Beyond the Ordinary

Chapter 70

A/N - Max^^ Isn't he sooo cute?!?! 

✡ ✡ ✡ 

KATE 

The school day came to an end surprisingly quickly, despite me looking forward to meeting Max, and I sprinted out to my car, excitedly jumping into the car.

"You're kind of late," I said to my father, out of breath.

"I had to get the dog door," he said, gesturing to a bag in the backseat.

"Oh," I replied, putting my backpack at my feet.

"Are you ready for this?" He asked.

I nodded. "I've been ready all day."

He smiled and reversed out of the parking lot while I scrolled through my playlists, finally deciding to play my Alec Benjamin playlist and sang along to my favorite song of his.

Then I tied up my linen with five strips of ribbon I found

Scaled the side of the building

I ran to the hills 'til they found me

And they put me back in my cell

All by myself, alone with my thoughts again

I guess my mind is a prison and I'm never gonna get out

My father nodded his head along with the song and I continued replaying it until we reached the animal shelter.

We headed inside and walked up to the front desk, where a woman stood, typing quickly onto her computer.

"Hi, excuse me," my father said beside me.

The woman glanced at us, smiling apologetically before saying, "Sorry, I didn't see you there. How may I help you?"

I smiled, clearing my throat. "We're here to see Max," I said.

The woman smiled. "Oh, so you're the man I talked to over the phone?" She asked, her eyes meeting my father's.

"That's me," he replied, smiling politely.

"And you must be Kate," she said, picking up a blue folder and handing it to me.

"That's all of Max's information," she explained, "You are welcome to look through it while I go out and put him into the back pen."

She left the large desk and grabbed a long black leash off the wall, before heading through a large door and disappearing behind it. My father took a seat in a chair near the entrance and I handed him the folder the woman had given me, sitting down beside him.

"Let's see..." My father said, opening the folder. "He was found wandering around a neighborhood and he didn't have a collar on," he read aloud.

"He must have been a stray," I said, feeling sorry for the dog.

Suddenly, we heard the door open and the woman appeared in front of us. "Max is just out that door, if you're done reading about him, I'll be happy to take you out to meet him," she said.

My father nodded, closing the folder and handing it to her. "That would be great, thank you."

She nodded and gestured for us to follow her. She led us down a narrow hallway, the sounds of cats meowing and dogs barking echoing along the walls. "Sorry for the noise," she quickly apologized before opening a large door out to a large fenced-in area that looked a lot like my backyard. The woman stepped aside and my father and I gasped as we spotted Max.

He was even cuter in person. His fur was long and glistened under the sun. When he saw me, he ran up to me, a tennis ball clutched between his teeth. I crouched down into a squat and started petting him, feeling tears brim my eyes as I hugged him. I didn't know why I started crying, maybe it was because I was so relieved, or because I felt this unexplainable feeling of love for this dog that I barely knew, but suddenly, I was sobbing and Max continued to lick my face, wiping my tears away with his wet tongue. I spotted the tennis ball he'd dropped by my feet and picked it up. Max saw the ball and started barking. I threw the ball for him and he caught it in his mouth and brought it back to me, panting once he'd dropped it at my feet.

"Dad, he's perfect," I said, throwing the ball for him again.

My father nodded in agreement and I could see that he was holding tears back of his own. He turned towards the woman and wasted no time in saying, "We'll take him."

✡ ✡ ✡

After filling out all of the paperwork, the woman handed me the black leash that was attached to Max's new collar that said, 'I just got adopted'.

Max looked up at me, his pink tongue hanging out of his mouth. I crouched down and pressed a kiss against his forehead. "You're all mine," I said to him and he licked my face in response.

"Do you guys need any dog supplies or anything?" The woman asked and my father shook his head.

"We were actually planning on hitting a pet store to get everything for him," my father explained. "We want to get him all settled as quickly as possible."

The woman nodded. "I understand. Well, here's a sheet of food recommendations and the right crate size for him."

"Actually, we were thinking crate-wise," my father said, glancing at me, "that he was going to have the chance to sleep with either one of us, depending on who he prefers."

She nodded. "That's nice of you guys. Let us know if you have any questions," she said, handing us the sheet she'd just talked about and the blue folder that we'd read in the waiting room. We thanked her and I gave Max's leash a light tug. He looked up at me, his face confused before he let out a soft 'woof' and followed me out the door and into the sunshine.

Once outside, Max started wagging his tail and his ears perked up at every sound he heard. I opened the door to the backseat and he hopped in. "Dad, can you roll down the window for him?" I asked, and my father pressed a button on the steering wheel, the window going down a little less than halfway.

Max immediately stuck his head out and I kissed his head once again. "I'm Kate, by the way."

He woofed and I kissed his head one more time before getting into the car, moving my backpack aside so that I was able to sit more comfortably. I looked at Max's reflection in the rearview mirror as my father pulled out of the parking lot and drove to the pet store, following directions on his GPS. Max stuck his tongue out and his ears flapped around in the light wind. He's absolutely perfect, I thought.