Free Chez Stinky by Susan C. Daffron

full-body exhaustion. Recalling Cindy’s words about Tessa’s energy level, she choked back a sob of frustration. She’d never be able to tire this animal out, unless she trained to be a marathon runner. And that was unlikely.
    Kat knew her physiology was not built for long-distance running or any other hard-core exercise. Although she was healthy, slender, and in reasonably decent shape, a jockette she definitely was not. About a half-hour into her few jogging or running experiments, she’d be gasping for air and end up collapsing in a heap with a stabbing side cramp. With the exception of these few notable forays into fitness, Kat’s body generally returned to its comfortable default state of slight flabbiness.
    After Tessa had relieved herself, Kat decided the walk was good enough and turned around. She got Tessa back into the enclosure with relatively little incident, but Kat’s muscles were quivering, her ears were ringing, and she had a strong desire for a nap. Preferably in a silent room with no barking dogs located within a 20-mile radius. But Kat couldn’t nap yet. The next trick was to cajole Chelsey out of the house.
    Kat walked around to the back of the house to the basement entrance and went inside. Just as she had been yesterday, Chelsey was peering out from her bed under the table. Kat flopped down and sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the dog. “Hi, Chelsey. It’s me again. And Tessa totally wore me out. How do you feel about just cooperating? I’d appreciate it.”
    She reached out to pet Chelsey. The dog looked mildly surprised, but didn’t move. Chelsey seemed to be some type of Australian shepherd mix and she had mastered the icy glare of a herding dog. It suggested to Kat that perhaps the dog wasn’t sure about this human that kept invading her space. However, Kat continued to stroke the soft, brown fur on Chelsey’s neck. The dog moved a few inches toward Kat on her bed, so Kat could scratch her back, too. Kat could feel the muscles in Chelsey’s back start to relax. Even better, she was calmer too. It was relaxing to just sit and pet Chelsey’s soft, warm fur. After all the exertion with Tessa, her heart had finally stopped racing.
    Once Chelsey was no longer giving her the evil eye, Kat put a kibble treat in her hand. Chelsey furrowed her brow and looked a bit worried, but ultimately decided that anyone who would sit around and give her a back rub was probably okay. She snarfed up the kibble and gazed expectantly at Kat, obviously hoping for another handout. Kat quietly clipped the leash on Chelsey, stood up and said, “Let’s go.” Chelsey looked dubious for a moment, then stood up and toddled along beside Kat as the pair exited the building.
    It was a relaxing walk through the forest; once Chelsey was on the leash and mobile, she was a model canine citizen. When they returned, Chelsey looked somewhat perkier post-walk, but still retreated to her bed under the table. Kat started to turn to leave when an ear-splitting noise came from upstairs. The deafening screech of some type of saw was grinding away on something. Chelsey scuttled farther back in her bed and Kat ran up the stairs to see what was going on.
    She reached the top of the stairs and discovered an older man wearing a blaze orange cap in the living room. Wielding a large red machine with a long serrated blade, he turned and raised his eyebrows when he saw Kat. He turned off the saw and waited for it to wind down.
    When the saw fell silent, he said, “Lord, you scared the stuffing outta me! Where did you come from, sweetheart?”
    Kat said, “I’m not your sweetheart. I own this place. I’m guessing you must be Bud?”
    “Yep, that’s me and this here is Martha. She’s the best goddang jibber-jabber saw you’ll ever find.” Bud caressed the saw and gazed at it lovingly.
    Disturbed by the man’s somewhat unnatural attachment to power tools, Kat replied, “Are you using Martha to remove the smell in the