Free Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande Page B

weeks. It should be fascinating. So what do you think? Game?”
    I nodded and chewed. “So you really think Ms. Shepherd will like this?”
    “Definitely. She's more of a cat person, but I think she'll appreciate the spirit of what we're doing. You know, the whole evolution thing.”
    I confess I didn't really get what he meant. Casey must have seen that on my face.
    “You know,” he clarified, “the sociobiological aspects of pack living, the whole natural selection and breeding for advantage—that sort of thing.”
    “Uh-huh.” I didn't really understand, but I was sure Casey had it all figured out.
    “Ms. Shepherd's going to love it,” he continued. “You saw with our potato analysis how much she appreciates people going off the grid. That's why my sister's project won. She and Josh were really out there. Oh, look, here's Abbey.”
    A large black Lab came shuffling into the living room, her feet dragging, head hanging low.
    “Poor girl,” Casey said. “She's so exhausted. Those pups are on her night and day. Come here, Ab.” The dog picked up her pace and approached Casey for a nice ear scratch.
    “How come she wasn't in the garage with the puppies?”
    “We try to give her breaks. She comes in here and sleeps on my bed when she wants to get away.”
    Abbey glanced outside to where her puppies were playing on the grass. She ambled over to the sliding glass door and waited patiently.
    “Sure you want to go out, girl?” Casey set his plate on the coffee table and went to open the door. “Watch,” he told me. “They'll be on her like piranhas.”
    Sure enough, the minute the door opened, from all over the yard twelve little black heads shot up, and immediately the puppies swarmed toward their mother.
    “Poor Ab,” Casey said. “She's got to be so sore.”
    She trotted ahead of her crew for a while, puppies yip-ping excitedly behind her. Finally one of them caught up with her, and the jig was up. He clamped on to her hind leg and wouldn't let go.
    “That's Bear,” Casey said. “Master of the takedown. Although Pink's pretty good at it, too. Look at her—she's such a bruiser.”
    The stout little puppy with a pink collar had taken hold of the other hind leg.
    Abbey gave up on escape and lay on her side in the grass while twelve sets of sharp teeth descended on her. Bear and Pink in particular went at it with gusto.
    Casey banged on the glass door. “Hey!” His mother looked up and waved. Casey pointed to the mass of suckling puppies. “Get him off her!” He turned to me. “I swear Bear is going to rip off one of her teats from the roots someday. No finesse.” He banged again, but his mother misunderstood and simply smiled and waved again.
    “So, your mom works at home?” I asked.
    “Yeah. She has an office in back.” Casey watched the carnage in the backyard for a few more moments, then sighed and returned to the couch. He promptly polished off the rest of his lasagna. “We'll have to wait a little while now for them to finish eating. They're going to be really sleepy. But at least we can get the weighing and measuring done today and establish a baseline.”
    “Okay, sure.” It sounded like he had it all planned out, which was fine with me. I'd be happy just to record whatever he told me, like I did with the potato thing. I'm better as an assistant scientist anyway.
    But it was not to be.
    “You should think of whatever experiments you want to do,” Casey said. “We have a whole two weeks.”
    “Like what?”
    “I don't know, whatever pack dynamics you think might be interesting. Or individual personality and physiological differences.” He shrugged. “Anything you want.”
    I didn't even know what I wanted. No, that's not true—I did know. I just wanted to hang out at the Connors’ house with Casey and the puppies and eat lasagna and pizza and never have to go home again. Was that too much to ask?
    Casey picked up his empty plate and headed toward the kitchen. “Want another