"WHERE ARE WE GOING?" I laughed, asking Alexis as she pulled me aggressively along the sidewalk. Passing by artists selling paintings next to string quartets playing Mozart, we were running through and around people, as she refused to tell me where we were heading. After spending a whole weekend with my mom, Peter, and Andrew, Alexis and I finally had time to spend to ourselves. After getting off work, she claimed we were going to "miss something" and started to drag me along the streets of New York with no explanation.
"Alright." I stopped running, pulling Alexis to walk instead as I huffed out, "I'm tired and hungry, where the hell are we going?"
"We're here." She smirked, and I scoffed, straightening up, "I hope here has food." She patted my shoulder with one hand, smiling as she pointed. Looking beside us, I could see we were standing in front of a huge grey building. It was old, and the sign wasn't even labeled. How did she even find this place?
She rolled her eyes, dragging me into the building as she breathed in the cool air, "We are here to do the thing we always said we would."
"Get tattoos?"
"No."
"Is a lady going to read our palms and tell us our milk is expired-"
"No!"
"Because I already knew that." I admitted, giving her a side look.
"Then what the hell are we doing here?" I complained, looking around to see a huge waiting room. It was plain, and looked like a doctors office. I slightly shivered, thinking Alexis was going to try and trick me into getting another check up from the doctor again. She walked up to the front desk lady, and asked, "Can we be let into the back please?" The lady stood up without answering, opening the back door to which Alexis and I walked through.
Then, it hit me. There were cages, upon cages of dogs in the room. I felt the corners of my mouth turn up as I walked around, seeing puppies and older dogs observe and bark at us. Big dogs, small dogs, all sorts of furry little animals. I bent down towards one cage, cooing at a tiny Jack Russell. Alexis rubbed my shoulder, "It's national pet day today, and they are giving away these guys for free.. the place closes soon, so we have to hurry."
"We.. we're getting a dog?"
"A cat friendly one too, because Andrew came in here earlier with me and saw this kitten... had a meltdown." She laughed, turning to the other cages. I gasped, running around all the cages in search for the perfect dog. After excitingly scanning all of the puppies, I spotted one dog. It's face was pressed against the front of it's cage, and was looking at me expectingly. I leaned down in front of it, reading the clipboard.
German Shepard, Buddy, male, 6 years old. Cat and dog friendly. Birthday: April 12. All vaccinations cleared. Buddy has been here most of his life after being rescued from dog fighting in California, he's looking for a forever home.
Buddy was as black as mining coal. Bleeding night he was a dark shadow of fur. I imagined running my fingers through his coat, smoke dusting up off of him, or for him to just disappear all together. His dark brown eyes beamed up at me, and I wondered. Has he ever felt love until now?
"Hey Buddy." I whispered, reaching my hand through the bars to have the dog lick my hand preciously. I immediately opened the cage, holding onto Buddy's collar and scratching behind his ears. I turned, smiling and began to shout, "Lexi, I think I-"
"Romy, look who I-" Alexis stopped, looking at me as she held a small corgi puppy in her hands. I looked at the puppy, and then to Buddy.
