The lucky one

Chapter 11

The next morning, Oliver arrived at the kennel early, finding an open toolbox in the reception. "Well, how about we start by repairing that gutter, uh Zeus?"

Five minutes later, he was giving the finishing stroke on the last nail, Kara arrived from a run with the dogs. "You know, you don't need to be here until 7h30," she said

Oliver turned his head to her "I couldn't sleep after my run. Figured I'd get an early start"

Kara nodded, happy that this gutter was finally repaired. 

Later that morning, after he had had the time to fix the roof of the reception, Oliver was following Eliza through the yards, as she gave him the tour. 

"Well, we had a whale of a storm," she said as they passed by a huge branch laying on the ground "That lovely thing came down"

"Do you think I could get it to my house?"

"Sure, it's all yours as long as it's out of my garden"

Oliver nodded, following her as they walked into the barn. "That's where we store everything up there"

"How do I know which food to give to which dog?" he asked, as he notices there was a lot of different types of food

"Oh, all the information you'll need on the different dogs is on the door of their cages. Except for the ones outside, but they are labelled with a number and their requirements will be listed on the clipboards right there" she said, pointing toward multiple clipboards hanging on the wall of one of the stables

"Got it" he nodded, looking outside. There, he saw a blonde little girl looking at him from the staircase. "Is that your grand-daughter?" he asked

Eliza followed his eyes toward the house, smiling when she got sight of the child "Yes, that's Kara's daughter, Astra Mattews"

"How old is she?" 

"Ten. Her father is a police officer"

Oliver nodded and followed Eliza as she turned right, toward the cages.

"Teslin here's your new boss," she said, patting Oliver's back as he bent down

"Hey, buddy" he greeted, smiling when the dog bark excitedly at him "Hey boy"

"Yes, He'll like you" Eliza smiled

On the staircase, Astra looked up at her mother when she heard her "You ready to go?"

"Who's that?" she asked Kara, who had just closed the door

Kara looked at Eliza and Oliver and smiled tightly "Ah, that's just somebody that nana hired" she answered, strolling down the stairs with her daughter on her heels

However, as she turned around, she noticed something "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"Oh!" the girl exclaimed, turning around to run up the stairs. "Come on, baby, we don't want to be late." her mother urged as she picked up her violin

The kid ran around the old pick up, pulling on the door's handle to urge her mother to unlock it. "You know dad doesn't like it when I practice in the house."

"So maybe you can practice on the porch," Kara replied, starting up the engine. As she started pulling out of the driveway, she turned her head toward Astra, who was still looking at Oliver through the truck's window "I put duckie in your backpack for tonight."

When dinner time came, Oliver got a few dogfood bags down and filled the bowl, giving all his furry new friends their meal.m After that, he gave it a bath to another one of them after it had dive headfirst into the mud. He finished his day by cleaning the barn, giving the keys to Eliza as he encountered her on his way out.

"Have a nice evening, ma'am"

"Thank you. And please, call me Eliza" she said as he walked off, pulling out his phone to make sure the list of thing he needed to patch up his house was still in his notes