Puppy Love

The First Late

I've never been late before. And I would never be late on purpose. We'd both been focused on our work that we'd hadn't been looking at the clock.

I walked into the kittens room. There are 10. I could count them easily. I quickly refilled their food and water bowls. Their litter boxes were no trouble, they had smaller ones. I only really lost track of time playing with them. They were so fast and so small. They hid in scratching toy structures and climbed to were I couldn't reach them. When I caught one I held it in my lap and petted it. I kept doing even after I got all 10. When I looked up at the clock it read: 6:15. Shit I told my mom that I'd be home by six thirty. I placed the kitten I was holding on the floor. It laid there sleepily. The other kittens stared at me as I left the room. Ace wasn't at the front desk when I got there. I went back by the cat rooms but walk further down the hallway. There were many different rooms labeled differently. I was looking for any doors that had (D)s. Assuming that was the dog label. At the end was a door labeled Adult D(s), I went in and. . . Tons of dogs surrounded me. Ash was sitting in the middle of the room being sniffed and licked and jumped on by dogs while she petted them. I blushed, she was so cute right now. Her eyes were closed to protect from the doggie kisses and her smile was cute and huge. She opened her eyes when the door opened.

"Hey Stacey need some help?" She said as a big dog jumped on her and knocked her to the ground, she started laughing.

"No" I said. "It's six fifteen and I need to get home." I said. She looked wide eye at me.

"Crap I'm sorry I lost track of time" she apologized.

"It's fine, I did too" I admitted. She stood up.

"Sorry guys I gotta go" Ash said to the dogs. A white dog with big brown spots walked in front of me and sat down. There was a big brown spot on it's left eye. I crouched and petted the dog while Ash maneuvered to the door. "I see you like Scout" Ash said smiling almost to the door. Scout turned it's head at the sound of it's name. It was a medium sized dog. It looked into my eyes and I felt a bond with it.

"Scout" I whispered and it licked my face and wagged it's tail. I'd never had a pet before not even a small lizard or spider or bird. No sort of animal companion, not even when I was little. But I still like animals and think their cute. Ash crouched and pet Scout with me.

"He's a well trained dog, and a loyal one" Ash said petting the big brown spot on his back. "Better get Hossie" she said standing up leaving. "Bye guys" she said behind the door to the dogs. I stood there a moment.

"Bye Scout" I whispered, and he yipped at me as I left and closed the door. Ash want back to the hallway with the backroom. I went in and grabbed my stuff. She kept walking to the end of the hallway. I heard a door open and close down the hall. I heard claws on the floor. I threw my backpack on my back and walked into the hallway. Hossie sniffed me the second I was out, then kept walking. Ash went to the front desk and rung a bell I hadn't seen there before twice.

"We're leaving Ace, see you tomorrow' she shouted so Ace could hear wherever he was. I heard a door open in the opposite hallway.

"See ya Ash" Ace's voice shouted back. And it hit me like a bullet. I hope she doesn't like Ace I thought. It hadn't accured to me this whole time that maybe she doesn't like me, at least in a romantic way, or that maybe she likes someone else. I felt like a fool. But no time for that now time was moving fast and it didn't care where I had to be.

We took a short cut to my house. Ash knows her way around, but I was still late home. It didn't matter to me though, I enjoyed the short walk with her to my house. At least it didn't bother me on the walk. I hugged her before I went inside and I pet Hossie goodbye. But when I opened the front door my parents were sitting on the couch, with very disappointed looks on their faces.