The Nose Knows by Holly L. Lewitas Read Free Book Online

residual smells from a shared bed or couch. There were none of these on Jacob. I concluded that he and Quincy lived alone.
    The nose had already told me things that had eluded Mom. The rest of the details were easy to obtain. I got them from Quincy.
    As Mom and Jacob exchanged pleasantries with each other, Quincy and I shared all the dirt. Not just the dirt that we were frolicking in but the “real dirt.” It didn’t take long for me to know all the important basics about Quincy and his human, Jacob Langley. He was a good man and a good provider. His wife had divorced him two years ago. Quincy hadn’t liked the wife. She hit critters with a rolled-up newspaper and thought dogs should stay out of her house and off her furniture. In the end, she kept the house and all the furniture, and she told Jacob and Quincy to leave. Jacob rented a large apartment. Quincy liked it. Even though they didn’t have much furniture, Quincy could now lie on whatever he wanted. Jacob had two grown children who lived on their own. But, best of all, Jacob loved dogs.
    How much more did I need to know? Well, there was one thing that still needed an answer. Why was Jacob still wearing his wedding ring? Quincy couldn’t answer that one. We’d seen humans take off their rings when they were no longer married. Even Mom had removed hers eventually. She’d worn it for years, but one day she said it was time to stop acting like a widow. She quietly removed it from her finger, kissed it, and lovingly tucked it away in her jewelry box.
    We needed to know why Jacob still wanted people to think he was married. Waiting on Mom to get this one figured out might take too long. Besides, I could tell by her voice tone and her body language that she was friendly but guarded. My guess was she’d seen that band of gold, had drawn her conclusions, and that was all she wanted to know. Getting her to see things differently was going to take a little creative work on our part.
    Quincy and I talked it over. He was up for the challenge. He’d already done his own smelling research on Mom and he liked what he’d learned. Besides, he thought that with someone like Mom around maybe his dinner might be on time for a change. More than that, we both knew our humans were lonely. They’d definitely benefit from a good frolic with one of their own kind.
    So the four-legged critters put their heads together and devised a plan.
    The first part was straightforward. We had to get them both to come to Puppy Park at the same time on a regular basis. Obviously, we don’t wear watches. How would we know when to get there?
    That part was simple. Any observant human will tell you critters know something about time. Most of you think we only know when it is time to eat. This is untrue. We know when routine things are due to happen. We have internal clocks. For example, Fearless wakes up every day at the same time. He then wakes Mom up. But on Saturday and Sunday Mom sleeps longer. So does Fearless. He adjusts his internal clock to a different routine. He may not always choose to let on he knows, but he does. Me? I’m a lot older than Fearless. It doesn’t matter what day of the week it is, I always sleep as long as I possibly can.
    For Quincy and me, knowing the time wasn’t the problem. Getting the humans to be in the same place at the same time was the challenge. Jacob liked to go to Puppy Park in the morning and Mom liked to go after dinner. Now that might seem like a huge hurdle, but we decided we could whittle it down to size. Our human companions are very responsible, so Quincy and I are both on a schedule. At my age, I need additional trips to the backyard, but at least three times a day Mom walks me—in the morning, then to Puppy Park after dinner and a quick walk before bed. Quincy had a similar schedule, except that his Puppy Park walk was in the morning.
    We both knew what had to happen. One of us had to miss a meal. Given that Quincy was a lot younger than I was, he