Never Too Late

Before heading out the door for her nightly jog, Kayla felt her calves, impressed that they belonged to her and had transformed so quickly. Or at least to her they had changed dramatically. Long ago, before she was a mother, she was a runner. Like so much of her life, routines changed and the daily jogs disappeared. Now the last of her two children had left for college and she felt the need to do something different. Even her sons didn’t know she had started running. When they’d finally decide to come home for a weekend, she’d surprise them.

While running, Kayla often times found herself thinking about her sons. Lost in thought, she tripped over a dog and heard him moaning before she could actually see him. Frightened, Kayla stood up slowly and inched away. “Sorry, Dog, I didn’t see you.” She moved closer and noticed his bloody leg. “Oh no,” Kayla moaned. “You’ve been hit.”

Kayla removed her large sweatshirt and tried rolling it beneath the dog. Fortunately he was a smallish dog, probably thirty pounds. She pulled the sweatshirt until he was lying over it, then she picked him up. He whimpered. “We have to go six blocks, Dog.” He looked all skin and bones.

The dog whined, wincing in pain when he was moved too quickly. Kayla tried to keep the sweatshirt from swaying, but she also wanted to get the dog home quickly. “You’ll be okay, Dog.” But she didn’t really know if he’d be okay. He looked terrible.

She pushed the kitchen door open and gently placed him on the floor. Tom and Jerry, the cats, came up to smell him, then backed off, afraid of the injured dog. She called her vet’s emergency number and they agreed to meet at her office in twenty minutes.

Kayla went into the utility room and found an old box, put a blanket in it, then picked up the sweatshirt and hoisted the dog into the box. He let out a loud scream and she felt like crying seeing him so helpless and in so much pain. “It’ll be okay, Dog.”

She carried him to the backseat of the car and drove carefully through town to the vet’s office.

“This dog’s leg is a mess.” Dr Harper looked nervous. “He looks half-starved. I may not be able to save his leg. Are you going to keep the dog? At least until you find an owner?”

Kayla hadn’t thought that far ahead.

“You mean, am I adopting this dog? Paying for his medical bills?”

“Basically, that’s what I need to know.”

“I’ve got cats,” Kayla mumbled.

“I know that.”

“Yeah, right.”

“How about you pay half the bill?”

Kayla looked at the dog writhing in pain and agreed to pay half the bill but wouldn’t commit to taking him home.

“I’ll call you after surgery. Please think about adopting him.”
“Okay,” Kayla muttered when she closed the door.

When she got home, the cats came running up to smell her, relieved she wasn’t with the dog. She opened a can of food for the cats and wondered if the dog would be friendly to them.

Two hours later, Dr. Harper called to say she didn’t remove the leg but she couldn’t guarantee the surgery was a success. “The leg may have to be removed later. It was a severe injury. He’ll need a lot of care. I scanned him for an ID chip, but there’s nothing.”

“How old do you think he is?”

“He’s not older than two.”

“What kind of a dog is he?”

“He’s a Border Collie. Poor thing had lots of bruises. He’s a real trooper. A trooper in dire need of a home.”

Kayla didn’t want to hear any more about the dog and simply thanked Dr. Harper.

“If you can’t adopt him, please help me find him a good home.”

“Yeah, right,” Kayla sighed before hanging up, feeling guilty about the dog’s future.

Kayla didn’t say anything about the dog to her colleagues at work, not even to her third grade students who she usually loved to tell stories about unexpected events in her life. She knew what would happen if she told her sons and didn’t want to feel any more guilt for not wanting to adopt the dog.

All day long she thought about the dog’s face while she carried him home.

All day long she willed that image to disappear.

There was a message from Dr. Harper saying that the dog was recovering nicely and could go home on Friday. “Please let me know if that home will be yours, Kayla.”

Kayla groaned at the answering machine. If the cats understood what the vet had said, she was sure they’d be hissing.

The next morning she told her students about the dog. Maybe one of them lost the dog or could convince a parent into adopting the dog. She was feeling desperate about the dog.

“You need to keep him, Ms. Dabrowski,” Luke said. “He needs a home. We have two dogs and three cats and they never fight.”

Luke reminded Kayla of her own sons when they were younger. He had that same sincere look, that look that made her feel guilty even when she didn’t need to feel guilty. She regretted telling her students about the dog and using the cats as her lame excuse for not keeping him.

On Friday, she bought food, a bed, toys, and a carrier, then went to Dr Harper’s.

“This is great, Kayla! I knew you’d come around.” Kayla adopted both her cats from Dr. Harper’s office and she didn’t look half as happy then as she did now.

“I’m just going to be his foster home until we find him a permanent home.”

“That’s better than leaving him here. Thank you for rescuing him, Kayla.”

“Please help find him a permanent home.” Kayla felt like she was begging.

Kayla placed his bed next to hers and listened to him whine throughout the night. The cats curled up at the foot of her bed watching the dog, unsure how much trouble he may cause them.

On Monday, she took pictures of the dog while he was eating and put them on the computer for her students to check him out.

“He’s so cute,” the kids cooed.

“What’s his name?” Maria asked.

“So far it’s Dog.”

“Dog! No way. That dog needs a name for being so brave,” Luke decided. “Look at him,” he said peering into the monitor as if he could pet the dog. “How about Samson?”

“I’ll try it out tonight and let you know if it works tomorrow,” Kayla promised, dreading another night of whining.

That night, when he started whining, Kayla picked him up and placed him on the bed. “Just for tonight, Samson,” she said. He curled up next to Kayla. Tom and Jerry jumped on the bed and curled up by her feet. “Good grief,” Kayla laughed, “It’s getting crowded in here.”

All week long, wherever Kayla would sit, Samson would hobble after her and she’d pick him up and put her on her lap. Then the cats would come and make sure they were next to her also.

By Friday, when she brought Samson back for another visit with Dr. Harper, she knew Samson would be staying with her.

“You’ll never regret this decision,” Dr. Harper laughed. “Look at the two of you. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought you two had been together his entire life.”

A few weeks later, Kayla’s sons agreed to come home for the weekend. Kayla wanted to tell her sons about the dog but decided to keep him a secret, just like the jogging. She wanted the boys to know she too had made changes in her life. For years her sons had wanted a dog and for years she came up with excuses why they couldn’t have one. Eventually, the boys quit asking.

Randy picked up Mike on his way home. Kayla hadn’t seen her boys in seven weeks. It was the longest they had been separated. When Randy first left for college, he was homesick and tried to come home most weekends. Then he made new friends, took a job on campus, and the visits home were less frequent. It was Mike’s freshman year and he seemed to join every club on campus. He barely had time to talk to Kayla when she called.

When the boys opened the door, Samson ran to greet them. “I can’t believe you have a dog,” Mike said while he reached down to pet him.

“It’s not my dog,” she told them, “it’s our dog.”

They both thought about their years of begging for a dog but said nothing.

After dinner the three of them walked Samson. As much as she missed her sons, Kayla loved hearing about their active lives at college. They let Samson off the leash at the dog park and Kayla regretted she had said no to having a dog all those years her sons had pleaded with her to let them just try having a dog. They couldn’t stop playing with Samson. It was as if they were eight and ten again.

After they returned home, Kayla took out her yoga mat and started doing her stretches, something her sons had never witnessed her doing before. “This is new,” Ricky laughed.

“Just wait,” Kayla warned them.

Samson loved grabbing at Kayla’s legs during her stretches. When she lifted her leg over head, Samson jumped, trying to hang onto her foot.

The boys thought their exercise routine was hilarious. “You and Samson should sign up for an agility course.”

Kayla wasn’t sure if Ricky was making fun of her poor yoga skills. “Is there such a thing?”

“Yeah, especially for dogs like Samson. You may benefit too,” Mike joked. “Imagine Mom jumping through hoops!”

Ricky explained about the course and Kayla wondered how he knew so much about dogs. They probably had girlfriends with dogs. No wonder they didn’t want to come home.

“I bet we could teach him to do tricks on the playground equipment. Man, I can’t believe we had to wait so long to finally have a dog.” Kayla thought Mike looked nine again, not twenty, begging for a dog.

Kayla put on her running shoes and took off jogging down the street.

“Next time we won’t stay away so long,” Ricky yelled out to his mom.

“Yeah, too many things change around here when we’re gone,” Mike laughed.

“Let’s take Samson for another walk,” Ricky said grabbing the leash. “We need to watch Mom doing this marathon run.”

Samson took off running trying to catch up with Kayla. “Looks like Mom has a running partner.” Mike panted trying to catch up with his mother.

“Hey, what are you guys doing?” Kayla asked, surprised to see them behind her.

“Samson wanted to go running. Looks like there are two runners in this family.” Mike bent over to catch his breath. “I can’t believe how out of shape I am.”

“I can’t believe my boys are finally home. Let’s walk back now.”

Everyone was glad for the change of pace, especially Kayla who was happy just being with them, relieved that it was never too late for change