Free Saving Grace by Katie Graykowski Page A

jeans pocket and pulled out the directions she’d written down while talking to the director, “Lizzy who’ll show us around.”
    Even though it was the boys working here, she didn’t feel comfortable leaving them with anyone—even people she knew. They were her responsibility, plus, she could handle playing with a few puppies and kittens herself.
    They walked under the canopy of oak trees to the front door. She opened the heavy glass door, and a rush of stale air-conditioned air smacked them in the face.
    A stout woman with no-nonsense short dark hair and razor sharp blue eyes greeted them. “You must be Cart and HW.”
    She bent down to their level. “I can see you’re both intelligent boys, but as I discussed with your mother—”
    “I’m not their mother.” Grace held out her hand. “I’m Grace.”
    “Sorry.” Lizzy pumped her hand twice and released it. “As I discussed with Grace, I only take hard workers. Not too much fooling around. These dogs and cats depend on us for everything, and we take good care of them.”
    Cart nodded and HW straightened to his full height of four feet. “We’re hard workers, and we love animals.”
    “Good.” Lizzy nodded. “How about I introduce you to the animals. Some of them need walking. Think you can handle walking a couple of dogs?”
    Cart and HW nodded emphatically. They took Lizzy’s outstretched hands while Grace followed them.
    They walked into a huge open-air room with cement floors and large dog runs on either side of a long corridor. The scents of sweaty dog, poop, pee, and pine sol mixed with the fresh cut grass wafting in from outside made it smell like Uncle Vernon’s farm…in a way. The first chain-link kennel they stopped at held the largest dog Grace had ever seen.
    Lizzy dropped the boys’ hands and stepped aside so Grace could see the enormous creature. “This is Clementine. He’s a St. Bernard.”
    She unlatched the gate and opened the door. “He’s a sweet dog, gentle as can be.”
    “Clementine’s a boy?” Grace peered into the dark kennel. A brown and white dog the size of a horse looked her up and down.
    “Yes, Clementine’s male.” Lizzy glanced at Grace.
    HW looked up at Lizzy. “Why don’t you call him Clem?”
    Clementine barked loudly. The sound ricocheted off the concrete floor and amplified a hundred times. Apparently his bark was as big as he was.
    “That’s why. It upsets him.” Lizzy said.
    “How come he’s wearing that orange thing around his neck?” HW pointed to a puffy orange vest looking thing.
    “That’s his life-jacket. Clementine’s afraid of water.” Lizzy made it sound like it was no big deal.
    Grace glanced around looking for a large body of water. “I don’t understand. Y’all aren’t by the lake, do you have a pool or something?”
    “No, Clementine’s afraid of all water.” Lizzy pointed to the small water dish in the corner.
    “Oh.” Grace nodded. Clementine had some issues.
    “Come on Clementine, it’s time for your walk.” Lizzy grabbed the red leash hanging from a hook by the door.
    Slowly, Clementine unfolded himself from a large pretzel like ball. Like he had nothing else to do, he lumbered toward the door, gave Cart a sniff, glanced up like he was nodding his head, and sniffed HW. He gave another head nod. It was Grace’s turn. Clementine stuck his head in her crotch, sniffed, stepped back and gave her a ‘sup nod. She guessed that was good.
    Clementine calmly sat while Lizzy attached the lease to his collar.
    “Why don’t you give it a try?” She handed the leash to Cart who glanced up at Grace for approval.
    “It’s okay. He looks um…” Grace chewed on her bottom lip. Clementine wasn’t menacing exactly, it was more that he was large. She’d known St. Bernards were a big breed, but Clementine had to weigh close to one-fifty.
    “Clementine’s harmless.” Lizzy patted him on the head.
    “He’s a big baby.” Grace followed Lizzy’s lead and patted Clementine