The Return by Dayna Lorentz Read Free Book Online

stared wide-eyed at Pumpkin. “Do-you-know-where-my-master-is?” he asked, almost slowly enough to be intelligible.
    Pumpkin popped up on her paws like a frog, frisking and flopping with excitement. “You didn’t know?” she yipped. “Oh my goodness, I can’t believe you didn’t know!”
    Callie padded closer to Pumpkin, eyebrows raised and tail waving cautiously. “How do you know that the humans never left?” she woofed. “My girl and her family locked me in my den and I haven’t had a whiff of them since.”
    Pumpkin sat, head tilted. “They left you behind ?” she barked. Her snout dropped against her chest dramatically. “Shave my fur and call me a squeaky toy.” She shook herself and continued, “No, my mistress hid me in a bag and carried me with her to this building, far from our den. There were all these other people crowding to get into the building, and there were people in green body coverings standing at the door checking each person in. They kept saying ‘shelter,’ and so that’s what I call the place.
    â€œInside, there were rows and rows of narrow beds for the humans. My mistress hid the bag I was in under her bed. I wanted to get a look around, you know, to see what this shelter was, so I dug my way out. Just as I was about to scramble under the next bed over, one of those green people saw me and started yelling. I tried to run, but the green woman was too fast and she snagged me around my belly. My mistress screamed and cried and I wriggled, trying to get back to her to comfort her, but the green woman just took me and handed me off to some other green person, and I ended up at that kennel you rescued me from.”
    â€œWhy were you in the medical tent?” yipped Callie.
    Every dog was on the tips of his pads, leaning toward her with ears pricked and eyes open wide. Shep held his breath, not wanting to miss a woof.
    â€œI kept breaking out of my cage,” said Pumpkin, sighing. “They moved me there so that they could keep an eye on me. And then I hurt my leg breaking out of yet another cage. They had to sew me up like a toy. Can you believe it? But I had to get free and get back to my poor mistress. She’s positively lost without me. And now that I’m out, I can take you all with me to the shelter. We can find our humans!”
    The pack burst into a riot of happy howling. They jumped and barked and batted at each other’s muzzles. Shep remained frozen on his paws. His boy was in the city. His family had stayed. But if they stayed, why did they leave me alone to be eaten by the storm?
    Zeus snuffled from behind him, “I can’t imagine going back to my collar.” His voice, dripping with disgust, echoed in the tunnel.
    It struck Shep as the saddest of jokes that Zeus was the only dog whose thoughts matched his own. How could he go back to a family that abandoned him? Especially when he felt so alive living on the Outside. Yes, he missed his boy, but there was so much more of the world to explore!
    Callie barked for every dog’s attention. “We’re not back with our humans yet,” she woofed. “Pumpkin, how far is it to the shelter? Can we be there by morning?” Her tail whipped behind her ecstatically.
    Pumpkin stopped mid-bounce, flopping back to the ground. She looked around at the darkness of the scrubby woods, then back at Callie. “It’s not far from my den,” she yipped.
    â€œWhere’s your den?” woofed Boji, tail wagging. “Nearby?”
    Pumpkin sank into a sit. “No,” she snuffled. “They put me in a Car to take me here, and we drove for many heartbeats.”
    â€œThen why’d you get our tails up?” snapped Rufus. “What use is knowing our humans are somewhere in the city? We always knew they were somewhere.” The squaredog stomped into the shadows.
    Ginny, who’d begun to whine pathetically,