Read Online Gone With the Woof by Laurien Berenson - Free Book Online

to stand beside him.
    Kevin’s eyes were wide open. His head swiveled back and forth in fascination as he watched the activity in the ring. A teenage girl gaited past us with a blue merle Collie. The toddler leaned forward over the low barrier, reached out a hand, and tried to touch the dog’s bushy tail.
    â€œOh no you don’t!” I caught Kevin’s hand just in time. As a further precaution, I scooped him up and placed him on my hip. “You can look, but no touching.”
    â€œWant,” Kevin said firmly. Like Aunt Peg, he’s a great believer in his own opinions.
    Davey laughed. “He wants everything he sees.”
    â€œSo did you when you were his age.” I nodded toward the ring. “Do you miss it?”
    â€œNo,” he replied, then quickly looked up to gauge my reaction to his honest answer. “Is that okay?”
    â€œOf course it is. You shouldn’t have to do something you don’t enjoy just because your relatives think it’s fun.”
    â€œI guess . . .”
    â€œBut?”
    â€œAunt Peg is disappointed, isn’t she?”
    â€œAunt Peg has high expectations, and she isn’t satisfied unless people live up to them. That kind of attitude can lead to disappointment. But that’s her problem, not yours. Just between you and me . . .” I juggled Kevin to one side, leaned down, and whispered in Davey’s ear, “Aunt Peg can also be a little pushy when it comes to telling people what she thinks they ought to do.”
    I’d expected Davey to laugh. Instead, he still looked uncertain. “She told me I had the makings of a great handler.”
    â€œYou do,” I agreed. “But do you want to be a great handler?”
    â€œNot particularly.”
    â€œThen there’s your answer. Aunt Peg might have been disappointed briefly, but trust me, she’ll get over it.”
    â€œI guess she knows how.” Davey glanced up at me with a teasing smile. “She’s disappointed in you all the time.”
    Sad to say, there was no point in arguing with the truth. Contrary to Aunt Peg’s opinion, it wasn’t my fault that her goals for me and my goals for myself sometimes failed to coincide.
    â€œThere you guys are,” said Sam. He came up behind us and found a spot ringside. “I didn’t even notice I’d lost you until I reached Bertie’s setup and you were gone.”
    â€œWe just stopped for a minute to watch Junior Show.”
    Sam glanced at the ring, then at Davey. Then he looked at me and raised a brow. I knew he was wondering the same thing I had about Davey’s previous involvement. Silently, I shook my head.
    â€œWe’re ready to move on,” I told him. “Here, take this guy. He’s too heavy for me.”
    Sam took Kevin out of my arms, swung him up, and settled him on his shoulders. Kevin laughed with delight at his new vantage point. He tangled his chubby fingers through Sam’s hair and wrapped his short legs around Sam’s neck.
    The best thing about that was that it meant I could relax. Riding up above the crowd, Kevin was too high to reach out and create havoc with anyone’s carefully coiffed entry. For the moment my family was actually under control—at least as much as they ever would be. With that happy thought in mind, I led the way across the room.
    Bertie Kennedy is my best friend, a professional handler, the mother of three-year-old Maggie, and married to my brother, Frank. As you can probably guess, she’s a very busy woman. Her setup was on the near edge of the grooming area, just beyond the toy ring where Aunt Peg was judging. I spared Aunt Peg only a brief glance—she would not have appreciated an interruption—on my way to giving the tall redhead a hug.
    â€œIt’s about time you arrived,” she said, her hands holding scissors and comb carefully angled out and away as she hugged me back. “Is it noon