Trust the Instinct

“Can I help you?” the man asked as he walked out from behind the wall.

“Uh, hi, I’m looking for Dr. Deaton?” I asked as the man in the white doctor coat gave me a small smile, “And I’m guessing that’s you,” I said and he nodded his head, “Yeah, sorry.”

“It’s all right, are you Alexis?” he asked and I smiled and nodded my head, “Dana called saying that she was sending you my way. Although, I was expecting you last week.”

“Yeah, I would have come sooner, but I wasn’t aware that I didn’t need to have experience,” I laughed nervously and he smiled.

“It’s all right, my other assistant, Scott, is in the back, he wasn’t experienced when he started as well,” the doctor said and I nodded my head, “Well since I’m good friends with your Grandmother and she has brought me a lot of clients,” he said talking about all of the little dogs that my Grandmother owns, “I’ll be happy to give you a chance.”

“Thank you, I really would like a job,” I said and he smiled, opened the small hip height door to keep the animals in the waiting room, and allowed me to walk into the back room.

“Well, Scott’s in the back getting ready to feed the cats, I do have to go right now actually, but he can help you,” Dr. Deaton said, “If you come by tomorrow after school, we’ll talk about payment and things like that.”

“All right, thanks,” I said and Dr. Deaton nodded his head as he headed towards the door, “What am I learning today?”

“Just have Scott give you the basics on what you’ll do around here,” he said and I nodded my head and watched as he left the building, leaving me in the waiting room all alone.

“And he forgot to tell me where this Scott was,” I muttered to myself and then turned towards the hallway to be faced to face with someone. I left out a scream and jumped back a little, “Jesus, why is everyone trying to give me a heart attack today!”

“Sorry, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said and I laughed a little, shook my head and patted my head.

“It’s still beating,” I said and he laughed nervously. I stood up and got a good look at him, “Hey, you’re McCall, right?” I asked and he nodded his head, “Nice job today in the net.”

“Thanks, you’re the new girl, right? The one people are calling ‘motorgirl’?”

“Such a stupid nickname,” I muttered and he laughed a little. There was a crack of thunder and I looked to see the rain coming down outside.

“Did you ride your bike in that?” Scott asked and I shook my head.

“I borrowed my Gram’s car,” I said and he nodded his head.

“Good, I would call you crazy,” he said and we laughed, “So, what am I suppose to show you?”

“Uh, well Deaton said the basics for now,” I said and Scott nodded his head.

“Well, I need to feed the animals,” he said and I nodded my head, “You can take the dogs and I’ll take the cats. I’ll show you where the food is and stuff,” Scott said and I nodded my head.

Scott showed me where the food was kept and brought me to where the dogs where boarded, he showed me that some dogs that were sick or being prepared for surgery needed to be fed different kinds of food than the others.

“This is more complicated than I thought,” I laughed and Scott smirked and nodded his head.

“Yeah, you got this?” he asked and I nodded my head, “All right, I’m going to do that cats now.”

He walked out of the room and I was left with all of the dogs. I made sure to look at their file before giving them food to make sure that I was giving them the right kind. There was a little dog there that was lying on her side and she looked like she was in pain. I bent down, opened her door and placed my hand on her side, she was panting a little and I didn’t know if that was all right. I picked up her file and read that she was a sixteen year old Shih Tzu who had cancer.

“Aw, poor thing,” I said and then closed her cage, stood up and was going to get Scott to ask if her breathing like that was all right. I walked into the one room and I saw that he had lifted the side of his shirt to reveal a big bloody bandage, “Oh my god! Are you all right?!” I asked and he looked at me surprised to be standing there.

“Oh, uh, yeah, sorry! I fell and it was started to bother me, I was just going to change the bandages and clean it a little,” he said and I noticed the rubbing alcohol to his side.

“Do you want help?” I asked and he looked at me nervously and shook his head.

“No I got it,” he said quickly and I looked at him a little surprised but nodded my head, “Did you need something?”

“Um,” I looked down, “I forgot,” I said as I shook my head and turned around. I got two steps when I remembered what I was going to do and turned around to see that Scott was pealing the bandage off and I tucked back behind the wall and watched as he revealed no wound, ‘…What the hell?...’ he looked like he was panicking a little, confused even, ‘…Why bandage something when there’s nothing there?...’ I sighed and then went back towards the dogs boarding room and looked to see that the little dog was standing and eating her special soft food, her breathing was better so I figured there was no reason to bother Scott again.

I fed all of the dogs, started playing with some of the bigger ones that were being boarded because their owners were on vacation or something. I heard a lot of cats hissing and quickly got up and walked out of the room, closing the door and walking towards the cats’ room to see that Scott was standing in the middle of the room looking confused.

“This has never happened before,” he said as he walked out of the room and the cats all calmed down, “What’s wrong with them?”

“Maybe something freaked them?” I said and then walked into the room and the cats seemed to be fine, “Maybe they don’t’ like you anymore, must know that you like dogs more,” I teased and Scott smirked a little, “I’ll take care of them, do they all get the same brand?”

“Yeah,” he said and then started to walk down the hallway, leaving me alone with the cats.

“All right pussy cats, it’s just you and me,” I said and started to one by one but food into each of their bowls and made sure to fill the water bottles that looked to be almost out.

When I finished feeding the cats, I put the food away and walked around the building to find Scott, it wasn’t a big building, so I was surprised when I could. I sighed and then walked back into the dog area and saw that the little black lab that I was playing with was still loose, I laughed and then placed her back into her cage and heard multiple voices out in the hall.

‘…Who’s that?...’ I thought ask I walked out of the room and saw Scott with a girl, they were soaked and Scott was carrying a dog, “Alison?”

The girl turned around and I saw that it was Alison, “Lexi? What are you doing here?”

“I just got a job here,” I said and she looked a little shaken, “You all right?”

“Yeah, I just hit a dog on the way home and-“

“It’s all right,” Scott said from inside the one room and Alison and I walked in and I saw the little dog on the table, “I think her leg is broken. I’ve seen the doctor do plenty of splints. I can do it myself and then give her a painkiller for now.”

“I’ll go get the things; they’re in the middle closet, right?” I asked and Scott nodded his head and I walked out of the room to head to where I saw the things when I was giving myself a self tour before and saw the labels on the doors. When I came back into the room, Alison was gone; Scott told me that she was changing into one of his dry shirts because she was soaked to the bone, “You need me to do anything?”

“No, but you can watch how I do this,” he said and I smirked and nodded my head, getting a firsthand experience on how to splint a dog’s leg.

“She’s pretty,” I said as I brushed my hand against the dog’s fur, “Does she not have an owner?”

“No collar,” Scott said and placed his hand by her neck to feel for a collar, “Doc will check in the morning to see if she has a chip.”

“Cool,” I said and watched as Scott did his work, “What’ll happen if she doesn’t have an own?”

“Once she’s healed, we’ll take her to the pound, from there, they’ll try to get her adopted,” Scott said and I nodded my head and brushed my hand on her head and then scratched her ears.

Alison came back into the room and I smiled towards her and decided that once Scott was finished splinting the dog’s leg, I was going to excuse myself to give them some space, since I found out that Alison had a little crush on Scott.

I hid in the dog area and didn’t come out until I heard Alison and Scott walking down the hallway, heading towards the front. I put the dogs away that I was playing with, said goodbye to Alison and then walked into the room where the dog was still lying on the table.

“You’re a pretty girl,” I smiled as I pet her neck, “Do you not have a home?”

“Good to know that I’m not the only one who talks to them,” I heard and laughed a little, knowing it was Scott.

“Guilty,” I laughed and then stood up.

“You know, since she doesn’t have a name, we need to give her one,” Scott said as he walked over towards the one drawer and pulled out a pink plastic collar, “You can name her.”

“You didn’t let Alison,” I smirked then laughed when he blushed, “She’s pretty, you chose well.”

“You can choose,” he said and then handed me a sharpie and the plastic collar.

“She looks like a Pepper,” I smiled as I looked at the grayish blackish fur that was mixed in with her mostly white.

“Pepper it is,” Scott said and then watched as I wrote her name on the collar, “Hi Pepper.”