Dog Whisperer by Nicholas Edwards Read Free Book Online Page B

That’s what makes these decisions so complicated— we just don’t know a lot of the time.”
    That was a good answer, because it made her feel as though her opinion was going to be taken seriously. She didn’t want the dog to be in pain, or to do anything that would make it harder for him—but, just letting him go felt all wrong. So she turned around in her chair to look at Dr. Kasanofsky directly.
    â€œWhat would you do if he was your dog?” she asked.
    â€œI really don’t know.” Dr. Kasanofsky folded his arms and leaned back against the wall to think about that. “His prognosis is very poor—but he’s also clearly quite young. And the fact that he’s survived this long tells me that he’s unusually strong and determined.” He paused. “It’s not a decision I can make for the three of you, but I can tell you that he’s as comfortable as we can make him right now. So I think we could just watch him very closely for the rest of the day, and see how he responds. Then, we can talk again.”
    Emily was definitely in favor of that, and fortunately, her parents agreed, too.
    So they went back to the waiting room and sat,
and sat, and sat some more. Other clients came in and out for appointments, and it was noisy, as cats complained inside their carriers and dogs barked at each other.
    After a while, her father left to go pick up some lunch for all of them. Emily was beginning to feel really claustrophobic in the waiting room, so she decided to go outside for a while and get some fresh air. She never would have guessed that sitting and doing nothing could be so completely tiring.
    Like most places in Bailey’s Cove, the animal hospital was right by the ocean and had its own little dock. Sometimes—especially when the snow was so deep that it was difficult to drive—Dr. K. and his assistants would pay house calls, by boat .
    It was still raining, and so chilly that it felt more like late fall than summer. She had left her slicker in the waiting room, but getting wet seemed more appealing than going back inside.
    Emily walked across the parking lot, and then down the neat gravel path to the dock. Her knee was still kind of stiff, but it didn’t hurt that much, and she only limped a little. There were a bunch of big rock formations along the side of the path, and she decided to climb up on top of one of them. The
granite was so wet that her sneakers slipped a little, but she was able to pull herself up without too much trouble.
    Then, she sat there, staring out at the ocean. This part of town was in a protected cove, so even during storms, the water was usually pretty calm. Today, it looked dark grey, and tiny waves slapped gently against the dock every so often. Because of the weather, there didn’t seem to be any pleasure boats out, which was really unusual in August. A few stray seagulls swooped around, looking for food, and she saw a loon, too. Other than that, it looked like a quiet autumn day.
    Sitting alone on the rock was private, and so she let herself cry a little. She knew Dr. K. and his assistants were trying to do everything they could to save the dog, but it didn’t sound as though it was going to work.
    Neither of her parents was really into the idea of pets, especially her father, but they had always had at least one cat, because Emily had been crazy about animals as far back as she could remember. She loved Josephine, who they had had for about five years, and couldn’t imagine life without her. But she had always wanted a dog, too. It was almost exactly a month until her birthday, and after she
had nagged them pretty much nonstop for the past year or two, her parents had promised her that they would talk seriously about going over to the animal shelter and picking one out.
    But, she wanted this dog. It was maybe stupid to feel so attached to an animal she had only known for a couple of hours, but she did. She