopting this dog aren't we?"

"Hell yeah we are."